Times Spent Outdoors: Priceless!
Times Spent Outdoors: Priceless!
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Find out the one thing that 60 percent of boat owners admit they forgot. You made it through your long to-do list of spring commissioning items and you're ready to go in the water during the summer boating season. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) says don't forget these three often-overlooked steps that could bring your season to a screeching halt. 1. Don't get hosed. Aged hoses and fittings below the waterline are the single most common cause of sinkings – especially e... Full story
Twelve-year expiration for disposables and different carriage requirements for older, newer model year vessels announced. A rite of passage for every boater is the annual spring commissioning. Newly added to the boat owners to-do list this spring will be to check all disposable (non-rechargeable) fire extinguisher dates of manufacture, as well as the label for their U.S. Coast Guard classification. That's because a new U.S. Coast Guard regulation beginning April 20 for disposable fire... Full story
Affordable Three-Hour Courses Begin January 22, 2022 Arizona boaters might make this a goal in the new year as San Diego is such a popular destination for them. Boating in San Diego is rated among the best in the nation, but if you have no boating experience how do you begin? A new partnership between San Diego based Boater U and the national nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water makes it easy with a series of affordable three-hour courses for beginners as well as... Full story
Here is the Top 10 list of how-to, things-you-need-to-know boating videos. Repairing gelcoat is a common boat owner task, but it requires more than just filling in small spider cracks. "How to Spray Gelcoat on a Boat Using a Preval Sprayer," which shows how to make professional gelcoat repairs over a larger area, was the most-watched new BoatUS video of 2021, from BoatUS Magazine. The second most-watched video on the list, "Bilge Pump Not Working? Here's How To Troubleshoot the Problem" proves... Full story
BoatUS has you covered with 24/7 assistance for breakdowns on the water and on the road. Looking for a holiday gift for the boater in the family? Look no further than an annual BoatUS Unlimited Towing Membership. Like an auto club for recreational boat owners, a BoatUS Unlimited Towing Membership provides professional 24/7 on-water towing service by the TowBoatUS fleet ─ the nation's largest. A Towing Membership takes care of the problems that your boater did not plan for, such as an a... Full story
Customizable greeting cards from the nonprofit BoatUS Foundation give back to boating. Hey, boaters! Got your holiday cards yet? The BoatUS Foundation's nautically themed cards from Salt Harbor Studios offer customizable card designs crafted on high-quality FSC Certified paper from responsibly managed forests. The best part about this season of giving may be that a portion of each card purchase supports the nonprofit BoatUS Foundation's mission of promoting safe and clean boating, including... Full story
Free downloadable winterization checklist and guide explains how to properly prepare a boat for winter. Yes, even in the colder areas of the Southwest! Recreational boat owners are preparing their boats for a long winter's nap, but sugarplums aren't dancing in their heads. What may keep them up at night is hoping cold temperatures won't damage their boats. Freshwater expands in volume by about 9 percent when it freezes and can push outward with a force of tens of thousands of pounds per square i... Full story
Contest garnered 129 entries and paid out $30,000 in prizes. Recycling old fishing line and soft baits into new products is labor-intensive, inefficient and simply, for many anglers, not easy to do. This hampers the ability to grow the volume of line and soft bait recycling in the U.S. However, three BoatUS Foundation and Berkley Recast and Recycle Contest winners aim to change that. The prizewinners – a recent college grad, an outsdoorsman and 3D printing hobbyist, and a team of four college f... Full story
News From Our Next-Door BoatingNeighbors Huge California Boat Registration Fee Hike Averted Next Up: Ensuring fuel taxes paid by boaters equitably fund California's boating education and safety, facilities, AIS, and enforcement programs. The implications go beyond that state's borders. California's recreational boaters could have been in for a shock with a proposed 250 percent recreational vessel registration fee increase being discussed among Golden State legislators earlier this year.... Full story
Marie Rogers Receives Leadership Award Honor 'Sailing is an amazing metaphor of how to get along', says honoree Marie Rogers. Race has been at the top of many minds this year, which has led to some uncomfortable conversations, self-examination, and commitments for change. For Marie Rogers, a captain, instructor, avid West Coast sailboat racer and the first Black woman to serve as commodore of the historic Los Angeles Yacht Club (LAYC), it's always been about inclusion and sharing her "happy plac... Full story
To Take The ‘Search’ Out Of Search And Rescue Are you making it difficult to be found in an emergency? “Do I know how to be found in an emergency?” That’s a question every boater should ask during boating season. The answer, however, is likely to go far beyond simply having a cell phone aboard. The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water offers five tips that can potentially speed a rescuer’s response to a boater in need of emergency help. 1. File a float plan: Telling a responsible... Full story
Virtual and in-person women's event shares sailing secrets, camaraderie, fun with unparalleled on- and off-water learning experiences. One of the presenters is our own Debbie Huntsman of the Lake Pleasant Sailing Club. Women sailors from all over the country will be heading to Jackson Park Yacht Club, Chicago, on Saturday, September 11 for the 20th annual Women's Sailing Conference. The National Women's Sailing Association (NWSA) event sponsored by Boat Owners Association of The United States... Full story
BoatUS shows how you can eliminate them. To a boater, it's a cringeworthy sight – a boat sitting on a disabled trailer unattended on the side of the road, typically because the boat's owner has gone to seek help. While it's likely many of these incidents go unnoticed by the public, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) 24-hour dispatch centers reported 6,635 requests for BoatUS Trailer Assist roadside assistance service in 2020. With the summer boat trailering season at its p... Full story
They reveal how the pandemic affected boating in ways just beginning to be understood. The U.S. Coast Guard recently released the 2020 Recreational Boating Statistics, and reports of accidents, fatalities and injuries were significantly up over the prior year. While still under review, the Coast Guard believes that the primary driving factor for the significant increase in deaths was the significant increase in boating activity. The nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water... Full story
Why Waiting Until Year End Could Cost You Single engine center-console boats wanted for on-water training programs. Boat owners wishing to do good or take advantage of potential tax benefits may consider donating their boats to charity. Often this decision is made at the end of year just before the start of the new tax season. Waiting until the end of the year, however, could shortchange a boater's potential tax benefits, according to the nonprofit BoatUS Foundation and Boating Safety and Clean... Full story
As I began to gather material for this June issue, I was noticing that there is some optimism about scheduling and re-scheduling events. Is our long wait over? Can we really recreate again? So many events were cancelled last year and some will still need to be rescheduled, but overall, with caution and care, it appears the worst may be over. We hope so! Meanwhile, before the weather really heats up, it is an excellent time to go to our waterways. Lake Pleasant with all its amenities is a... Full story
The boating association provides some interesting information re: recreational boating. The job of the nation's largest recreational boating advocacy, services and safety group, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS), is to make boating better for America's recreational boaters. To help understand how they do it, here's an annual look at some noteworthy numbers behind the boating organization. BoatUS Membership 700,294: Total number of BoatUS members nationwide (annual dues: $24)... Full story
BOGO -- This spring, purchase a Cobra Marine VHF radio and get a complimentary one-year BoatUS basic membership. BoatUS/ Cobra Electronics Team Up To Enhance Boater Safety, Experience For a limited time, buyers of select Cobra marine radio products will receive a complimentary one-year BoatUS membership,exclusive savings on additional Cobra products, and more. Equipping a marine VHF radio aboard your boat can greatly enhance safety and communication, and a new partnership aims to offer additiona... Full story
BoatUS Foundation and Berkley Recast & Recycle Contest seeks new ideas, concepts. You've likely seen the fishing line recycling bins in many marinas and boatyards, but what really happens after that line is collected? Recycling it into new products is labor-intensive, requiring a series of workers to comb through, sort, clean, remove hooks and weights, and separate out encrusted debris from miles of entangled fishing line. There also aren't any recycling programs for fishing-related materials... Full story
New rule will spare some boaters a yearly task: renewing their certificate of documentation. Of the nation's nearly 12 million registered recreational boats, those owners who federally document their vessels, or about 165,000 boats, will be spared the hassle of renewing their U.S. Coast Guard Certificate of Documentation every year as a result of recent rule change that now makes documentation valid for five years. The move was the result of Coast Guard cost-saving efforts and requirements set... Full story
Here's the essential BoatUS spring commissioning checklist. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) offers its updated Spring Commissioning Checklist to help boaters start the season right. The nation's largest advocacy, service and savings group also offers BoatUS.com/Spring, a new one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about the yearly ritual of recreational boat commissioning. A PDF copy of the checklist is available to download, print, and take to the boat with you. Be s... Full story
This Could Help Spark An Idea That Increases Fishing Line Recycling $30,000 in cash prizes are on the line for best solutions. Winter is annual maintenance time for many anglers, and respooling with new line and recycling the old is a common task. Ever thought about what happens once you dispose of the old line in a fishing line recycling tube? It's not pretty. Turning fishing line into new products is labor-intensive, requiring a series of workers to manually comb through, sort, clean, remove... Full story
Applies to boats less than 26 feet operating on plane or above displacement speed. There are new engine cutoff device wear requirements for recreational boat operators as part of the January 1, 2021, passage of National Defense Authorization Act that included a U.S. Coast Guard Reauthorization. These devices, commonly referred to as engine cutoff switches (ECOS), are designed to prevent a boat-strike injury if an operator is accidentally ejected overboard while underway. Engine cutoff devices ca... Full story
If yours is in colder high country, here's how to do a midwinter checkup on your boat. Boating boomed in 2020, with thousands of first-time boat buyers desiring respite from the pandemic. Now many of these new boat owners are learning how to maintain and store their vessels for the first time. A midwinter visit to check on the boat − no matter if stored ashore in a backyard or a marina parking lot − is a wise thing to do. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) has these four tip... Full story
Here's the 2020 top 10 list of practical boat handling and how-to boat maintenance videos. Learning how to trim a powerboat is a skill that many vessel operators seek to know, and BoatUS video viewership numbers back that up: "How to Trim Your Boat" was the No. 1 most-watched BoatUS video of 2020. In addition, two other top 10 videos of the year also focused on the topic of boat trim: How to Use Trim Tabs on a Boat and How to Get a Boat On Plane Using Trim. Here are the boating advocacy, service... Full story
