Pilot Program Strives To Make Borrowing A Life Jacket Easier

The nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water and the National Safe Boating Council, which provides national boating safety outreach, have teamed up with boating app provider DECKEE to make it easier to find and borrow child- or adult-sized life jackets for temporary use, such as for a day or weekend, with the goal of increasing life jacket wear and boating safety.

This pilot program has integrated the BoatUS Foundation's more than 600 life jacket loaner sites across the nation into the simple-to-use DECKEE app, allowing boaters to find their closest BoatUS Foundation loaner site on a map – highlighted by the BoatUS logo – or be notified when they are near a BoatUS Foundation Life Jacket Loaner location.

"It's a great way to find a life jacket loaner if you have unexpected guests aboard," said BoatUS Foundation program manager Alan Dennison. The Foundation's loaner database includes more than 600 free kids' Life Jacket Loaner Program sites at marinas, boat clubs, campgrounds, marinas, firehouses and TowBoatUS companies. "We really want to make it easier for families to get the right size life jackets, whether infant, child, teen or adult," he added. The program loans out more than 140,000 life jackets annually.

Said Peg Phillips, executive director of the National Safe Boating Council: "The pilot app project with DECKEE and the BoatUS Foundation will help give us an accurate and scalable way to measure the influence of ongoing outreach programs. For example, a notification that comes as a gentle reminder of a nearby life jacket loaner site may reinforce or prompt increased life jacket wear by kids and adults."

In 2023, statistics show 75% of fatal boating accident victims drowned (where the cause of death was known). Of those, 87% were not wearing a life jacket.

The DECKEE app is available for free for iOS and Android devices. For more information on the BoatUS Foundation Kids Life Jacket Loaner program, go BoatUS.org/LJLP.