The United States
Coast Guard Auxiliary offers courses on boating safety,
boating skills, and navigation. Some of these courses
will qualify you for a PWC (Personal Water Craft or
Jet Ski) license as well as a Motor boat Operators License.
A Safe Boating certificate from the NJ State Department
of Law and Public Safety is required for
operating a PWC on non-tidal waters in NJ and NY.
It is NOT the same as a motor boat operators
license that you get from the State Division of Motor
Vehicle Services. Here is the statement from the NJ
DMV web site:
Note:
NJ now requires a Boating Safety Certificate in addition
to a boat operators license for
all
persons operating
any
power driven vessel in the state of NJ (Persons born
prior to 1949 have until June 1 2009 to obtain this
certificate)
New York has similar
rules regarding taking and passing a safe boating course
for operation of a personal water craft (PWC, jet ski).
November 2008 -
NOAA’s 1,000-plus U.S. coastal
and Great Lakes nautical charts are viewable here
on-line. Each chart is up-to-date with the
most recent Notices to Mariners corrections.
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/OnLineViewer.html
October 2008 -
ORION Flair
Product Alert - Orion
Safety Products, manufacturer of the Skyblazer hand-launched
red aerial flare (“Skyblazer”), has received a report
indicating the safety sleeve on the Skyblazer may become
detached from the launch tube body during ignition.
Click
here to see their announcement for details.
Updates on this product alert can be viewed directly
on Orion's web site at -
http://www.orionsignals.com/
September 2008 -
Carbon
Monoxide article, Boating Safety Hotline, and recall
campaigns -
BSC 86: is a periodical the CG publishes on occasion
as needed (85 was the last one in spring 07).
There's a good article on Carbon Monoxide poisoning,
information regarding the Boating Safety Hotline termination
(the number is again owned by the CG but no longer in
use) and some great information on recall campaigns.
[Source:ALAUXDIST1SR, FM: CDR E. D. Young United States
Coast Guard, SUBJ: Miscellaneous Topics - 008/08]
September
2008 - 2007 Recreational Boating Statistics
The 49th annual Recreational
Boating Statistics report contains statistics on recreational
boating accidents and State vessel numbering activities.
This report is a result of the coordinated effort of
the Coast Guard and those states and territories that
have Federally approved vessel numbering and casualty
reporting systems.
http://auxbdept.org/pdf/2007RecreationalBoatingStatistics.pdf
(PDF: 8800 KB / 73 pages) Some Highlights from this
report:
- 86%
of all accidents in 2007 involved a boating operator
who had not taken a boating safety class
- Accident deaths were down,
but number of accidents were up for 2007 vs. 2006.
- The number of deaths associated
with the use of canoes/kayaks increased to
107 in 2007 as compared
with 99 in 2006.
- Alcohol use
is the leading contributing factor in fatal
boating accidents; it was listed as the leading
factor in 21% of the
deaths. Alcohol use was also listed in 5th
place as the primary contributing cause for all
accidents.
- The 12,875,568 vessels
registered by the States in 2007 represent a one
percent increase from last year.
July 2008 - NJ Boaters.
Here is a link to the
NJ State Police Boating Safety Manual, as revised
01/08.
June 2008 - DSC Radio Tutorial
Available
The BoatU.S. interactive tutorial
on DSC Radio is a great asset for all boaters, including
Auxiliarists and the general public. This online tutorial
reveals much information about Rescue 21 and
the proper use of Digital Selective Calling (DSC) radios.
See
http://www.boatus.com/foundation/dsc/player.html
Master list of Boating courses
in 1st District SR (NJ, NY, Connecticut).
Click here for additional
info on Boating law changes for NY, NJ, and CT.
Here is a brief
overview of the courses we have available.
About Boating Safety
(ABS) is an 8 hour course (6-6 1/2 hours
of instruction 1 1/2-2 hours for the test) usually taught
as 2 4 hour sessions over 2 weeks or four 2 hour classes
over a 4 week period. Occasionally we will teach
this in 1 day for 8 hours. This is a very basic
boating class designed
to appeal to hunters,
anglers, personal watercraft operators and other boaters
who cannot find time for a full, comprehensive boating
safety course. Completion
of this course will provided the students with a certificate
that will permit them to operate a PWC on state (non-tidal)
waters. This course also qualifies the student
for the Boating Safety certificate that is required
for all motorboat operation on state (non-tidal) waters.
See our boating law changes
page for details. This course covers; safety and
legal requirements, navigation rules, PWC and small
boat handling, emergency measures, and courtesy.
Boating Skills & Seamanship
(BS&S) is a more comprehensive course designed
for both the experienced and novice boater. There
is a 7 lesson and a 13 lesson version of this course.
We typically teach the 13 lesson course given over a
period of 9 or 10 weeks with each class running about
2 1/4 hours. Completion of this course will provided
the students with a certificate that will permit them
to operate powerboats, including PWCs. In this course
students will learn various types and classes of boats
and motors, maneuvering, mooring, anchoring, heavy weather
handling, marlinspike (lines, knots, hitches), aids
to navigation, charts, basic navigation, compass corrections,
rules of the road, plus Federal and State requirements
and regulations.
ACN -
Advanced Coastal
Navigation is course dedicated specifically
to honing the skills of coastal (site of land, not
celestial) piloting and navigation. It is
a 14 lesson course taught over a 10 or 11 week session.
ACN is a comprehensive course to prepare the advanced
boater with the knowledge needed to safely pilot a boat.
Learn how to use a compass, charts, radio navigation;
how to plot a course; determine your position; plan
a cruise; estimate speed, distance, and time; use currents
and tides to maximize time and/or fuel consumption.
BS&S (above) or some Piloting experience recommended
but not required.
