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.
