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LifeLines: Boating safety

By Cindy Lane
LifeLines: Boating safety
LifeLines: Boating safety

Please be safe while boating or riding personal watercraft!

Boating tips

  • Wear your life jacket.
  • Attach a Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (PEPIRB) to your life jacket.
  • Take a boating safety course.
  • Get a vessel safety inspection.
  • Install a GPS system.
  • Install a VHS radio – cell phones only work so far offshore.
  • Keep flares on board.
  • In a crisis, stay with the boat.
  • Have enough rope to anchor in rough seas – seven feet for every foot of depth.
  • Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
  • Obey speed limits in manatee zones.
  • Stay in designated channels to avoid causing propeller scars in seagrass beds.
  • Don’t drink and boat.

Personal watercraft tips:

  • Life jackets are required whether driving, riding on or being towed behind a personal watercraft.
  • Do not operate a personal watercraft from a half hour after sunset to a half hour before sunrise.
  • Operators must be at least 14 years old.
  • A person must be at least 18 years old to rent a personal watercraft.
  • Operators born on or after Jan. 1, 1988 are required to have completed a National Association of State Boating Law Administrators-approved boating education course and have a boating education ID card and photo ID to operate a vessel with a 10 horsepower motor or higher.

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