What New Boaters Should Know

Captain Frank Lecardo, owner & instructor of Naples School of Boating, and Phil Osborne, the general manager of Naples Boat Mart, discuss issues from learning how to operate a boat, to meeting regulations, to avoiding common mistakes.

First Things First: Top Skills for New Boaters

In 2020 the marine industry experienced a 13-year high for boating sales—more than 310,000 new powerboats were sold. All of this new growth is great, but there has been a significant increase in boat accident rates. What are some of the most important skills new boaters need to work on right away?

Frank: I always recommend comprehensive on-water training with a qualified instructor. I think that’s the fastest and best way for new boaters to gain the skills that they need. 

I find that there are two skills new boaters need to work on the most. The first is docking or maneuvering in close quarters in general. A lot of new boaters don’t understand what the wind and current are going to do to them. Understanding these factors really matters when they’re planning their approach to the dock or leaving the dock.

The second skill is generally paying attention. The US Coast Guard just issued a safety report for 2020 and boating accidents are up 26%. A lot of that has to do with the increase in inexperienced new boaters.

Phil: Frank raises a great point around overall attentiveness. He shared a story with me where he had a gentleman that figured out how to receive texts through his navigation device before he had figured out how to use the chart or the depth finder. This is just one quick example of priorities that are perhaps a bit off the mark.

The distraction doesn’t end there. The boats and scenery around you, the other people on the boat— sometimes as the captain of the vessel, you do have to excuse yourself from conversations, put the blinders on, and not look at all the pretty things on the beach. Often you have to just focus on running the boat. These are big, powerful, fast pieces of equipment, and competency comes with experience.

Launching and retrieving boats is another big challenge for new boaters. Any advice for people working to get better at launching and retrieving their boats?

Frank: I always recommend new boaters hitch their boat up and go practice in an empty parking lot. Figure out how to back it up, how to back it in, all the maneuvers that you’re going to have to do on a boat ramp. 

The last thing you want to do is show up on a Saturday morning with 15 people in line behind you, and everyone’s losing their patience. That makes you feel anxious, and will just make the situation even more challenging.

A lot of boaters go out with their spouse, a significant other, or with a friend. Is it important for both people to know their roles in the launch process?

Phil: In the case of a married couple, both spouses learning boat launching procedures is a marriage saver. Have a procedure, have a checklist, communicate, and try to do the same thing every time. For members of the group that don’t have a role, the best thing they can do is get out of the way. 

You may want to figure out how to do some of those procedures yourself. It is reasonable— even trailering a larger boat— to be able to put it on and off the trailer yourself. It’s very helpful to create a checklist and get your routine down.

Do some of that loading and prep work ahead of time, especially if you’re waiting in line. It’s a great time to take your straps off, move the cooler from the bed of the truck onto your boat, put fishing rods into rod holders, and generally be ready to go. 

And as Frank says, practice!

Boating at night is another area where there are big challenges. How can boaters acquire and practice the skills they need for nighttime boating?

Frank: I think the answer is to become an expert in the daytime first. When you get out on the water at night, the world looks very different. You have to get used to looking at the different lights and know whether the lights are land-based lights, navigation lights, or lights from buoys and markers?

When you do finally decide to do some night boating, don’t try it for the first time on a really popular and crowded night like July 4th. Also, take somebody with you who’s gone boating at night before. It is helpful to learn firsthand from someone who is experienced before you go out on your own.

Phil: I agree with Frank. If you’re not 100% proficient at operating your boat in full daylight conditions, then you don’t need to be messing around on the water at night. It’s substantially harder when you can’t see the next wave, can’t see the dock, and don’t know where the inlet is. 

Also, don’t make it any harder on yourself than it has to be. If you’re going to do a sunset cruise, maybe schedule it on a night where you have adequate moonlight and it’s not overcast. Having that ambient light can be the difference between seeing what’s going on or not.

We also hear a lot of false confidence from people that have installed a searchlight on their boat, or have a FLIR night vision camera. That is one more piece of equipment that you now have to operate while you operate your boat. In addition to steering and throttling, you’re now running a joystick to aim your remote spotlight. 

This is not intuitive stuff. It’s practice, practice, practice, and being proficient at it.

Maintenance Considerations

When it comes to the maintenance of their equipment, what do new boat owners need to know straight off the bat?

Frank: Do your own research, and don’t stop once the purchase is made. If you didn’t buy your boat through a dealer and instead bought it from a private seller, then it’s probably time to establish a relationship with someone that’s going to be your service provider or at least the person that’s going to be your knowledge base.

The requirements for maintenance and upkeep are very different for every boat. So, I would encourage people to find out what the maintenance interval is, both in terms of engine hour and calendar months, for their application. 

I would also encourage them to figure out how to handle storing their specific boat. What does it do to your engine if it sits for six or eight months out of the year, and what sort of maintenance is required to make sure you don’t harm your engine or other aspects of the boat? 

Safety Basics

What about safety and US Coast Guard regulations both from safety and fines perspectives?

Frank: I recommend that every new boater take a basic safe boating course because in those classes you learn state and federal requirements. 

The US Coast Guard Auxiliary and oftentimes local marine police will offer courtesy exams. They’ll come aboard your boat, inspect the gear that you have, and make sure everything’s in working order. If there are any areas of deficiency, they will give you the opportunity to correct it before you’re trying to handle an emergency or before you actually do get a citation for the oversight. 

Phil: It’s all about prevention and preparedness. It’s all fun and games until you or the people next to you need that fire extinguisher. The gear that’s required to be on board in certain quantities and certain sizes is required for a reason. You’re drawing on hundreds of years of boating expertise amassed by some governing entity to make sure that you’re reasonably safe on the water. 

And sometimes, the regulations are just minimums— so having an extra fire extinguisher or an extra life jacket could be the difference. We tend to think about how much fun recreational boating is, and it is, but it can also be tremendously dangerous. Being out there without the protection of adequate equipment or the training on how to use the equipment can be risky.

Safety also includes knowledge of the local area, understanding where you can run the boat, and at what speeds. You don’t want to be running over manatees in a spot where you should be going slowly, or driving your boat through the middle of a seagrass bed or another environmentally sensitive area. It really is incumbent upon us to understand the areas that we boat in. You’ve got to know the consequences of what you’re doing.

In addition to the safety items that the Coast Guard and common sense require, what other things should every boater carry?

Phil: At Naples Boat Mart, we get to see both sides of preparedness. We get to see the new boater that shows up with no relevant boating experience and has no additional gear. On the other side of that, we see somebody who’s been boating for 30 plus years coming in as a trade, and it takes them three trips with an SUV to unload all of their gear.

There’s a happy medium. You don’t need spark plugs for the boat that you owned three boats ago, but if you’re running an old two-stroke that has a habit of fouling plugs, having a couple of spares on board is a good idea. 

A basic toolkit is recommended, in addition to some basic first aid supplies. 

Also, far too often people plan to leave home for a very short period of time, so they don’t take any food or water. Then they get in a situation where they have a mechanical issue or can’t get back to the dock right away for another reason. You can have a real humanitarian crisis on your hands pretty quickly when it’s 94 degrees outside and you have no potable water on board.

A lot of new boaters don’t know proper emergency signaling. There are plenty stories of boaters signaling for help, and other boaters passing by waving, thinking that they’re celebrating.

Frank: We all as boaters have a responsibility to not only know what to do to protect ourselves but to have a sense of when other boaters may be in danger. If you see someone waving at you, they’re probably not saying hello. They’re looking for help.

Phil: Sometimes, other boaters may not even know that they need to ask for help. You might ride past a boat that’s sinking because of a mechanical issue or because it’s overloaded and sitting too low in the water. It’s incumbent upon you to swing over and say, “Hey, your engine’s about to go underwater,” or whatever the circumstances are.

Common Mistakes Inexperienced Boaters Make

We’ve all done ridiculous things when we were learning how to boat (and maybe still do on occasion!). What funny stories do you have from new boaters you’ve worked with or that you’ve seen out on the water?

Phil: We’ve seen a few incidents. Anyone that tells you that they have never launched their boat while forgetting a drain plug is absolutely lying to you. That’s certainly a very popular one. 

We’ve had boaters stick fuel nozzles into rod holders instead of gas fills by accident, which is a really bad way to end your day. 

I’ve also seen boaters on the ramp who didn’t unstrap their boat from the trailer— so they’re really working the reverse throttle to try and get the boat off the trailer while it was still strapped in place.

I’ve also seen people disconnect the trailer from the tow vehicle and it goes floating away with the boat because they didn’t realize it was strapped in place. That’s obviously not a good one. 

I go back to preparedness and having a mental list of what you do, but as Frank can attest to, not everybody learns the same way. Unfortunately, some people only learn at the school of hard knocks.