Historic round boat highlights NY Sea Grant boating tips for 2016 season

Is it a spaceship? An amusement park ride? No, it is an historic 7-foot round boat, and it is the New York Sea Grant "Discover Clean and Safe Boating" educational vessel for 2016.

"This boat catches everyone's eye and draws people in to hear the message about wearing a life jacket, being prepared for a sudden emergency on the water, and practicing clean, safe and environmentally friendly boating on New York waters," said David G. White, coastal recreation and tourism specialist with New York Sea Grant Extension, Oswego.

White, the New York State Boating Educator of the Year in 2015, developed the "Discover Clean and Safe Boating" campaign in 2008 in partnership with the Boating Industries Association of Upstate New York trade group. Each year, BIA members provide a different type of vessel for the educational campaign that travels to events and venues statewide to engage public interest in water safety and environmentally friendly boating practices.

The round boat, a Circraft dating to the early 1970s, was donated for use with the 2016 educational tour by Burke's Marina, Raquette Lake.

New York Sea Grant offers the following 10 clean and safe boating tips:

• Wear a properly sized and approved life jacket.
• Boats more than 16 feet long must have a throwable flotation device onboard.
• Learn how to be calm and act properly in the event of an emergency on the water by taking "suddenly in command" training offered by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.
• Have a proper device to receive weather alerts onboard the boat.
• Make sure boat horn, whistles, distress flag and other means of signaling a water emergency are in working order.
• Check that all vessel lights are working and onboard flashlights have fresh batteries.
• Check expiration dates of onboard fire extinguishers and flares. 
• Store flares, distress signals and navigational charts in dry compartment.
• Use a fuel nozzle bib and bilge sock to keep marine fuel from spilling into the water.
• Practice clean, drain, dry inspection of all watercraft, trailers and gear to remove aquatic invasive species and debris each time you enter and leave new water.

For more information about the 2016 "Discover Clean and Safe Boating" campaign in New York, contact White at New York Sea Grant at SUNY Oswego - 315-312-3042.

New York Sea Grant offers boating safety resource links for selecting the right life jacket, developing a float plan, requesting a courtesy vessel check and more online at www.nyseagrant.org/marina. New York Sea Grant also provides information, research reports, project updates, newsletters and RSS, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube links at www.nyseagrant.org.