USCG Auxiliary Vessel Safety Check Pre-check list

[DAVEY5205]

hi guys
tacoma outboard association will be hosting coast guard safety inspections for all boats on april 5th. just bring your boat on down. 8am to early afternoon. great way to get your 2008 stickers!!!!!!!

[DaveS]

[Alyssa Jean]

An analogy would be paying for drivers education and then having to spend $30-40 for an 8 year drivers license. Unfortunately there is always a small percentage of the boating public that can't seem to figure out some of the rules to safe boating on their own. So enter the state(s).
$10 for a life time card is a pretty good deal. At 64, I have one.

[Alyssa Jean]

HERE is another link for information on what is covered in a Vessel Safety Check. Also a link with-in the link to find the nearest examiner to your Zip Code.

[CW]

Dave,

thanks for the link. I'll put it on my thing to do list within the next month (comes after getting a new 2008-09 WDFW combination fresh & salt water fishing, clamming and combination hunting license - our 2007-08 expires at the end of March). Ever since I got a ticket for driving a car without a valid registration and proof of insurance in it (my wife's car - we had both, she just didn't move the paperwork) it has been decided that I'll be the one to keep all of family's i's dotted and t's crossed legally with the state's permits, fees, and stickers. I can only wonder how long it will be until my chainsaw, weedeater, barbecue and John Deer mower will also require a registration, sticker and carbon monoxide permit. Undoubtedly our "herd" of two goat's produce some of that too so I'll have to get them tatooed, inspected and updated state sanctioned bodypiercing tags. C.W.

[Byrdman]

Thanks David...and others for your input.

I find it interesting all these laws/regulations and checklist.... and I had one pop up on my boat on our last trip that just floored me.

My bet is most of us are more likely to need a first aid kit (or it's contents) much more often than the new decals, taxes paid, battery terminals covered... yada yada yada.... but guess who did not have a full first aid kit on board? Yepo! OK...if the our Coast Guard would have came on board with the checklist...I would have been fine.

But, when my Brother cut his hand open, or more accurately for this event, re-opened a previous cut.... I reached into my handy dandy keep things handy and organized cabinet for things ya need (flares, fire extinguishers...).... no first aid kit. Well, not as a kit anyway. Yes, I cruise often on my boat, so most items were on board, but, I had to rummage about a bit. Some in my "shaving kit"...which no longer has the finger nail clippers in them after a recent run thru the airport.... some in my kitchen supply cake box (yep, that plastic cake holder for tailgating parties/Church outings/bring desert for dinner plastic box with the neat folding handles and SNAPPING end clamps) for some cutters, my stock of paper towels (to keep him from bleeding all over himself...my boat cleans nicely)...to hold things at bay until I found my always on board never used yet bag of white hand towels from COSTCO/Wallmart.... Bottom line... we got thru it just fine, and...duct tape (Alabama Chrome), wire tape, but no just plan ole white "medical" tape. He lived. We had a great dinner.

Point... During a clean out day, I had an older first aid kit that I found some items a bit aged in, I tossed the hole rig durring a clean out day....and never replaced the first aid kit. It is on my list....but I forgot where I put my list. I call it CRS... Can't Remember ....Stuff.

It may not be law....but, something to check on our boats at least once a season...before we need something out of it is that first aid kit. I can not think of an entire boating year that something was not used from the kits, and the more kids, and/or adults acting like kids and fishing and fun...the more the first aid kit was needed.

Lesson learned... keep the bleeding person from above the first aid kit, and closer to the wash down system. Makes for easier clean up...and just feels better next time you need that band-aid...and you get to put your own blood on it...even if you do have to take it out of that little adult proof package. (hand it to the bleeding kid to open themselves...it teaches them to be self sufficient, gives them something to focus on other than the often little cut, and, they often top crying and sniffling...as to allow themselves to see to open the thing. ) Then have them get your next beverage. All is well on board, life is good.

Happy Easter All!....and go get on your boats!!

Byrdman

[Captains Cat]

Never saw an answer to my earlier question...

"Many of us have our batteries in a box with a cover on it. I assume this will meet the requirement?"

Does this meet the requirement to cover the battery terminals?

Charlie

[Alyssa Jean]

Yes, it certainly does.

[CW]

Nothing like tightening a battery connection with a wrench, only to contact the side of the hull (in an aluminum boat) Wakes you up!!! C.W.

[Larry H]

Batteries and wrenches,

DO use hex nuts on the battery posts and do tighten them with a wrench!

DON'T use a wrench long enough to contact both terminals at once! If you cant find a short wrench, put a cover on the other end of the wrench. A piece of hose, shrink tube, or even duct tape. A wrench shorting out both battery terminals can cause the battery to explode!

When working on the battery, disconnect the negative cable first and reconnect the negative cable last.

David,

Thanks to your heads up, I now have a CO sticker. I got it from a licensing agent.

[Kent Richmond]

Just for the record, the first aid kit is not a mandated piece of gear on the boat. It's a good idea to have one on board, but its absence will not disqualify a boat in a USCG Aux vessel inspection.
Kent Richmond - FSO MA - Bayfield, Wisconsin

[ffheap]

Hi Folks,

This is a great subject for this time of year.

My feeling being both a member of USCGAux and USPS is if one state does it, then I do it. It usually does not cost much, if anything, and it makes our boat a little safer.

I have been a Vessel Examiner in the past, and I hope to renew my qualifications this year by doing five exams with a qualified examiner. I can not understand why a boater will not take the time for an exam. It is free, and most of the USCG, Harbor Masters, and State people will not pull over a boat with a current Safety Decal, unless the boat is doing a moving violation like going 50 KPH through an anchorage with a couple of kids with out life jackets sitting on the bow with their legs dangling over the bow( I saw it one day in Nantucket Harbor.) Then I think the operator should be jailed and have his boat taken away from him.

The boat owner who does not take the free exam thinks maybe thinks that we will report them. If we find something we do not like, we tell them and give them a fail slip and tell them what they have to do. Maybe they are a know-it-all. Nothing you can do about them.

The biggest thing I have found in the past has been out-of-date flares. If there is a store nearby, they usually will run up and buy them.

I think all C-Dory people should get an exam. One year I did a bunch of C-Dory's on the Erie Canal.

Fred

[T.R. Bauer]

[Larry H]

TR,

If the battery is installed inside a plastic box with lid, held onto the box with a strap, then it meets the standard. There are, however, battery mounts that are a just frame with the terminals exposed. Sort of like a car hold down.

The standard is written for all boats, not just C-Dorys and many boats do not have the battery installed in a lazarette hatch. I have seen batteries installed under a seat or next to an inboard motor. I have also had to remove various kinds of junk (some of it metallic) from the top of batteries to service them.

Having a battery explode or melt down or start a fire from a red hot metal part shorting out the terminals is not something you want to have happen while out on the water.

[T.R. Bauer]