Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
I had a fellow fishing with me who spent much of the day talking about his 28-foot twin-engine vessel that he had spent more than one hundred thousand dollars on. He kept it somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay and was really looking forward to someday running it around to Ocean City. As we approached the Inlet at the end of the day, he came into the cabin and asked me about the red and green buoys stationed just outside the jetties. He wanted to know how they marked the channel and what the colors represented.
Now don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that everyone has to start somewhere and there’s nothing wrong with being unaware of something you’ve never been exposed to, but this guy owned and had been operating a boat for a few months but had no clue what the buoys meant. That’s like driving your own car and not knowing what a stop sign means!
After explaining a little about the buoys I asked him if he had ever owned a boat before, and he said “no”. Then I asked why he started his boating career with such a large boat and I was surprised to hear that his decision was made because he had taken notice that so many people started out with small boats and then graduated over the years to bigger and bigger craft. He figured that instead of wasting his time messing with little boats; he’d get something with some size to it right from the beginning.
If you ask me, such reasoning was not only a classic example of “more dollars than sense”, but also a great argument for mandatory licensing of anyone who operates a boat. It’s crazy that we’re required to take a competency test and get a license to drive a car or fly a plane, but anyone with enough money can simply buy a boat and “have at it”. Imagine how safe it would be out on the highway if all you needed to drive a car was to own one. It’s scary to think that someone who has zero experience on a boat can operate in the same waters as hundreds, if not thousands, of other boaters. It’s no wonder the Coast Guard and State Marine Patrols stay so busy assisting boaters who have gotten into trouble!
With all that being said, I do acknowledge that at least here in Maryland anyone born before July 1, 1972 is required to have attended an approved safe boating course before they may operate a boat on state waters. But that’s not the case in all states, and even here in Maryland it leaves a huge chunk of the over 45-year-old population free to run our waterways without any formal training.
While I’m at it, I’m not going to reserve all my ridicule to just first-time boat owners. I’m continually amazed at how often I see so-called “experienced” boat owners doing very stupid things with their boats simply because they don’t know any better. These days there’s so much activity on the water and so many new types of vessels and high-tech marine products coming out each season that all of us need some way to stay abreast of what’s happening out there.
If you’re like so many folks who have been boating for a lot of years and think you know everything you need to know to safely do your summertime thing on the water, let’s see if you can answer the following questions:
What does a red and green-banded buoy indicate?
If you anchor your boat at night you’re required to turn on a white anchor light. What are you supposed to display during the day to indicate you’re anchored?
At night, if you see the red side-light of a boat in front of you which way should you turn?
If you’re five miles out in the ocean and your motor quits, will the Coast Guard come out and tow you back in?
If you’re at the Jackspot and your GPS quits working are you capable of using a chart to plot a course back to the inlet? How about a course from the Jackspot to the Hambone?
For anyone who operates a boat, the answers to these questions should come as quickly and easily as if they were driving their car down a road and saw a red flashing light at an intersection. All boaters should know this stuff! With this in mind, I strongly suggest that anyone with a boat, or who is contemplating buying a boat, consider taking a boating course before this new season gets too far along. Obviously, such a course will get beginning boaters off to a good start, but I also guarantee that even “seasoned” skippers will relearn things they’ve forgotten and certainly pick up on some things they never knew.
Almost no matter where you live, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary or some other organization probably offers boating courses somewhere in your area. By the way, the Coast Guard Auxiliary has scheduled one-day safe boating courses at the Ocean Pines library on May 20th and August 19th and three-day sessions June 6th-8th and July 11th-13th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Whether you’re a boat owner, a soon to be boat owner or just a frequent passenger of a friend or family member who has a boat, having a safe boating course under your belt will at least provide you with the very basic knowledge that everyone who shoves off from a dock should have to keep their voyage both enjoyable and safe.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
