Boating Lessons: Know Your Boat
Seamanship is simply the skill of managing a boat and encompasses: navigation; safety; boat handling; line handling; anchoring; troubleshooting engine problems; and appropriate emergency response.
The first discipline of good seamanship is to know everything about your boat. Part of the training program to become a Coast Guard certified coxswain was memorizing vessel and engine specification manuals hundreds of pages thick. The point was to know the boat and its equipment down to the last bolt so that I could confidently bring my crew and my boat through dangerous situations safely. In the same way, knowing your boat will bring you equal confidence. Read more ...
Take the time to know your boat's construction, layout, carrying capacity, limitations, and capabilities. Be familiar with equipment and where it is stowed to the point that you can locate and operate it in the dark. You should also get to know your boat’s propulsion, electric, and power systems, and how to deal with common problems. Read more ...
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Boating Lessons is an About.com Powerboating weekly feature designed to provide busy boaters with short tips and instruction about boat maintenance, boating safety, navigation, boat handling and more. To receive Boating Lessons and all Powerboating blogs automatically, sign up for the Powerboating RSS feed. For boating news and information delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for the weekly Powerboating e-Newsletter.
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