What safety gear is necessary for boating?
The amount and type of safety gear varies a little with the size of vessel but many of the following items are important for most sizes of vessel.
Safety gear should include items such as:
- A life jacket for each person on board (best to wear them as well, not just stored somewhere).
- A secondary means of propulsion if the engine stops working (a pair of oars or second outboard for example).
- Two forms of communication e.g. a VHF radio and cell phone (in some form of waterproof protection)
- Something to bail water out of the vessel if necessary
- Anchor
- Flashlight
- Knife
- Rope
- First Aid kit
- Fire extinguisher
- Unless your boat is very small, a chart or technology that enables you to see reefs and other underwater hazards is important e.g. Depth Sounder / Chart Plotter
- Consider obtaining a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) or buying a pack of flares.
Safety also necessitates making judgment calls on the conditions you will fish in.
Checking the weather forecast and understanding the direction and influence of wind and swell you will be fishing in is important to making the right calls.
Check more than one source of information. Swellmap and Metservice are two reputable sources.
Once you have established that the conditions are safe throughout the duration of your trip, it is time to tell someone where you are going and what time you will be coming home.
If something beyond your control happens and search and rescue has to come find and you, you will be grateful they know where to look.
You don’t have to give away your favourite fishing location, but detail enough information so that rescuers know where to start looking.
Hopefully you will never need the services of search and rescue however if you do, it is most likely Coastguard who will be coming to your aid.
Consider getting a membership because of its benefits and the extra piece of mind knowing if your boat breaks down, you can get help for a much lower price than a non-member.
