"Important information"

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sabrejocky

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This weekend my daughter did her Florida boating safety class and I sat in on the last part of the class, the review.

Some important boating safety related information:
-you have to be 18 to sign a PWC rental contract.
-your bill of sale can serve as a 30 day temporary registration.

And yes these where 2 answers out of the 10 questions asked on the final test, now I am impressed!

I hope we have higher standards for surgeons.

Cor
 
10 questions altogether? that explains what we see on the water every week end, doens't it?

sadly, the USCG six pack standards aren't much higher with things like "non ignition proof devices should be installed as high as possible in the bilge of gas powered boats since fumes are heavier than air" and "anchor scope should be 5 to 7 times water depth"
 
quote:
Originally posted by sabrejocky

This weekend my daughter did her Florida boating safety class and I sat in on the last part of the class, the review.

Some important boating safety related information:
-you have to be 18 to sign a PWC rental contract.
-your bill of sale can serve as a 30 day temporary registration.

And yes these where 2 answers out of the 10 questions asked on the final test, now I am impressed!

Click to expand...


Who writes these tests? I took my test on-line and one of the questions was "What month do boat registrations expire?" (This is when I realized that I had accidentally taken the South Dakota test, not the South Carolina test).

Boater tests should be on situations that directly affect boating operation and safety. At least you would think so.
 
My point exactly!
If you are going to require a test than at least make it usefull and pertaining to the safe operation of a boat, who cares about a rental contract or temporary registration!

Cor
 
I'd like to know "Which Program" too. In our 8-hour "About Boating Safely" there are 50 questions based on the national version of the course. Then 10 more based on state requlations, and those 10 are specified by the particular state the course is presented in. That's what makes the ABS course "NASBLA (National Association of State Boating Law Administrators) Approved." We call the 50 questions the "DO's" and the 10 state questions the "DON'T's" since they also address things that'll get you burned like Blood Alcohol Level, Running PWC after Dark, etc.
Any age that requires a Florida Boater Card (born in 1988 or later) can operate a power boat. If they can get the keys from Mom and Dad, I hope, but must be Age 14 or older to operate a PWC. The Age 18 is legal age to sign ANY contract in FL so it applies to PWC rentals.
Speaking of Temporary Documentation, FL now accepts the Course Completion Card from a NASBLA class for 90 days, so they have time (hopefully much more than they usually get it done in!) to get the State Boater Card back to the participant. In my CGAux unit, we submit the paperwork for the entire group, day of course completion, to the State.
We can't take people out on the water and let them operate, but we can affect how they think about it.
 
I took a 12 hour hunting safety class with my son, and probably more than half of the lectures was spent on emphasizing the proper procedures for obtaining a license and where all the money gets spent from these licenses. The rest of the time was actually spent on safety. The online boating course for Pennsylvania was actually pretty intensive on safety as I recall.
 
To me the real advantage of taking a safety course in person is the real life experiences told not only by the instructors, but the classmates as well. You will learn stuff not presented in a book, an online course let alone a test!

I took the boat safety course three times: first when I started boating on a regular basis in a friend's boat; second just before I took delivery of my very first boat 5 yrs later; then when I joined the CGAux, I had to take the basic crew class before I could go out on patrol. By that time, I had another few years of boating; some of that was single handing and all of it was in the same waters I patrolled with the Aux.

Fun days!
 
I paid a captain to train me on my boat prior to needing the card in NJ. I was old enough that my date to have one was 6 months away. Then I took the test after personal classroom instruction in my boat. I would highly recommend this but now the laws have changed at the time I could pilot the boat sans a license. This can no longer be done. Nothing beats one on one instruction in the vessel you will be using. My wife and 3 son's went to our local school and spent 2 nights there. At the school the instruction was more like a prep course on how to pass the test. In my case it was about the rules, fees, rules of the waterways, penalties but part of it was also on the water real time training. I think it's by far the best way to get training about boating I have ever had. I had been boating since I was 17 years old starting with mainly small speed boats this is the 1st vessel I have ever owned over 25 feet.
Bill
 
quote:
Originally posted by Billylll

.......... Nothing beats one on one instruction in the vessel you will be using. .........
Click to expand...

If the instructor knows what he or she is talking about.

I paid a local captain and instructor for four hours on my single screw trawler. The first thing he said when he stepped aboard was "I've never operated a single screw inboard before."

In hindsight, this should have been my cue to send him packing.

He did show us how best to tie the boat up, how to judge wind and current, etc. but his docking lessons (the reason we needed instruction, we had been boating for several years in I/Os) centered around "back and fill" which works in theory, but is pretty difficult in a narrow fairway with wind and current.

After a year or more of worrying more about getting the boat back into the slip than enjoying the trip, I thought "I have a bow thruster, why am I trying this the hard way?"

Ignoring his lessons, I learned to use the thruster and am now much more comfortable backing into the slip.

BTW: His teaching method was more watching you do it and yelling at you if you did it wrong than actual demonstration and instruction.
 
Ron, seems you definitely got ripped off! That guy was out of his league and should suggested you hire someone with experience on that type of boat. He sounds like a real jerk!
 
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