Before you invest in a new or used boat , you must understand that boating is an expensive hobby. You will have to spend time and money on the care and upkeep of your boat. You will also have expenses associated with docking and fuel. With that being said, there is nothing like the passion of sailing the seas, or going out into the ocean for a weekend of fishing, sea and sun. Weighing out all the pros and cons is something you must take the time to do. So that you understand some of the work required to keep your boat in tip-top shape, read the following boat maintenance guide. Please keep in mind that this general boat maintenance article is intended only to give you an idea of the basic care needed by boats in general and is not by any means all-inclusive.

Know Your Boat

As mentioned above, this article will only give you an idea, not an end-all be-all instruction for the maintenance of your boat. Your best bet is to research your specific make and model, including the year if your boat is older. Start your research by reading any manuals that may have come with the boat. If you purchased your boat used and it did not include an original owner’s manual, you may be able to get it directly from the manufacturer by visiting their Web site or by requesting a copy in writing. You may also be able to get a copy of the owner’s manual by calling the manufacturer directly and asking them to send it to you.

Read the owner’s manual thoroughly to find any information pertaining to regular care and maintenance of the boat. Realize that if you have an older boat, the information may be somewhat outdated in that you may wish to consult a professional such as a boat dealer or broker that specialized in your specific make and model.

Research the Web and try to find message boards and forums where boat owners that have similar boats to yours post about their experiences and how they deal with certain situations. You may find several boat owners willing to dish out advice specific to the care and maintenance of your boat. As with anything you read online, make sure to take any advice with a grain of salt and check your sources. If many boat owners are consistently giving the same advice, it is safer to assume that the information contained therein is accurate and good.

After researching your boat thoroughly, you should have a more accurate idea of the timing and specifics regarding the regular care and maintenance required by your boat.

Typical Maintenance

* Keep it Clean*
A key step in maintaining your boat is to wash it regularly. Cleaning your boat regularly doesn’t only contribute to the looks of the boat, but also helps to protect your boat from the wear and tear inflicted by environmental conditions. Be sure to use only products that are earth-friendly. Also, wax your boat regularly to further protect the surfaces from the elements.

*Proper Mooring*
Boats don’t only sustain scratches and dings from being used out on the water. Damage can appear on your boat’s body while docked if it is not moored properly. Make sure all lines are fastened securely and don’t show signs of wear or breakage.

* Battery Care*
Check your battery regularly by inspecting its charge and fluid levels. Make sure that the area around your battery is clean and dry at all times.

* Regular Overall Inspection*
Boats require regular inspection, as that is the only way to identify any problems or potential problems. Routinely check your boat’s controls, engine, cables, rudder, throttle. Always be on the lookout for loose fittings, fraying ropes or hoses/cables that are dry, cracked or brittle. It is easier to prevent damage to your boat when you are actively looking for little things that might cause damage in the future.

* Motor Maintenance*
Follow best practices for motor care as outlined in your boat’s owner’s manual. Flush your engine after every use. Check fuel tanks and clamps for rust, damage or corrosion. Check the engine’s oil levels and cleanliness. Also keep an eye on your boat’s cooling system to ensure that it is working properly.

* Winterization*
To protect your boat during the months that it’s not actively in use, you must take the proper winterization steps. Whether you are able to store your boat under shelter or not, you must check your boat’s owner’s manual for the proper techniques of winterizing your boat. If you are not familiar with what needs to be done to winterize your boat, enlist the help of a more experienced friend or contact your local boat dealer or broker for assistance.

* Bilge Pump*
Don’t forget to check that your bilge pump is working properly. In case you do need to use your pump, you may need enough power to run it for an extended period of time. Make sure your battery system can support this.

* Electrical Systems*
Keeping all of your boat’s electrical systems clean, dry and free from damage is crucial to the overall safety and well-being of your boat. Look for any signs of corrosion, and apply water-repellant grease protector to all fittings.

* Boat Covers*
Investing in a boat cover can prevent much damage that can occur as a result of exposure to UV rays and the elements. Consider picking up a used cover, you can save some money and extend the life of your boat.

Trust the Pros

As with anything, if you are new to boating, you may wish to seek out the advice and assistance of professionals. Contact your local boat dealer or broker to get referrals for qualified technicians you can contract to help you maintain your boat. You may wish to put your boat on a regular maintenance schedule and keep a close eye on all systems between visits.

Nothing ingratiates a driver more, to other drivers, than driving on a dark road at night, without your headlights on. Oops, I’m in error. One other action a driver can take surpasses the level of danger of driving without headlights. That’s driving with your high beams on!

Which driver who’s reading this article can honestly say that they have never encountered one or both of these situations? Can you also say you have never made this error?

So what does driving with your headlights on, have to do with nautical lighting? Well, just like our landlubber cousins, boats also have headlights and backlights and high beams. Unlike our road-bound cousins, boating does not have the luxury of a spatial backplane in which to judge, for the most part, direction of another vessel.

Let’s explain this last statement. On the road, even on a very dark, winding, country road, you have signposts, trees, houses and, even fields of corn stalks. Out on the water, you have water, then you have water, occasionally you have an aid to navigation, another vessel’s sound (which can be confusing, as to their direction). In other words, it’s very difficult to tell the direction of a vessel, without looking at their lights.

Navigation Lights

Every time we go boating at night, we’re amazed at the number of people who either have no navigational lights on, due to either forgetfulness or a partial or total equipment malfunction, or who have the wrong navigational lights on.

For simplicity sake, let’s take the standard 21ft cuddy roundabout. The Rules of the Road state that vessels this size need a red and a green bow light (a combination light is acceptable) capable of being seen a mile. In addition, a 360° all-around white light at the stern is also required, that can be seen a mile.

What can go wrong with this simple light configuration? Everything! From the combo light being not operational, to the white light not being positioned so that it can be seen 360° by other vessels. Navigation lights are extremely important.

They tell other boaters that you are making way or at anchor. They give other boaters a conceptual idea of your direction via their own direction. A lookout (remember every vessel is required to have a lookout) that sees a red light followed by a white light while looking over the bow can make the following assumptions: The boat is going from starboard to port, and depending on distance, has the right of  way.

If you saw a white light in front of you, the vessel is either moving in the same direction or is at anchor. Speaking of anchor lights. A vessel that is at anchor, that is not in a “special anchorage area’ must show an anchor light. An anchor light is a 360° white light.

So, if you’re fishing and drifting, you should have on your navigation lights. If you’re fishing on an anchor, then it’s the anchor light. In any event, before you leave the dock, make sure your lights are operational!

High Beams

So you’re saying to yourself, how am I, going to tie high beams into navigational lights. Yes, you’re right; the nav light switch has three positions, off, navigation light and anchor light. Ever hear of your spot light?

Those ingenious lights that are either hand held or attached to your bow. Those zillion candle white lights that can make night into day. That extremely useful tool that can blind the pilot of the other vessel, and cause night blindness that can take 45 minutes to self-correct. Yes, that’s the light!

Why do people find it necessary to point the light at the pilot of the other vessel? The correct way to use your spotlight is to: a.) use it sparingly and b.) move the spot along the water toward the unknown object and/or vessel.

Once the object is seen at the water’s edge, move the light along the water waterline to see if it’s a vessel or some other object. If it’s a vessel, don’t lift the beam above the gunwale, because the higher you lift the light, the better the chance you’ll blind the other vessel’s occupants.

If you identified the object as not being a vessel, then slowly lift the light up the object, making sure that as much as the beam of light strikes the object. This way you can get a good identification on the object. Remember, there are other boater’s out there, and by swinging your spotlight hither and yarn; you can still cause night blindness for other boaters.

Even on warm days, midwinter waters can be cold enough to kill. Hypothermia, the lowering of body temperature, isn’t something that happens only to people who fall overboard; in fact, you don’t even have to get wet. But a good soaking greatly enhances the process by which the victim loses heat, and that process has to be interrupted and then reversed in order for the internal temperature to return to normal operating levels.

In attempting to aid a victim, keep in mind that heat loss is accompanied by loss of muscle strength, including the heart, and strain, rough handling or sudden movements can result in cardiac arrest.

Follow these three steps;

1. Provide shelter and warmth as soon as possible;
2. Remove all wet clothing;
3. Apply heat to the head, neck, chest, shoulders, sides and groin; it’s more important to restore warmth to the core of the body than to the extremities.

If you can, lay the victim face-up on a flat surface, with feet higher than head.

One way to reverse the process is with warm, moist fabrics applied directly to the skin, remoistened with water at about 110°F. Others are a warm blanket with a hot water bottle, a warm bathtub or shower, a sleeping bag with a heat source or even your own body heat. Be sure to make provisions for restoring your own lost body heat during and especially after this procedure.

Mouth-to-mouth breathing works as well, even when a subject is conscious, because your own breath will be warmer than the victim’s. Be sure to breathe “with” the victim, not against him. You may also want to wrap the victim’s head in a loose scarf to conserve the heated air.

Here are some equally important Don’ts: Don’t use or give alcohol, rub frozen body areas (especially don’t rub them with snow), accept a victim’s plea that he is “fine”, or wrap the victim in anything without a built-in source of heat.

Have you ever tried shouting across a small lake? Easy, isn’t it?

How about when you’ve been water-skiing, and try to get the attention of the towboat? Found it impossible, didn’t you?

Sound does and does not carry over water well. On calm lakes, bays, creeks, or in restricted visibility, sound carries exceptionally well. If you ever went camping around a lake, knowledgeable campers often would tell you to keep the noise down at night, since cool air, and a flat-water surface amplified the sound you were making, so that everyone on the lake heard you.

According to Howard Shaw, Ph. D. and Cheryl Jackson Hall, Ph. D., “Experience suggests that sound, like light, travels (more or less) in straight lines. However, to the contrary, sound actually tends to curve downwards over a lake’s surface.”

“Sound traveling along straight lines would disperse quickly into the space above the lake. Instead, sound that “should” rise up and be lost typically curves back down to the lake/ground level. Therefore, it sounds louder than it “should.” This is a well-known and easily demonstrated observation, measurable out there on real lakes.”

But, let us go back to our water-skiing incident. The water isn’t flat; it is a jumble of waves in all directions. Why? Because the towboat is throwing a wake, your water skis are throwing its own wake, and with the towboat serving and changing course to give you – the rider – a great time, the water has become choppy.

So our wave infested lake, stops your voice from traveling. If this were a large body of water, the wind would be causing the waves. In both instances, the sound of your voice would have difficulty in being heard over the sound of the waves and the interference that the waves would produce to your voice. Add to your problems is the pitch of normal adult voice. It would have problems piercing the noise, and because it’s a lower wavelength, it would also have difficulty moving around the waves themselves.

So how can you be heard? By using a “low tech solution” – an emergency whistle!

An emergency whistle costs under $7.00, usually comes with a lanyard, which can attach to your PFD. Every member of your boat crew and guest should be familiar with their PFD, its emergency whistle and mirror. A whistle and a mirror, two low cost, low tech emergency solutions that can just save your life. So the next time you go to the boat store, why not pick up a signal mirror and a whistle and attach it to your PFD. Low Tech Safety Items – they might just save your life!