Boating and Sailing.pdf - Moja ladja

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Part 5: Staying Safe Afloat
◆ Thumbs up: Increase speed.
◆ Thumbs down: Slow down.
◆ Hand up: Stop.
◆ Chopping motion at the neck: Shut off the motor.
Skiers should also be aware that they are hard to see when they’re down in the water—
raising a ski over the head will make them more visible to oncoming traffic.
Water skiing is a great sport
for the whole family, but a
few simple safety precautions
are in order. The skier must
wear a PFD and should
know basic hand signals to
communicate with the driver.
(Photo credit: Suzuki Marine)
Loading—And Overloading
One of the most common causes of accidents in small boats is overloading. Although it
may be fun to see how many teenagers will fit into a 10-foot jon boat, if that boat is
moved anywhere away from the docks loaded with more than the capacity plate recommends,
it’s probably going to swamp. (The capacity plate, you’ll recall, is mounted on the
console or transom by the manufacturer. It lists safe load capacity in all boats, as well as
maximum legal horse-power for outboard boats.)
Even fairly large boats can be overloaded easily. One of the more common mistakes is
with bow-riders, which may have sitting room for four or five large adults in front of the
walk-through windshield.
There’s sitting room, but the bow doesn’t have the buoyancy to support 700 or 1,000
pounds up front. If the boat meets a wave of any height—a tugboat wake, for example—
water will pour over the bow and it will swamp. That same load distributed aft might
cause no problems, because the wider beam and decreased vee toward the rear of most
boats can support more weight.