Boarding, Personal Flotation Devices

Section 3 • Using Your Boat

Filling The Tanks

•Check the fill plate label to ensure that fuel is placed ONLY in the fuel tank. The fuel fill plates are located on the port side of your boat (Figure 3.2.1).

•Keep nozzle in contact with fuel fill opening at all times during fueling.

•Listen as tank fills and stop adding fuel before it spills from the vent. Fuel must have room for expansion.

After Filling

•DO NOT wash spilled fuel overboard. Wipe up any spill with rags or paper towels and dispose of them properly on shore.

•Open engine compartment and check for fuel leaks or fumes. This is especially important if your boat is equipped with gasoline engines. Leave compartment open until no odor is apparent. Close compartment.

•If fumes in the engine compartment do not disappear, do not turn on blower or start engine. Get help from trained and experienced persons before using the boat.

•Turn on blower for four minutes, then restart engine.

•Assist passengers back into the boat.

4.Boarding

!WARNING

Wet decks are slippery.

You can be seriously injured if you slip and fall.

Wear slip-resistant footwear secured to your feet and hold onto rails or boat structure.

•DO NOT overload the boat.

•Board one person at a time and give assistance as needed.

•Transfer gear and equipment by handing it from a person on the dock to a person on board. You

can lose your balance and be injured if you attempt to board while carrying equipment or gear.

•Distribute the weight of equipment and passengers as evenly as possible to keep the boat balanced.

•Stow gear and equipment so that it is accessible, but everything is to be stored in places so as to prevent it from flying about if the boat encounters rough water or weather.

5.Personal Flotation Devices

(PFD’s)

•Operator must instruct all passengers on location and use of PFD’s (See Section 1- Safety, page 4 for type and usage).

•Children and all non-swimmers, adults as well as children, must wear properly-sized PFDs at all times when aboard. Check applicable state regulations for PFD wear requirements.

•ALL passengers should wear PFDs. By the time someone falls overboard, it can be to late for them to put on a PFD and fasten it properly. This is especially true in colder waters, below 70oF, where survival time, before hypothermia sets in, is measured in minutes.

•If there are passengers not wearing PFDs, the PFDs must be readily accessible. “Readily accessible” means out of the storage bag and unbuckled.

•All throwable flotation devices (cushions, rings, etc.) must be right at hand.

6.Passenger Instruction and Location

•Everyone on board must be told about the boat’s behavior from starting to getting up on plane.

•Before the operator does any high-speed maneuvers or rapidly accelerates or decelerates the boat, passengers must be warned to sit and hold on and must heed the warning.

23 Outlaw®

3.3

Speed changes you. TM.