Are You Ready for Hurricane Season?

Hurricane season officially kicked off May 15 in the Pacific and, right on cue, the waters are churning and giving storm trackers reason to sit up and take notice. No significant tropical weather has occurred, but now is the time to prepare before it does.

The U.S. Coast Guard Compass has an informative article on hurricane-preparedness with a link to Ready.gov, a FEMA site, that contains more advice on what to do before, during and after a hurricane. Another excellent resource is NOAA’s National Weather Service, where you can find information on Hurricane Preparedness Week, which runs May 27 through June 2. Look there for daily announcements throughout that week on subjects beginning with hurricane basics and ending with how to take action.

Are you interested in following storm activity? Use a hurricane tracking chart from OceanGrafix to feed your inner meteorologist!

Turn National Safe Boating Week into a Safe Boating Year!

National Safe Boating Week is Saturday, May 19 through Friday, May 25. Although safe boating should be observed all year long, this is the week to possibly shirk a bad habit and create some new best practices!

A couple of easy and wise boat safety ideas are:

• Wear life jackets. They’re not just for kids anymore! According to the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2010 Boating Statistics, “Almost three-fourths of all fatal boating accident victims drowned, and of those, 88% were not reported as wearing a life jacket.”

• Take a boat safety course. According to the same statistics, “Only 9% of deaths occurred on boats where the operator had received boating safety instruction. Only 6% of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had received boating safety instruction from a NASBLA-approved course provider.” Find a course here.

Also, at risk of sounding like a broken record, it is critical to carry current navigational charts. You need to know where you are, where you are headed and what’s under and around you!

Need more information and tips? The National Weather Service and the National Safe Boating Council have put together daily public service announcements that will run for Safe Boating Week.

Let’s make this not only a safe boating week, but a safe boating year.

Coast Guard’s Safety Focus for Spring: Kids!

The U.S. Coast Guard is rolling out its annual boating safety awareness campaign leading up to National Safe Boating Week (May 19-25). The usual theme—educating boaters to check their safety equipment and vessel—has an unusual focus: kids.

To get the word out, Coast Guard members created a 14-minute digital cartoon with themes such as the importance of wearing a life jacket, not playing on the marine radio and escaping rip currents. Coast Guard members will use this video, along with activity and coloring books, in classrooms where they’ve been invited to speak. Using these tools, they hopefully will not only engage the kids, but educate them as well.

Kids may be the most inexperienced boaters, but given a few simple boating tips, they may prove to be invaluable hands, eyes and ears on board.

Read more on Drawing the Lines in the latest issue of the U.S. Coast Guard magazine.

OceanGrafix and Alliance for Safe Navigation Ready for Boating Season

A mantra we have at OceanGrafix is “Accurate charts, confident boating.” While there are certainly many aspects to boating safety, there’s no arguing that having current navigational information on board is critical.

The mission of the Alliance for Safe Navigation (ASN), of which OceanGrafix is a founding member, is to raise awareness about the importance of up-to-date navigational information. As part of its educational efforts, the ASN recently released a list of resources recreational boaters should turn to as part of their spring commissioning.

The ASN list for spring commissioning provides boaters with resources for obtaining accurate navigational tools (electronic and paper) and shares information on vessel preparedness and boating safety. (To get paper charts that contain the latest updates, visit us at www.oceangrafix.com.)

Be prepared this boating season: carry accurate charts. It will help ensure confident boating!

NOAA Conducts QR Code Experiment

Always looking for ways to improve safety on the water, we are happy to partner with NOAA for an exciting experiment. NOAA has added QR codes to eight nautical charts for the Tampa Bay, Florida, area and will test their effectiveness in providing real-time information on topics such as tides, currents and marine weather.

Here’s how they work. Quick Response Codes, or QR codes, are two-dimensional bar codes typically placed on marketing materials—direct mail, print ads, even billboards. A smart phone is used to scan the QR code, and the user is directed to digital online content.

In the paper chart instance, boaters will scan the QR codes on select NOAA nautical charts and be instantly directed to one website that will have pertinent marine information for their geographical location. That’s one website instead of several to find out about the tides, currents or weather in your area.

While consumers have been somewhat slow to adapt to QR codes in other applications, this is a great example of how they should be used, and we hope mariners will take advantage of this unique safety feature.

The QR code service is currently being provided free of charge from NOAA on select print-on-demand (POD) nautical charts purchased through OceanGrafix and our retailers.

Click here to learn more about NOAA’s QR code experiment.

Boat Capacities

New Year’s resolutions aside, there’s one more reason to consider hitting the gym and revising your diet. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the weight of the average American has sky-rocketed since 1960 — from 160 pounds to 185 pounds! This 15% increase decreases the number of people allowed on a boat at one time.

A European friend recently vacationed on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, which draws people from all over the world, including Americans. Upon his return, he asked me, “Why do Americans sit on the beach and eat and drink all day?” Insulting?  Maybe. But given the stats above, it’s probably at least a little bit accurate.

At the current time, the U.S. Coast Guard’s revision of average weights applies to commercial vessels only.

How Old is Your NOAA Chart?

We’d like to see all boaters be as safe as possible on the water. One simple thing you can do is to check the age of your chart.

If your chart is a POD (print on demand) NOAA chart from OceanGrafix, locate the chart number at the bottom left. Below that is an “Additional Corrections” box that itemizes other changes (LNMs, NMs, etc.) and the dates associated. These changes supersede the edition publication date information and need to be applied in order to make your chart accurate.

For a pre-printed (non-POD) chart, find the chart number at the bottom left. Above that is the “edition” number, followed by the month/year the chart was printed.

For either type of chart, check oceangrafix.com to determine if a new chart is available or if there are updates to be made to your chart.

Keeping your chart up to date will keep you safer on the water!

Alliance for Safe Navigation

There are many organizations dedicated to safe boating, but the one we wish to recognize is the Alliance for Safe Navigation. The Alliance is made up of industry leaders that all share a commitment to boating safety.

The goal of the Alliance for Safe Navigation is to raise the boating community’s understanding of and appreciation for up-to-date navigational information. The Alliance encourages mariners to recognize the large number of changes made to their charts and to keep their electronic and paper charts accurate, which is inexpensive and easy to do.

How easy, you ask? You can start by going to allianceforsafenavigation.org. Then, enter your NOAA chart number on the home page. You’ll be directed to a listing of recent changes to your chart. Once you know how many and what type of changes have been made, you can either 1) make the corrections on your existing paper chart, 2) purchase an update for your electronic chart, or 3) purchase an up-to-date paper chart.

Members of the Alliance include Boat U.S., Jeppesen, NOAA, OceanGrafix, Sea Tow Foundation, and United States Power Squadrons.

Coast Guard’s Holiday Spirit

The U.S. Coast Guard works day in and day out on our waterways and is often involved with assorted rescues. But recently, they were helping people in an entirely different way.

The Coast Guard Cutter Alder—the “Christmas Ship” —delivered 750 trees from Michigan to Chicago’s Navy Pier to be distributed to needy families. This tradition started in the early 1900s by Captain Herman Schuenemann when he brought thousands of trees to Chicago families.

The Coast Guard became involved in 2000 when the city once again renewed its interest in providing trees to the less fortunate.

Grants Available from BoatU.S. Foundation

Does your organization have an idea to promote safe and clean boating? There may be a grant—up to $4,000—available from the BoatU.S. Foundation to get things off and running.

The Foundation has awarded over $1 million over 20 years to volunteer organizations with creative and innovative ideas. One such recipient spearheaded signs being posted at boat ramps warning boaters of invasive species in area waters and how to prevent the spread of them.

See boatus.com/foundation/grants/ for details and an application.