A lot of boaters have years of practical experience spent on the water. But are you sure you know everything there is to know about staying safe while boating? In conjunction with National Safe Boating Week from May 20 to May 26, the BoatU.S. Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water challenges all boaters to test their boating knowledge with a free, online safety course at http://www.BoatUS.org/onlinecourse
The course covers a broad range of topics for both power and sailboaters. Accepted by many states as a certified boating safety course, completion can also bring possible insurance discounts.
"The best part of this course is that it's free and can be done any time of the day or night," said BoatU.S. Foundation Boating Safety Director Chris Edmonston. "While it's great for less-experienced boaters, we get feedback from older salts who tell us they have benefited from it as well. They thank us for learning something new or reminding them of something they learned long ago. This is a great way for all boaters to start fresh for the season."
The course is recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators and is based on 60 multiple choice questions. Designed as a teaching tool, background material on question topics are available throughout the exam and corrections and explanations are given when a question is answered incorrectly. Any unfamiliar topics can be reviewed with a "study topics" button.
Those with 80 percent or more correct answers are given a certificate of completion. The course can also be started and stopped at anytime - you don't need to complete it all at once.
The BoatU.S Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit education and research organization primarily funded by the voluntary contributions of 640,000 members of BoatU.S. The Foundation operates more than a dozen programs including a low-cost EPIRB rental program, the "Help Stop the Drops" national clean fueling campaign, a free kid's Life Jacket Loaner program, and has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for nonprofit groups for boating safety and environmental projects.
