Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 815. It's FLX Morning Monday and we have our boating safety expert with us, Ira Goldman from America's Boating Club. Good morning. It's always good to talk boating safety. We're getting to the late season part of the year and we're getting almost to November 1st and that means that's the cutoff time when you must wear a life jacket for any craft 21 feet or less. But like you say, it's always just a good idea to have it anyway.
Ira Goldman: That's true and inflatable life jackets are comfortable to wear. I wear one most of the time when I'm on the water and if they're among those that you're counting in order for that to be the case, they must be worn. They can't be just stowed on board. So in any event, you should check the condition of a life jacket. Make sure the straps are in good shape, not a lot of dry rot or anything like that. And if it's an inflatable life jacket, the carbon dioxide inflation cylinder is in good shape. The green tag shows it says it has not been discharged.
Paul Szmal: It's probably a good idea. I was just thinking about this. A lot of people store their life jackets, you know, if they have a boat that's just docked somewhere, they'll just be sitting in the boat exposed to the sun all summer long. That's why you see sometimes those orange ones are all faded out. Probably be a pretty good idea to keep those covered just to prevent that possible sun damage.
Ira Goldman: That's true. And even if they're covered, I have one of the kit that has like a duffel bag with four life jackets on it. I keep it on my 16 foot runabout. But once a year, I get it out, make sure that no mold, mildew or anything else hasn't gotten into it because I haven't been looking at them. And part of the rules for any life jacket is you should keep them where they're easy to get to, not buried in a storage area where if something comes up, you're going to have difficulty to get them out. And in any event, like we said earlier, wearing them is always the best practice.
Paul Szmal: Another factor that comes into play this time of year is lower water levels. And that means, you know, a stump or something or other obstacles that might be fairly far underwater in the summer might not be now. So just something to think about when you go out.
Ira Goldman: That's true. And in addition, launch ramps are now further out a little bit and some launch ramps have a drop off at the end of the hard surface. And if you get your trailer in far enough so that the wheels drop off beyond that last edge, it can be very difficult to get the trailer up over that rim. Yeah, that's an important thing to remember. So just be careful because you get used to that full water depth in the summer and maybe it's a little bit different and you don't want to back your trailer in and have it go splash too far down and bring your truck with it.
Paul Szmal: Of course, we also, the risk of hypothermia goes up this time of year, so it's important to dress in layers and wear the right kind of clothing. For example, cotton absorbs moisture and if it's cold, it's not a good thing to have.
Ira Goldman: That's true. And of course, that's a strange conversation to have after the weekend we just all enjoyed. But indeed, things like cotton sweatshirts, blue jeans, when they get wet, they're cold. If you have a synthetic material or wool, even when it gets wet, it tends to retain warmth and some of the synthetics do a very good job of blocking out rain. So if a storm does come up while you're out boating, fishing, hunting, you're still pretty well protected and you stay warm and avoid the risk of hypothermia, which can, combined with other conditions, make things get very dangerous very quickly if your mind is distracted by the effect of hypothermia.
Paul Szmal: And actually, the good advice for any time of year is just to be prepared for changing conditions. You know, you go out on a day that's 80 degrees and sunny and the wind whips up and the rain hits or something, just be ready for those potential changes.
Let's talk about emergency communications and if you have trouble in a boat, because in the summer there's all kinds of other boat traffic around, pretty easy to wave somebody down. That might not be the case in the fall. So talk about on the smaller lakes and then also on Lake Ontario, what you should have in terms of communications ability.
Ira Goldman: Well, of course, on smaller Finger Lakes where the Sheriff's Marine Patrol is the primary assistance available, cell phone can be used and it's just like on land. You call 9-1-1, tell them what your emergency is and they will notify the Marine Patrol. Most cases in the Finger Lakes, it's the County Sheriff. Some cases it's, you know, fire departments. In a few cases, I think some of the local larger city police departments may have some capabilities to get on the water. But on Lake Ontario, it's a very different situation. If you're close to shore, 9-1-1 will probably work. But the problem is that then the dispatcher has to turn around and contact the Coast Guard, which is the primary response agency on Lake Ontario. So if you're on a larger body of water, you really need to have what's known as a Marine VHF radio. And they're relatively inexpensive these days. They're small, handheld ones are not a lot bigger than a cell phone. And they have the most up-to-date models over the last 10 years, digital calling, which means there's an emergency button that will transmit a distress call. And if you have a GPS built into the radio or connected from a GPS on your boat, it will transmit that position to the Coast Guard. So they can find you directly. They don't have to go out and search for where you are.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and again, those, like you say, those portable radios have come down in size and have come down in price over the years. It seems that we're talking with Ira Goldman, our boating safety expert. It seems like forever we've been talking about the phasing in of the safe boating certificates. The phase-in is over beginning next season. Everyone has to have one.
Ira Goldman: That's correct. This year, it was everyone born before or after January 1st, 1978. But the grace period is over in 2025. So everyone must have a safe boating certificate that indicates they have passed an approved boating safety class. It can be from another state, as long as it's approved by the National Association of Boating Law Administrators. That's a long title, goes by the acronym of NASBLA. And I believe all the states that do require a safe boating certificate all teach or have accepted the NASBLA course.
New York State has approved several online courses. And the way to find those is to go to the website for the New York State Parks and Recreation Department. The state, though, does recommend taking an in-person course. And that's because the instructor and other students from the local area can exchange information that's not included in the standard course. And so these three real sources for those courses. The state has a number of organizations and commercial organizations that teach the course. The Coast Guard Auxiliary teaches the America's Boating Course, and the America's Boating Club teach the America's Boating Course. So the way to find out where those are is the state courses. Again, you go to the New York State Parks and Recreation Department. In the case of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, you can find their dates and information at the Coast Guard Auxiliary website. And for America's Boating Club, you can find it at the America's Boating Club website. And in the local area, there are three quadrants that teach those courses. One is the Iroquois chapter, which is up toward Webster and Penfield. The Finger Lake chapter is in Geneva and Watkins Glen. And then there's an Ithaca chapter.
And one of the things to point out is the prices for these courses vary a little bit. If you look online, you'll see that most of them have a $30 to $35 price, whether they're in person or online. The exception is the BoatUS Foundation online course is completely free. But the thing to keep in mind also is for the online courses and the state courses, those course fees do not include the $20 that the state then charges to issue the card. If you take the America's Boating Club or the Coast Guard Auxiliary course, they provide the card that indicates you've passed the course, and it's included in the fee.
Paul Szmal: Oh, okay. By the way, we're going to, if everybody's trying to scramble and write down all these websites and everything, when we post this interview at FingerLakesDailyNews.com, I'll include all those links that Ira sent them for the America's Boating Club's course, and Finger Lakes Boating Museum's doing one, the Sheriff's Department's doing them as well, so we'll have all those links for you so you can get your card for next year.
Ira, thanks as always. We appreciate the information, and hope everybody has a good late season, and we'll talk again in the spring.
Ira Goldman: Thanks, Ted, and we look forward to talking to you in spring.
