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Summer BoatingCOMMONSENSE SEAMANSHIP IS
KEY TO ACCIDENT-FREE FUN
While a traditional license is not required to operate a boat, anyone
under the age of 30 who operates a vessel with at least a 10-horsepower
motor is required to take a boating safety course. On request by law
enforcement, an operator must prove compliance by age or course
certification.
Certification courses typically carry a nominal fee and
are offered across the area by the North Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission, local branches of the U.S. Coast
Guard Auxiliary, and the Cape Fear Sail and Power
Squadron.
The Cape Fear Sail and Power Squadron is a unit
of the United States Power Squadron, a nonprofit
dedicated to boating safety and education. It offers
courses that help beginners transition from landlub-ber
to mariner by teaching things like who should
stand on and who should give way — and what
those terms even mean.
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 10-01,
based in Wrightsville Beach, offers a daylong, in-depth
course that covers everything needed to safely
enjoy the waters. Experienced Auxiliary members
instruct on basic boat knowledge, navigation, rules of
the road, trailering your boat, how to handle crowded
boat ramps, what to do before getting under way, legal
requirements, and how to approach emergencies.
Auxiliary instructor Elias “Lou” Ashey, a retired captain
and marine architect, gives students the definitions of the colorful
maritime terminology. The bow is the boat’s front, the stern is the
rear, also called aft, which is also where you find the transom. The gun-wale
(pronounced gunnel) is the upper edge of the vessel’s side. A cleat is a
metal fitting on which a line (not a rope) can be fastened. The hull is the main
body of the boat, the beam is its widest point.
“Boating and sailing have their own nomenclature,” Ashey says.
A boat’s freeboard is the distance from its gunwales to the water. Boats with low freeboard
are easily boarded but easily swamped. The boat’s draft, the measurement from waterline to
the lowest point on the boat, is important to know in areas like ours with a lot of shallow
water. Starboard means right and port means left.
On larger boats, you may cook in the galley and go below to use the head. You sleep on
the berth in your stateroom, but please don’t tell someone you are going upstairs. No, that’s
topside!
You may hear someone state proudly that they can drive a boat. Wrong. Boats are skip-pered.
They can be run. They can be operated. But not driven.
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