Following the right safety measures to prevent falling overboard a boat will go a long way in making sure that a boat trip is successful.
Some of the safety measures to prevent man overboard situations include giving good traction to boat edge and floor, avoid standing when boat is moving and also avoid taking drinks with high alcoholic content.
Following these safety measures will help make a boat trip a success.
Defaulting in any of them may make the journey an unpleasant one.
That is why you have to follow safety measures well anytime you are boarding a boat.
Safety Measure To Prevent Man Overboard Situation
1) Reduce Alcohol Intake Before Boarding a Boat
When it comes to falling overboard a boat, one of the reasons is always linked to a high alcohol consumption.
In some cases, the victim consumes the alcohol before boarding the boat due to the fact that some boat operators do not allow alcohol in their boat.
This is in order to protect their passengers from harm.
But in some cases, some passengers may come into the boat being tipsy as they have already consumed alcohol before entering the boat.
This makes the passenger that is tipsy unbalanced a lot of times.
This is due to the reaction of the alcoholic content in their body.
They may experience a shaky hand or a shaky leg.
This makes the person unbalanced when they stand or walk around the boat.
In worse cases as it happens, they fall off the boat when they are too close to the edge of the boat.
This is why a high intake of alcohol should be avoided before boarding a boat.
2) Boat Edges Should Have Good Traction
Another great safety measures to prevent falling overboard a boat is to make sure that the edges of the boat have good traction.
This will prevent the easy slip of someone when holding the edge of the boat.
Some of the man overboard issues are always due to a slippery edge of a boat.
Due to that, people easily fall from the boat into the water.
But when the edge of a boat has a good traction, this is easily avoided.
Some of the products you can use to achieve a good traction on your boat edge is seadek textured sheet.
This will help give a good traction to the edge of your boat.
Doing this protects your boat passengers from harm of falling off the boat.
Also the seadek sheet beautifies and improves the aesthetics of your boat greatly.
3) Boat Floors Should Have Good Traction
Apart from the advantage a boat edge with a good traction has, the boat floor plays a role too when it comes to safety measures to prevent man overboard situations.
This is because some of the man overboard cases that are seen is as a result of someone falling.
This is due to the slippery boat floor.
It is even worse when there is water or grease on the boat floor.
But when you are using a good material that gives traction to the boat floor, a man overboard situation is reduced.
This is why it is also very important for you to improve on the traction of your boat floor.
One of the ways you can achieve this is by making use of a material that offers a good traction on the boat floor.
Seadek perform flawlessly in this aspect too.
4) Standing While Boat Is Moving Should Be Avoided
Some people have the habit of standing when a boat is moving.
This is bad and should be avoided.
It is even worse when the boat is moving at a high speed.
This can cause a passenger in the boat to fall easily.
When a boat is in motion, the passengers should make sure that they are well seated to avoid cases of man overboard.
5) Alcohol Intake In The Boat Should Be Reduced
In some states, passengers are allowed to take alcohol in a boat.
But this is restricted to some percentage of alcohol.
But in other states, passengers are not allowed to consume anything that has an alcoholic content above 1%.
Even if you are in a place where alcohol consumption is allowed while having a boat trip, it is usually wise and safety conscious to avoid taking it while you are in the boat.
This will help you function well and not act under the influence of alcohol.
This helps in preventing man overboard situations.
6) Boat Should Be In Good Performance
Another safety measure to prevent falling overboard a boat is to make sure that the boat is in a good condition mechanically.
If the boat is faulty in any way, this could lead to a lot of casualties.
One of such is seen when a boat motor catches fire while a boat is driving.
In some of the cases, the fire is quenched without causing more harm to the boat and passengers.
But there are some mechanical or electrical faults that when they occur, they destroy the boat.
In such a case, the passengers dive into the water to protect themselves from being burnt by the fire.
This is always a bad experience.
That is why things like fire extinguishers should be carried in adequate quantity.
Also, life jackets should always be carried in a quantity that is enough for all the people in the boat.
7) Do Not Expose Extra Fuel Container To Direct Sunlight
In a lot of the times, extra volume of fuel is always carried along when boating.
This is always to avoid the situation of running out of fuel when you are travelling across a long distance with a boat that has a small fuel tank.
But when the extra fuel is being carried along, you must make sure that the extra fuel is safely kept.
In keeping it, it should not be exposed to direct sun light rays.
This is bad and could lead to casualties that cause a man overboard situation.
To prevent a man overboard situation, you need to make sure that you keep the extra fuel in a cool area that is free from direct sun rays.
8) Always Carry Adequate Fire Extinguisher
In some of the cases, what causes a man overboard incidence in a boat is when there is a fire outbreak.
When the severity of the fire gets too much and consumes the boat in a very bad way, people onboard the boat are forced to jump into the water.
This is to avoid being consumed by the burning boat.
In some cases the fire would have been quenched if there was enough fire extinguisher.
But when there is no fire extinguisher to combat the fire, the boat burns badly.
That is why it is always very important to make sure that things like a fire extinguisher and a life jacket are adequately carried in a boat.
This is one of the safety measures to prevent falling overboard due to a fire incidence in a boat.
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