Safety Gear I Keep On My Boat, US Coast Guard Required Gear for 16-26ft Recreational Boats.

good afternoon from the great state of Maine uh yeah I'm inside and I'm not fishing kind of sucks but uh it's spring it's raining it's also really windy so I thought today uh I would take you guys through the safety equipment that I keep on my boat um some of which is required by the Coast Guard and then things that I've just added over the years that I uh make me feel safe and that also unfortunately gets some use every now and then um this is you know a good refresher for me as I get my boat ready for the season I am doing my captain's license right now so it's stuff I gotta know and then also as you guys are kind of getting back into things taking your boats out making sure you have the right stuff uh and then maybe some ideas of things you'd like to keep on your vessel to make it a little bit safer so I'll run you through the Coast Guard stuff first um it's for the 16 to 26 foot Class of vessel I have a 23 foot Mako um and it's a non-commercial so I'm not a charter boat captain and I do not commercial tuna fish so those guys are required to have more stuff this is just what I have to have um first is personal flotation devices life jackets light vests whatever you want to call them you're required to have one for every person on board uh so I just keep six adults I don't ever put more than six people in my boat uh and then you are required to have a child and infant size if you are going to have children and infants so I keep I keep four of these um keep them tucked away knock on wood I haven't had to use them yet the second thing the Coast Guard requires you to have fire extinguisher probably a no-brainer boats run on gas make sure that it's up to date uh two years ago I realized mine was out of code so I'd buy a new one but yeah make sure you got one I think the marine grade ones are what you're looking for and they work just fine the third thing I don't actually have here because it never leaves my boat uh it's a throwable flotation device uh so like the Rings and stuff you hocket people uh you can use a little seat cushion that's what I have with the handles just something you can Chuck somebody goes in the water they can float apologies for not having here but like I said it never leaves my boat uh the fourth thing the Coast Guard requires you to have is a way to make a lot of sound I use an air horn you can have a whistle bull horn whatever um I test this every year it does still work even though it's ancient but yeah pick up an air horn that'll do you and then the fifth and final thing is uh flares or hand flares I'm pretty sure you have to have a flare gun so I actually have two of these um they do expire eventually so make sure yours are up to date um and yeah keep them on your boat keep them dry most of this stuff sits in a box directly under the center console where I can access it and everybody up front can grab it uh in a pinch that's it for the Coast Guard stuff uh for my personal stuff um I guess I'll start with the most serious which is uh survival suits um I mentioned earlier the commercial guys in the tuna guys I think they're required to have them but uh in Maine and in the Northeast you know a third if not half of the year the water will kill you pretty fast I think we're low 40s right now so hypothermia will kick in in 15 to 20 minutes if you're 25 miles offshore unless Coast Guard knows right where you are and they are real quick they're not going to get to you before hypothermia kills you so something that I keep on my boat till probably mid-july and that's just inshore anytime I go offshore I throw these even if I'm in September and the water could be in you know the mid 60s so it's a good thing to have they are a bit of an investment I think they do expire eventually um and then if you're going to buy them practice putting them on they're a little tricky there's a specific way you do it um a lot of the guys that I take offshore with me often have drilled with these um and like you said you never want to use one this is you know worst case scenario worst day of your life type crap but if it saves your life it's worth it um another safety thing I keep a backup radio on my boat boat battery dies something happens you gotta ditch uh this guy stays in the box with all this other stuff and we can just grab it and go and then the final Communications thing uh is my Garmin inreach I've talked about this before in some of my ice fishing videos well worth the investment I recently started using it for weather I've always used it to send text messages from offshore um and it's just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that uh you know even in the worst case scenario somebody come find you um with this bad guy so the other two strictly safety uh and emergency things um this throw rope I've talked about this in ice fishing Steve uh my buddy was a rafting guide recommended this uh and I haven't had to use it on the boat thank God but um if somebody's stuck in a Riptide somebody's too close to the Rocks you can't get in there to get them uh you know that that tossable rotation device is nice but if you throw them this line you can pull them out of there so I keep this on my boat right where I can get to it quick uh and then the final safety thing uh is my first aid kit um it started out as a my medic just the basic one that they offer and I've modified it quite a bit um unfortunately through trial and error over the years um I'm gonna do a separate video on this uh just because I a couple people have asked what I keep in here and what I've used the most so I won't talk about that now but yeah first aid kit should have it um two more things that I keep a set of goggles um you know water's warm enough you jump in swim around but you know somebody drops their keys overboard if it's shallow enough you can go down and get them uh and you're only going to get them if you can see so this is an old pair of mine from scuba diving that I just keep on the boat I've used them a few times for fun never really had to use them to recover anything um and then a pair of binoculars uh being able to identify stuff before you get to it uh you know Scout around for places whatever you want looking at Birds uh they're neat and good to have for both fun and safety and then the final thing which should be a no-brainer uh is some bottles of water and some sunscreen I keep these in this kit bag you'd be surprised how many times grown adults get on the boat and forget to bring water or they only bring beer or they run out of sunscreen and it can make for a really rough day and it can put you in a rough rough situation uh if you do wind up in emergency and you're unable to hydrate and protect yourself from the Sun um that's pretty much it guys like I said most of this stuff isn't required by the Coast Guard just the stuff that I mentioned hopefully you found this video educational um it was a good refresher for me to make sure that I had everything that I I like keeping and that all my Coast Guard stuff wasn't you know up to date and not expired um I will be getting out later this week if not offshore than to do some trolling on Sebago and make a video hopefully catching some salmon or maybe even some tog um if you like the content like And subscribe uh people are talking about the baits already in and the schoolies are going to be showing up soon so I think they're around in the cape this week so we'll be getting into the striper fishing real soon but uh thanks for watching have a good week thank you [Music]

Channel: Capt. Brian Boyt

Views: 1,411

Keywords: safety gear, coast guard gear, coast guard safety gear, boat safety gear, life vests, survival suites, required safety gear, garmin in reach, life saving gear, safety gear for boat, fishing safety gear, uscg safety gear, safety inspection gear, things you need to keep on a boat, safety gear for your small boat, 16 to 26 ft fishing boat gear, flairs, first aid kit for fishing, PFDs, what safety gear do i need on my boat, how many life jackets do i need on my boat, my medic, USCG

Id: sHVW3zQ9I4Q

Length: 7min 28sec (448 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2023