Please be safe while boating or riding personal watercraft!
Boating tips
- Wear your life jacket.
- Attach a Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (PEPIRB) to your life jacket.
- Take a boating safety course.
- Get a vessel safety inspection.
- Install a GPS system.
- Install a VHS radio – cell phones only work so far offshore.
- Keep flares on board.
- In a crisis, stay with the boat.
- Have enough rope to anchor in rough seas – seven feet for every foot of depth.
- Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
- Obey speed limits in manatee zones.
- Stay in designated channels to avoid causing propeller scars in seagrass beds.
- Don’t drink and boat.
Personal watercraft tips:
- Life jackets are required whether driving, riding on or being towed behind a personal watercraft.
- Do not operate a personal watercraft from a half hour after sunset to a half hour before sunrise.
- Operators must be at least 14 years old.
- A person must be at least 18 years old to rent a personal watercraft.
- Operators born on or after Jan. 1, 1988 are required to have completed a National Association of State Boating Law Administrators-approved boating education course and have a boating education ID card and photo ID to operate a vessel with a 10 horsepower motor or higher.
Related coverage
LifeLines: Do the stingray shuffle
LifeLines: Stay calm in a rip current
LifeLines: Diving and snorkeling
LifeLines: Pack your beach bag
LifeLines: Crack the beach flag code
