USCG Auxiliary aims to make boating safer

Today brings 1992 to a close.

Many of us will make traditional New Year’s resolutions: eat better, exercise more, reduce stress, and worry less.

The smarter among us keep those resolutions to ourselves. That way, only we know if they’ve been broken.

A different idea for a New Year’s resolution came to me the other day from a friend who heads the local unit of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Win Stevens of Bangor is Division vice captain of Flotilla 102 under Captain Charles Foote of Rockland. Win wondered if I would be interested in some information on his group. I said, sure, I’ll take a look at it. Put it in the mail.

The material proved to be informative and interesting. Especially so, I thought, for the thousands of Mainers who pursue the recreational sport of boating.

I checked with the Licensing Division of the Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department and learned that 111,000 motorized watercraft were registered in 1991-92.

That number, I was told, does not include the thousands of canoes, sailboats, and kayaks, etc., that Mainers use on their lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and ocean.

So what does Flotilla 102 of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary have to do with a New Year’s resolution? Just this.

Perhaps some of those 111,000 owners of motorized craft could resolve to become better, safer boaters by taking advantage of a public education course offered by Flotilla 102 in 1993.

Flotilla 102 will offer an ongoing course in boater safety starting Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. at Bangor High School. There is no charge for the course other than materials, which are sold at a nominal cost.

The course teaches boat handling, weather, radio communications, boat mechanics, trailering, navigation, sailing, and legal and safety requirements.

There is an added bonus: completion of the course may result in lower insurance premiums for the boater.

Stevens informed me the Coast Guard Auxiliary is made up of all volunteers.

Flotilla 102, he said, is composed of boaters and boating enthusiasts in the Bangor-Brewer area, with most of the boating activity being on the Penobscot River and the north end of Penobscot Bay.

Its primary activities are public education and assistance to boaters in the form of patrolling. The group performs safety patrols for such events as the Hampden Speed Boat Races on the Fourth of July weekend, at various lobster boat races in Stonington, Vinalhaven, Jonesport, and other coastal towns, and of the Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay.

The third function of Flotilla 102 should be of even greater interest to boaters concerned not only with their own safety, but that of family and friends who use their boats.

That function is courtesy marine examinations.

Stevens explained any boater may, without charge or obligation, request his or her boat be inspected by a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary who is qualified as a marine examiner.

The inspection would reveal whether the boat is seaworthy and complies with all federal safety requirements such as fire extinguishers, life preservers, and flares. There is no penalty for failing to pass, and the Auxiliary has no law-enforcement powers. This service is geared to the group’s overall goal, which is prevention of boating mishaps and accidents.

Happy New Year, and safe boating in ’93.