On-Water Training

2017 was an exciting year for the BoatUS On-Water training program in which we successfully conducted four pilot events at various east coast venues including; Miami, Sarasota, Charleston, and Prince William, VA. We also established a key partnership with Freedom Boat Club, which gave us access to clean, reliable, and modern boats, coupled with professional, experienced training captains.

Utilizing the data that we had gathered in 2016, we deployed our team to the Miami International Boat Show and partnered with Discover Boating to produce the On-Water Training Program. We learned a great deal from this experience and gathered valuable data through student surveys. We also conducted two pilot events with Freedom Boat Club that were extremely successful. The third model we tested was at a Dealer/Marina facility. This again proved to be successful and we came away with a lot of great feedback and areas for efficiency gains.

While we were conducting these pilot events, we were continually making improvements and refinements to our processes. We had a number of hurdles to overcome and challenges to solve. Through our internal team and partner organizations, we were able to establish a program that is both self-sustaining, and viable at a national level. We are looking forward to 2018 and the challenge of expanding the program to 15 events.

Foundation Findings

Distracted Boating

Over the last few years, distracted boating has been identified as a contributing factor leading to a boating accident. In order to better understand the issue, and how to effectively educate boaters on the importance of maintaining a proper look-out, the Foundation teamed up with the National Safe Boating Council to measure brain waves of volunteer boat operators and record what they were seeing. Foundation staff also took note of how the operators reacted to their on-water stimulus such as passing other boats, observing changes in the weather and navigating around obstacles. By using a special headset that measured brain activity, we could determine a baseline level of concentration. After the initial observations, volunteers were introduced to a technique called SCAN, an acronym for Search, Concentrate, Analyze and Negotiate, and paced the volunteers behind the wheel again. Results were measurable, and they were astounding. New boaters benefitted the most, but even the most experienced operators in our study showed improvement, demonstrating that a regular and routine “SCAN” improves situational awareness, and therefore on-water safety for all who share our waterways.

2016 Financials