ATTENTION NEWS AND ASSIGNMENT EDITORS:

Following is information on North American Safe Boating Awareness Week, May 22nd to the 28th, 2010. To help increase awareness of Safe Boating Awareness Week, on May 20, 2010 at 11 AM EDT, boating safety educators, marine enforcement officials, politicians, media and the general public will gather to establish a World’s Record Inflatable Life Jacket Inflation. At one single moment across North America, all participants will inflate their inflatable life jackets and record their individual events to prove the size of the initiative and set the bench mark for future year attempts. The purpose of this event is to raise public awareness of the new styles of lifejackets, both inflatable and inherently buoyant, and about general boating safety practices. For many of the local inflations, government buildings will be used as venues. i.e., the steps of a provincial legislature, a city hall, etc. More information on this inflation event can be found at www.smartboater.com or www.readysetinflate.com

These types of messages are important to increase awareness and keep boaters across Canada safe. There is no better place to talk to local boaters than through their community newspaper, but of course you already know that. Our website www.csbc.ca has lots of facts and figures as well as stories and articles for your use. Here is what we have available.

CONTENT: a range of long and short articles suitable for preparing a special North American Safe Boating Awareness Week newspaper supplement

BOATING FACTS: backgrounders on boating and drowning statistics

PSA ADS: in colour and black and white.

LOCAL EXPERTS: volunteer boating safety specialists ready to help put a local spin on your stories. All you have to do is call us for your local contact

ATTENTION SALES / MARKETING DEPARTMENT:

We have numerous, ready to use safe boating stories available for use in your use to create a spring boating supplement. We are certain that local marinas and boating retailers will embrace this opportunity to be part of a feature that talks directly to their market, just in advance of boating season. We have sample supplements and numerous ready to use stories to assist you with this goal of raising funds for your newspaper. Everything can be found at www.csbc.ca

Choose whichever material best suits you, or use all of it. The CSBC encourages you to utilize these materials and:

• Publish a supplement with the support of your community’s marine businesses and retailers
• Run the articles and PSA ads before Safe Boating Awareness Week commencing May 22 and continue the theme throughout the summer

We appreciate your help to get the North American Safe Boating Awareness Week message out through your newspaper to the Canadian public. . You could very well help save a life.

Information, documents and graphics are available in electronic format for downloading from the Canadian Safe Boating Council’s Web site www.csbc.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HELP SAVE CANADIANS’ LIVES THIS SUMMER

Toronto, ON, -- North American Safe Boating Awareness Week will take place across Canada from May 22nd to May 28th, 2010. The purpose of this initiative is to promote safe boating practices to the estimated 16 million recreational boaters in Canada.

To help increase awareness of Safe Boating Awareness Week, on May 20, 2010 at 11 AM EDT, boating safety educators, marine enforcement officials, politicians, media and the general public will gather to establish a World’s Record Inflatable Life Jacket Inflation. At one single moment across North America, all participants will inflate their inflatable life jackets and record their individual events to prove the size of the initiative and set the bench mark for future year attempts. The purpose of this event is to raise public awareness of the new styles of lifejackets, both inflatable and inherently buoyant, and about general boating safety practices. For many of the local inflations, government buildings will be used as venues. i.e., the steps of a provincial legislature, a city hall, etc.

This year we have five main focuses:

• educating the boating community about the importance of life jacket wear and the options that are available when it comes to comfortable and lightweight jackets
• the dangers associated with drinking and boating
• the importance of taking a safe boating course
• ensuring that your vessel is safe and seaworthy
• the risks associated with a fall into cold water

This initiative is promoted by the Canadian Safe Boating Council (CSBC), a non-profit organization and its members and partners from all areas of the marine community including boat and marine product manufacturers, boating education organizations, water safety and marine law enforcement sectors, Transport Canada Office of Boating Safety and the BC Marine Trades Association. The goal is to ensure that the millions of Canadians who head out on the waters in canoes and kayaks, sailboards and sailboats, fishing boats, personal watercraft, power boats and cruisers are equipped with the knowledge for a safe day on the water.

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For further information and details contact:

Susanne Simic, Simic Public Relations for the Canadian Safe Boating Council
Tel: (416) 622-3358 Susanne.simic@sympatico.ca

OR

Ted Rankine, Manager, North American Safe Boating Awareness Week, Canadian Safe Boating Council
Tel: (905) 989-0664 tedrankine@rogers.com 

Wear It !

“It happened so quickly. One minute you’re having the most fun of your life, the next minute you’re struggling for your life.”

That was Dave Kimpinski’s comment after nearly drowning in a boating accident. Dave and his young son, Curtis, were pulling Dave’s niece Amanda on an inflatable tube with their small outboard powered boat.

They hit a large wake from another boat and Dave leaned across to prevent his son Curtis from falling in but instead went overboard himself.

Dave wasn’t a swimmer, and he wasn’t wearing a lifejacket. The boat started to make lazy circles while Curtis cried out for his dad.

Amanda saw her uncle struggling to stay afloat and left the tube and began to swim after him.

Fortunately, Amanda was prepared for the water and was wearing a lifejacket. She reached her uncle and Dave grabbed on to her.

Curtis, meanwhile, pulled the safety lanyard on the motor just like he’d seen his dad do and the boat stopped moving.

Amanda’s lifejacket kept both of them afloat and they were able to get back to their boat and climb aboard.

Dave was lucky! He was lucky that his little boy managed to stop their boat, but he was even luckier that Amanda was wearing a lifejacket and was able to help him.

Because of his near tragedy, Dave Kimpinksi will tell you he is a much wiser, safer boater today.

None of us can predict when potential disaster might strike. Dave Kimpinski knows that firsthand. A fun day of tubing nearly turned deadly because he decided not to wear a lifejacket.

For years, the Canadian Safe Boating Council has been urging boaters to take the necessary precautions and always wear a lifejacket on the water.

Often, boaters will proudly tell boating safety officials that they always have their lifejackets on board their boats, just like the law demands.

The CSBC applauds this but reminds those boaters that a lifejacket isn’t intended to save the life of the boat. It’s meant to save the life of the human being on the boat!

So if you fall in the water without your lifejacket on your body, that fine sense of pride in having lifejackets on board won’t help keep you floating. The CSBC urges you that when you go boating this season, don’t just carry your lifejacket aboard your boat, Wear It!

Chilling Facts of Cold Water

Hypothermia. Say it out loud and it’s an unpleasant sounding word.

But it has a simple meaning. It’s when the core of your body drops to abnormally low body temperatures and if it goes too low and for too long eventually your heart can stop.

Many Canadian boaters are aware of hypothermia but most are not aware that it is the ‘final stage’ your body reaches after being in cold water. Many people die during the first few minutes of immersion in cold water and they are not hypothermic, they simply drown due to the immediate, involuntary and often deadly effects of cold water.

If you accidentally tumble into cold water, the initial cold shock will make you gasp and if you are underwater you can breath in about a litre of water. If you are on the surface, your heart rate can skyrocket, your breathing will be uncontrolled and increase as much 600 to 1000 percent. You can expect panic to set in as well. For most, this initial shock will last about a minute and then the breathing will slowly come back under control.

Depending on the water temperature, over the next ten minutes or so you will experience Cold Incapacitation. As your body struggles to preserve its core temperature your limbs will become numb and your ability to self rescue or even simply continue to swim will become impaired. In cold water without a lifejacket, you will eventually become so incapacitated that you can no longer stay afloat.

If you do have a lifejacket on and have not been able to rescue yourself, even in the coldest water, you can expect to be conscious for about an hour and it will still be some time before you succumb to hypothermia. This will give rescuers plenty of additional time to find and rescue you.

There is one simple preventative measure that anyone can take to avoid drowning in cold water and to keep you floating if you become hypothermic. Wear your lifejacket. It guarantees that you will float, especially in those first critical minutes when just trying to catch your breath and figure out how to rescue yourself.

If you Drink, Don’t Drive

When the Canadian Safe Boating Council speaks to Canadian boaters each year about the dangers of drinking and boating, there is no gentle way to do it.

The motto on the road is “if you drink, don’t drive”. It’s the same on the water. And so are the laws.

First and foremost, a boat is a vessel in the same way a car is a vehicle under the Highway Traffic Acts in all provinces and territories in this country. If you are convicted in Canada of driving a vehicle under the influence, you lose your licence. In many parts of Canada, the same thing applies if you are under the influence in a boat. And you might lose your car driver’s license too.

Canadian studies show that, in nearly 40% of boating deaths, alcohol was detected or suspected and 23% of victims were above the legal limit.

The effects of sunshine and a boat’s rocking motion increase the effects of alcohol and, for a boater, a simple ride can turn into a dangerous dunking. A big wave, a quick change in the boat’s direction, or a ‘tippy canoe’ can result in someone in the water.

Psychologists know that human nature has a way of rationalizing. “It can’t possibly happen to me” is often the thought. Whether that means “I’ll never be caught” or “I’ll never be killed” doesn’t matter.

Neither of those things will happen if boaters stick to just boating on the water. Afterward, you can have a few drinks on shore and then stay put.

It’s that simple - If you drink, don’t drive.

Take a Boating Skills Course

Nine years ago, a law was passed in Canada requiring that operators of powered recreational boats have a basic level of boating knowledge. Providers developed courses and tests and a proof of competency “card” was issued to those who successfully completed the test.

Called the Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card or PCOC, it is a first step towards acquiring the skills and know-how to safely operate a motorized vessel in Canadian waters.

The requirement to have a PCOC has been phased in over the past years and the final milestone is only one year away. By Sept 2009 everyone operating a powered recreational vessel will need one and based on the results so far, the rush for all those remaining to obtain theirs is expected to be overwhelming.

However, keep in mind that the PCOC is just a first step in boating education. This ‘legal minimum’ doesn’t even cover non-motorized craft such as sail, canoes, kayaks or even any passengers in any boats. To truly enjoy the boating experience, all boaters need boating safety education .

The Canadian Safe Boating Council wants every boater to be as safe as possible on the water. The more knowledge you have, the safer you and your family are.

The PCOC is a great first step but don’t stop there. Organizations like the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons, local sailing schools and paddling organizations offer boating courses. Give them a call or look them up on the internet at www.cps-ecp.ca

The more knowledge you have, the more enjoyable boating becomes.

Be Prepared

It’s a beautiful day; the sun is shining and you’ve just launched your boat for the start of another season on the water. And the thoughts of that tough winter just past are quickly forgotten. Everyone’s on board, excited about the day ahead, so off you go.

The day unfolds as you had hoped it would. Until a problem leaves you dead in the water.

It could be that you’ve run out of gas or you’ve had a mechanical breakdown of some kind. What to do? Likely what you did not do is check your boat thoroughly before heading out. And unfortunately, you are not alone.

Scott Miller, a Maritime Search and Rescue Coordinator with the Canadian Coast Guard says: “75 to 80% of calls for help to the Coast Guard are non-distress calls; the most common ones deal with boats that have broken down, run aground or have just run out of gas which is far and away the most common call to the Coast Guard.”

Mechanical failures can strike any boater, any time. That’s just part of boating. And it’s not necessarily an indication that the boater has simply failed to properly look after the boat. Stuff happens !

But many calls for help are predictable and preventable. Have a proper check list for your boat and follow it before you head out, each and every time. Make sure that your boat is mechanically sound and that you have enough gas for your intended voyage with some in reserve. And file a sail plan or itinerary to help Search and Rescue find you in the event of a real emergency. A few simple steps will save you the embarrassment of making an unnecessary call for help and diverting search and rescue resources from areas where they might be needed more.

Review your check list BEFORE your leave – Be Prepared