Say NO to bow riding

Captains,

This is a worthwhile cause. Let your fellow boater know that bow riding is dangerous.

RADM W

Coast Guard starts new boating safety operation

PORTSMOUTH, Va. – The Coast Guard is scheduled to begin an effort to improve boating safety in the 5th District beginning Sunday, to increase awareness of the dangers associated with bow riding and negligent operation, and ending in September.

In 2008, there were 65 boating fatalities recorded in the 5th District with 20 percent of the fatalities being directly linked to bow riding. These statistics do not include the injuries incurred while bow riding.

“You wouldn’t allow your kids to sit of the hood of your car, so why would you allow them to sit on the bow of your boat?” said Rear Adm. Dean Lee, 5th District commander.

The Coast Guard is urging the boating public to think twice before allowing their friends and family members to carelessly bow ride.

Sad day for winter boaters in VA and NY

Captains,

Weather, navigational safety, lifejackets, or a multitude of other factors could have contributed to these incidents. In any case the water temperature this time of year greatly reduces the survival and viable search time.

In this his is a picture, football player Nick Schuyler is being rescued in a similar incident last year off the Florida Gulf Coast, but his two NFL companions were not found.

RDML W

PORTSMOUTH, Va. – Coast Guard crews suspended their search for two missing men on the York River at 6:24 p.m. Thursday.

Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads watchstanders began coordinating the multi-agency search after a James City County 911 dispatcher notified them of a report of two overdue boaters at 9:56 a.m.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew located the men’s 23-foot Sea Ox overturned at about 11 a.m., across the river from Poropotank Bay, about eight miles downriver from West Point.

NEW YORK – The Coast Guard has suspended its search for two missing people after a vessel allegedly capsized in the Rockaways near Queens, N.Y., today around 10 a.m.

“The Coast Guard has suspended its search after searching an area of seven-and-a-half-square miles, or all of lower Jamaica Bay,” said Chief Michael Kramer, a watchstander at Coast Guard Sector New York. The search was suspended at 6 p.m. pending further developments.

Students at Beach Channel High School contacted authorities after reportedly watching a vessel capsize in Jamaica Bay with two people onboard.