Children on the deck
When you are boating with your children, you should read some safety tips first
Having a boat trip with your family is a great way to relax and spend your free time. Beside the boating experience itself, children can have a lot of fun and they can be assigned with different tasks. This way they will learn the responsibility concept and it also has an educational purpose in general.
Before leaving on your trip, it’s crucial to establish some safety boating rules for your children, in order to avoid accidents and injuries. There are also some features that your boat should have if you want to take your kids on your boat:
- Kids are getting tire easily, so consider a boat with a cabin. Runabouts, bow riders and deck boats, even some center console fishing boats are sometimes equipped with a small cabin to offer refuge for kids if they want to rest, take a nap or if they want to stay away from the hot sun.
- Buy your kids special life jackets with a collar that turns a child face up in the water. It must have strong waist and crotch straps, a handle on the collar, and it should be a bright yellow or orange color for good visibility.
- Attach a plastic safety whistle to your child’s life jacket and let him or her to practice and use it before leaving.
- Be sure to apply sunscreen and bug repellent on your kid’s skin to avoid sun burns and bug bites. Sunscreen must be applied from time to time, especially if they enter in the water.
- Your first aid kit must have waterproof band-aids and a pair of surgical tweezers for pulling splinters. You should also have vinegar and a pair of gloves in case you’ll need to treat jellyfish stings.
- Let them pick some of their favourite toys on board so they won’t get bored.
Now that everyone is safe, enjoy your trip!
