5 Tips For Safely Boating at Night

Being out on your boat at night can be a peaceful or even romantic experience. There's not much better than enjoying a moonlit dinner on the water with someone you love, or even just floating around and gazing up at the stars. However, if you're going to do so, there are certain safety precautions that are especially important when you're boating after the sun has gone down, and we've compiled some of them for your convenience. For more boat-related information, come pay us a visit at our Waterford, Michigan location, also serving Rochester, Michigan.

1. Trust Your Instruments

When you're boating in the dark, you can't always trust your eyes to keep you safe. Instead of relying on what you think you see, put that trust in your navigation instruments, instead. In almost every case, your chart-plotter is going to be more accurate than your night vision, so try not to second guess it.

2. Go Slow

Caution should always be paramount on a boat, but that goes double for nighttime boating. In the dark, obstacles will be more difficult to see, distance becomes harder to measure, and your overall visibility is reduced. To give yourself the most possible time to safely navigate and react, keep your speed lower than you normally would during the daytime.

3. Keep Your Ears Open

Generally speaking, your hearing will be more reliable in the dark than your vision. Keep noise onboard your boat to a minimum, and always listen for things like horns or other nearby boats in the water. This could give you the extra time that you need to react to something safely.

4. No Headlights or Spotlights

On the water at night, if you have your bright headlights on, the reflectiveness of the water will just render them useless, or even turn them into a hazard. Just keep them turned off, and only use them when arriving at your destination, whether it be a dock or another boat, to help you see needed details.

5. Divide the Lookout Duties

Instead of having one person responsible for steering, monitoring the gages, and watching the chart-plotter, split these duties up among two or three people. This way, you won't have someone at risk for making a crucial error because they're attempting to multitask.

Remember, the water may seem calm and peaceful in the evening, but don't let it fool you. It can indeed be serene, but it can also be much more dangerous than many people realize, so always put safety first. To learn more, come see us at Club Royale in Waterford, Michigan. We also serve Rochester.