I hope that all of you are now enjoying a safe and happy boating season. Recently there have been a number of minor changes to the Small Vessel Regulations and I have given a brief description of them below:

Stand up Paddle Boards will now be added to the list of Recreational Vessels and will be subject to the same safety equipment requirements as Paddleboards, Watercycles, Sealed-Hull and Sit-On-Top Kayaks.

They are required to carry*:

*If everyone on board is wearing a lifejacket or PFD of appropriate size they are only required to carry a sound signaling device (whistle attached to their PFD) and a watertight flashlight if the vessel is used after sunset or before sunrise.

The obvious aim of this exception is to have all those using these types of vessels wear their lifejackets or PFDs.

The other change that now affects safety equipment requirements relates to the number of required flares. Here is a list by vessel length of the current and new changes:

Vessels no more than 6 meters in length:

Vessels more than 6 meters up to not more than 9 meters in length:

 *Exception: At least three flares, not more than one of which is a smoke signal if there is also a means of two way electronic communications on board.

Vessels more than 9 meters in length:

*Exception: At least six flares, not more than two of which is a smoke signal if there is also a

 means of two way electronic communications on board.

Human Powered Craft more than 6 meters:

 *Exception; At least three flares, not more than one of which is a smoke signal if there is

  also a means of two way electronic communications on board.

Personal Watercraft:

Note: Flares are not required for a vessel that is operating on a river, canal or lake on which it can be no more than 1 nautical mile (1.85 km) from shore or has no sleeping quarters and is engaged in official competition or in preparation for an official competition.

There is also a minor change to the Pleasure Craft License requirement. This is the license for the boat, not the operator. The amendment would clarify that an update to a license would not extend the expiry date of a Pleasure Craft License by an additional 10 years.

On the renewal of Pleasure Craft Licenses, which are currently good for 10 years and for which there is currently no charge to renew the license, I strongly suspect that within the next few years there will a change to a 3 to 5 year renewal period and a renewal fee will be introduced so users will help to pay for the vessel licensing program.

On a regulatory education note, this week I was talking with Graham Ketcheson, Executive Director of Paddle Canada, and he told me the following story:

“A Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) paddler recently contacted us for more clarification. He was fined $250 for not having his PFD with him on Lake Erie. He had assumed that if paddling close to shore, he was not a vessel navigating and therefore not subject to any boating laws.

 

Lots more education to be done!”

Graham makes an excellent point and the example that he describes is very reflective of other examples that we all hear of on a daily basis.

 

Keep the faith, spread the word and help all boaters to enjoy happy and safe boating adventures.

 

John Gullick

CSBC Chair

Many thanks to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario for their support in including the CSBC in their Provincial Donation Box Program this year. The program, whereby customers can drop their loose change in boxes on the cashiers' counters, is designed to help charities and social programs such as ours. CSBC participation ran from April 29 - May 26, and the LCBO recently advised that CSBC garnered just shy of $14,000. A big thank you to all who donated – your contributions will help make our waterways safer for everyone.

For nearly three decades, the Canadian Safe Boating Council has been in the business of promoting safe and responsible boating throughout Canada. The CSBC and partner organizations have worked to decrease boating-related drownings by 40% over the past 15 years. This is significant given the phenomenal growth of boat ownership and boating activities in Canada. But tragically approximately 130 Canadians will lose their lives this year due to boating-related drownings . That is why funds raised through the Donation Box Program are so important - to help the CSBC continue its work.

We intend to apply for participation in the Donation Box Program next year. We also welcome donations at any time of year; learn more at https://csbc.ca/en/about-us/sponsorship

Over the past dozen years, the CSBC has undertaken annual benchmark research into the effectiveness of our safety outreach. The studies have been conducted in the late spring by Ipsos Reid to measure the effectiveness of Safe Boating Awareness Week, which for many years was the CSBC’s only boating safety outreach campaign. We now run 5 focused campaigns ( https://csbc.ca/en/csbc-safety-campaigns ), to keep boating safety top of mind throughout the boating season. So recently the study has been ‘changed up’ to alternate between the original spring study and late summer research to gauge the effectiveness of all the CSBC’s Campaigns running throughout the boating season.

The last early season research was done in 2016, and a new early season study was completed this spring https://csbc.ca/en/safety-campaigns/531-research. The findings are strong: overall awareness of the CSBC campaign messages has trended upwards from 71 % of boaters being aware of messages in 2016 to 74 % for this year. And one quarter of boaters are ‘ highly aware’ , i.e. aware of 5 or more CSBC advertisements promoting safe and responsible boating.

The spring research also included a study of safe boating behaviour and attitudes. We have seen shifts upwards in key behaviour areas that include less drinking and boating, more lifejacket wear and a desire to get more information and knowledge through taking boating courses.

In early September an end of season study will be undertaken to measure the overall effectiveness of all the campaigns the CSBC has promoted during the 2018 boating season and their effect on boater behaviours.

These studies are proving that the CSBC is making a difference with Canadian boaters. We are crafting memorable messages that resonate with the boating public, and providing a mechanism to effectively deliver those messages across a wide variety of delivery platforms. And it is not being done in isolation. It is the cumulative efforts of the CSBC national campaigns along with our boating safety partners across the country that are changing boating behaviours for the better.