• Rule #1 – The Owner/Operator/Captain/Skipper/Master/Commander of the vessel is responsible for the safety of his passengers and crew.
• The Operator is responsible for knowing and following the Navigation Rules and local laws. You must maintain a safe speed and proper lookout at all times. Know when you are the Stand-on and the Give-way vessels and what to do in each case.
• Assist passengers while boarding and de-boarding the vessel ~ many accidents and injuries happen during this time.
• Provide a safety briefing covering the location and use of PFDs, fire extinguishers, first aid kit, safety while underway and docking, etc. Encourage everyone to wear a PFD.
• On boats that may be affected, control the seating arrangements to ensure the vessel is properly trimmed.
• Many passengers will want to sit in the bowrider seats if available, so you must ensure that your visibility is not impaired. Also, your choice of speed must depend on sea conditions, which affect the ride they get. Boats pivot vertically from the stern as they navigate through waves and wakes, and you must ensure that is not going to injure them by being thrown around.
• Boats don’t have seat belts, so the passengers on board should sit still and be advised of any course or speed changes.
• The Operator is responsible for any damage caused by his wake. On glassy days, big wakes can be a big event and a surprise to other boaters. Avoid being in plowing mode because it makes the biggest wake and is the least efficient for fuel consumption.
• The Operator is responsible for ensuring that the vessel is seaworthy and properly equipped according to law – at a minimum. There are many items you should carry that are not required by the law, such as an anchor, which is good insurance if you lose power and are drifting into the jetty. Everyone should get a Vessel Safety Check from the USCG Auxiliary to check for what is required and to provide a list of the many additional items a boat should be outfitted with. Enroll in a vastly superior class to just completing an online course.
• Boats are affected by many forces: load & trim, wind, waves, current, tidal flows, water surface conditions, etc., and by throttle and helm input.
• Boats do not have brakes. We use Reverse to arrest forward motion at slow speeds.
• Boats will continue to move after the gear is disengaged – inertia & momentum are part of maneuvering. Proficient Skippers know from experience what to expect and how to use it to their advantage.
• Steering input becomes more effective as speed increases and less effective as speed decreases.
• Engage the throttle only after turning the helm toward the desired turn.
• At lower speeds, boats will pivot at about 1/3 of the length back from the bow.
• Propeller Torque – Left handed vs Right Handed screws (propellers). Each backs better to one side. Right handed propellers (the most common) will want to back to the left, so use clockwise pivot turns for efficiency not to fight the natural tendency to back one way.
• Helm—Determine how many turns of the wheel it takes to go from full left to full right rudder. Halfway between the two is dead ahead. On outboard-powered boats, you just have to look at the engine to tell which way the thrust will be directed, but for inboards and sterndrives, prior to engaging the gear, turn the wheel fully from one side to the other to determine where you want to go. The King spoke, which is the indicator on large ships’ wheels indicating dead ahead.
• Use of Trim – Full down is best for hole shot and acceleration. Advise passengers of intentions. Look/Scan 360 degrees before engaging to avoid collision. Smoothly go to full throttle to decrease time in plowing mode. Once up on the plane, trim until either the boat begins to porpoise or the RPM goes up, then trim back down a bit to eliminate the porpoising or higher RPM. Adjust trim and throttle to the desired speed for the best ride and fuel economy. You may want a bit more down-trim in choppy seas. Adjust as needed.
• Deceleration/Stopping Distance – Use a landmark, either a buoy or a floating object, such as a PFD. From a distance that will allow you to get up to speed at full throttle, get up to full speed then shift into Neutral at what you think is the proper time and distance to stop at the buoy or object. The propeller will continue to rotate while you are decelerating as water passes by the blades. Only use Reverse to stop your forward motion after the boat has settled off  plane into displacement mode and the stern wave passes to avoid gear damage. With practice, you can come to a complete stop at the object every time.
• Pivot Turns – This exercise will help you become intimately familiar with your throttle and helm and can get you out of trouble in a narrow fairway. The task is to attempt to turn in circles within your boat’s length. Again, as mentioned earlier, with a right-handed propeller, your turns work best clockwise due to the torque. From a dead stop, turn the wheel hard to starboard, engage the forward gear just enough to get the boat to start pivoting. Go to neutral as you turn hard to port, engaging reverse just as you get the wheel to the end of its’ travel. Give just enough thrust/power to continue the rotation in reverse. Got to neutral, hard to starboard, forward, rotate and repeat over and over again until your movements are fast, smooth and delicate on the gears with as little rpm’s as necessary and mostly just pivoting instead of fore and aft travel. This takes practice!
• Docking in a Slip: Make your major course corrections well in advance to go straight in. This way, your course corrections will be minor within the last 2-3 boat lengths from the slip. Remember, Slow is Pro!
• Cleat to Cleat—I always took pride in docking my boat and made sure that when I came to a stop, the boat’s cleat was adjacent to the dock’s cleat for ease of securing.
• Transverse Advance – Just like when an airplane has to “crab” into a crosswind landing, boats need a bit more “authority” (speed) to overcome the same conditions. It takes practice to know when to straighten the boat as she enters the slip cleanly at the right moment.
• Backing into a Slip – This is a challenging exercise for when you gain more confidence. Find a dock with good protection to avoid damage as you learn.

Any Skipper who takes the time to master these skills is far ahead of most other boat owners. Have fun and don’t forget to train a backup operator in case you become unavailable. Don’t be like the guy who retired, bought an ocean cruiser, took all the classes including celestial navigation, outfitted his boat with every conceivable safety item, then had a heart attack onboard, and his wife didn’t even know how to use the radio to call for help!