Recreation on the many lakes, rivers and streams in the Carolinas is a major industry, and boating is a major water activity.

To see how well you understand its impact, take the quiz on this page and read on to find out more.

What surprised you the most? Is it the number of registered boats? There are almost a million in the Carolinas alone.

What about the number of canoe/kayak fatalities in comparison to the personal watercraft?

Or the differences in their alcohol-related fatalities?

What is South Carolina doing to decrease the percentage of incidents while North Carolina continues to see an increase?

Here’s another staggering number: $20,000,000 and growing!

This represents the negative financial impact to Carolina boaters that their insurance companies have to pay for the accidents that occurred during the 2006 season.

Enough “alarming” facts.

My goal is not to get you to sell your boat but to have you understand the inherent risk of owning a watercraft.

The first—and best—question in risk analysis is how do you mitigate or transfer the risk?

Mitigating Risk
When it comes to boating, risk mitigation is simple. Here are some tips:

• Take a boat operator’s safety course. This will help address the No.1 cause of boating accidents: operator inexperience.
• Never boat alone. The majority of the canoe/kayak accidents happened without another boater around. The No.1 reason for waterskiing accidents is not having an observer on board. Someone needs to watch the skiers while another person operates the watercraft.
• Always wear a personal floatation device (PFD). Of the 710 fatalities, 604 were not wearing a life jacket or other personal floatation device.
• Don’t drink and operate. Twenty-two percent of all fatal boating accidents are due to operator drinking.

Transferring Risk
The most cost-effective way to transfer the risk is to purchase insurance in an amount that exceeds your risk tolerance. When it comes to specialty items (watercraft, RVs, motorcycles and collector cars) it is very important to understand coverage and check to see what is included in the coverage.

You don’t ever want to hear, “Sorry, that’s not covered,” from a claims adjuster.

Here are some things to check when purchasing watercraft protection:

• Does the policy cover you in all types of water? (Some are limited to fresh water only.)
• Do you have an umbrella policy, and is the watercraft listed on the policy?
• Does the policy cover the boat at Actual Cash Value or Agreed Value? (For high-value boats, the difference could mean thousands of dollars when it comes to a claim.)
• Does the policy include hurricane haul-out coverage?
• Are uninsured boaters covered?
• Is fishing, skiing or diving equipment fully covered?
• Does the policy cover you for fuel spill liability, the fastest-growing type of claim?

To learn more about boating safety, see Boat Ed at www.boat-ed.com, a boating safety provider offering online courses for the North and South Carolina state government agencies responsible for boating.

Test your knowledge!
Do You Know Your Waters?
Test your sea legs by matching the description on the left with the correct
numbers on the right about 2006 boating activities within the Carolinas:

1. Number of Registered Boats in the Carolinas A. +250%
2. SC National Ranking of Registered Boats B. 99
3. Canoe/Kayak Related Fatalities C. -400%
4. NC National Ranking of Registered Boats D. 38
5. Total Boating Injuries E. 806,916
6. Total Boating Fatalities F. 8
7. Change in Alcohol Fatalities in SC in the last 5 years G. 209
8. Change in Alcohol Fatalities in NC in the last 5 years H. 68
9. Personal Watercraft Related Fatalities I. 11 March-April 16 2008 | AAA.com

Answers to Quiz: 1=E, 2=F, 3=H, 4=I, 5=G, 6=B, 7=C, 8=A, 9=D