Tips for the Newbie Boater

This post is sponsored by Discover Boating but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

I have only been on a boat a couple of times in my life. I love seeing water and being on the water, but we don’t know much about boats and so we don’t have much experience with them. When I learned about the Discover Boating website and saw that I could easily rent a boat really close to where I live, I started making a plan. As a newbie boater here are some things I learned while preparing and during my boating trip and my tips for getting in the water and on a boat soon!

Find where to rent the boat

Visit the Discover Boating website and use the location tracker to find the nearest boat rental facility to your home. We are lucky to live near many lakes and so we had a lot of locations to choose from. Discover Boating will lead you to the website of your nearest rental facility so you can explore all your options. We are so luckily that our marinas rent boats into the evening so we went on our adventure after my husband got off work.

Choose the Boat you want to rent

Are you wanting speed? Fun with a big group? Do you want to fish? Once you determine your goals for being on the water you can choose a watercraft. We decided we wanted to go out on the lake with friends and let the kids swim. We rented a 24′ pontoon that held 10 people. I love a pontoon because there is tons of room for sitting, visiting and hanging out. There are multiple doors so the kids could jump off the boat into the water from many locations. There was a staircase in the back making it easy to get back onboard if you were in the water. A pontoon is such a great boat.

Learn the rules of the boat and follow them

Safety first! Part of the rental agreement with the boat was learning the rules of the boat and lake. On our boat you were not allowed to grill, have alcohol and children 6 and under had to have their life jackets on at all times. My baby did not love her life jacket, but rules are rules. Luckily, once she was having fun she forgot about the life jacket. In the future I will probably buy my baby a life vest that is more comfortable than the one provided by the marina. That should make things more enjoyable for her.

Enjoy being on the water

We decided we wanted to find a spot to anchor the boat and let the kids swim. We found a nice little cove out of the way where we could drop anchor and swim for a while.  We brought along pool noodles for the kids to play with.

Be prepared for your activities

Chances are you are boating because the weather is nice so don’t forget to pack sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses. If you are swimming bring swimsuits and towels (extra ones were very helpful for our trip). If you are going out for a long time bring food and water. We brought along a picnic dinner and some snacks to eat while on the boat. Though we were out for over two hours the kids had so much fun swimming that they never made time to eat. We all had so much fun we decided to needed to get out on a boat several more times before summer is over. Discover Boating made our boating adventure easy!