America's Boating Club Takes Wear It Campaign Local

The message for Safe Boating Month is clear and simple: Wear It. The Wear It campaign is all about staying safe on the water by wearing a life jacket. This May, Marco Island's chapter of America’s Boating Club is taking the National Safe Boating Council's Wear It message directly to end users - visitors to the island - when they are actually in the process of getting out on the water.

Dave Chaney, a new Marco Island resident, is spearheading the campaign on the island as a member of America’s Boating Club.

 “There are a lot of boaters around Marco that aren’t Marco Island residents,” Dave Chaney said. “They’re here for a short time in condos. Many of them have never really heard a boating safety message before. They’re renting boats, kayaks, canoes, jet skis, paddle boards. I thought the best way to get to them is to go directly to the businesses that are renting them boats or putting them on a tour boat.”

Chaney is asking participating businesses to deliver a short, targeted safety speech to their customers before they get out on the water. He’s even come up with a way to reward participants by bringing local ice cream parlor Sweet Annie’s on board.

"During their regularly safety speech,” Chaney said, “we ask them to interject a 20 to 30 second message telling their customers that the best thing they can do for safety is to put a life jacket on - especially on their kids. The number one statistic in safe boating is that 80 percent of all boat fatalities occur to people who don’t have on a life jacket. So, if you really want to make an impact on boating, and become a safe boater, the number one thing you can do on your boat is to have people wear a life jacket. For all different kinds of reasons, you can find yourself in need of a life jacket. With all of the styles of life jackets that are out there now, it’s easier than ever to have a child or an adult wear a life jacket on board. Getting that message out to the visitors on the island who are boating will be a real step up in this campaign, especially on this island.”

America’s Boating Club was formerly well known locally as the Marco Island Sail and Power Squadron, or simply the Power Squadron. America’s Boating Club members teach education classes, provide free vessel safety checks and help National Ocean Services keep nautical charts up to date and work in partnership with local emergency organizations in rescue operations.

“I think education is our strength,” Chaney said. “We have our ABC class, which is an introduction to the basics of boating. We have a class about boating on Marco Island, we have a class on partners in command, where we teach what a first mate’s responsibilities are. We even teach a class on celestial navigation. We also have a boating simulator that works with a laptop. It simulates tides, currents, wind. Boats all the way up to the size of a freighter. It’s not the same as being on a boat, but it does give you the sense of drift, speed, momentum. It makes you aware of all the things you need to be aware of when you get out there on a boat. When we get back next fall, my wife is going to take the simulator class for pontoon boats. That’s why I love the club. It’s not self-serving at all. The cost for the classes is very inexpensive. We don’t charge for boat inspections. We also have instructors who will take you out on the water on your boat for an on-water experience. We just believe that is part of what our mission statement is."

Chaney is developing a simple program that is just being rolled out on Marco Island. He’s come up with a quick, three step program for local businesses to educate, thank and reward boaters.

“I identified 40 businesses on the island that are putting people on boats every day,” Chaney said. "After doing some background research and talking with a few of them, I found out there’s up to 2,000 people going out on a boat on this island every day. A different group of people every day. And I think that’s a conservative number. A lot of these people may not know what safe boating means. Since Safe Boating Week is May 21 through 27, I thought, ‘What if we took the month of May and made that our safe boating message month?’ I went to Sweet Annie’s and asked if they’d participate in thanking people who listened to the safe boating message. Tim at Sweet Annie’s bought in immediately. I asked him if we could do something with an ice cream float, because I like the term float. He said, ‘We can do half-off on a float as long as you can get the people who heard the message in here.’ My experience in business is to give out a wrist band with a reminder on it. We got a pretty good participation for a small amount of money. So, I designed a wrist band.”

Chaney wants to start small this year, so he targeted four businesses he thought could best help spread the safe boating message.

“Rose Marina puts a lot of people on boats every day,” Chaney said. "We want to provide the people who are sending people out on the water a campaign that is so simple, so easy to implement, and so direct, that it is not a burden to their business. First thing was I couldn’t burden any business. It had to be a natural message.”

Chaney gave four businesses, Rose Marina, Florida Adventures and Rentals, Cool Beans and Dolphin Explorer, the opportunity to get involved. All four enthusiastically accepted his invitation.

"We have a message we want to get out with seven boating tips from the National Safe Boating Council,” Chaney said. "We want to make sure that we could get in the hands of all of their crew these seven safe boating tips in a way that was convenient and easy to handle. We want the message to be very personal. Isn’t just a safety speech, it’s relating to that customer, making them feel comfortable on board.”

When he was building his campaign, Chaney set a goal to reach 2,000 first-time boaters. He quickly found that number was low.

"I thought that would be a successful goal,” Chaney said. "The first four businesses we contacted loved the campaign. And when we looked at the number of people they were going to touch, it was well over 5,000 people. For the first year of the campaign, I tried to find the most diverse group I could find. I wanted a business that was renting power boats and pontoon boats. Rose Marina was at the top of my list. We approached them and they were all over it. To get to youth on a powerboat is difficult. Looking at youth on jet skis is not the right ratio. Same with paddle boards. However, looking at the tour business activity, specifically the Dolphin Explorer, the ratio is higher, because adults are taking their kids out. I approached Bob McConville. When he heard it, he said, 'I’m in. I love the ability to connect with my audience about that whole experience.’ When Bob told me the number of youth that he could reach in one month I was shocked. Totally shocked. Cool Beans, a catamaran on Isle of Capri, takes 50 people out, twice a day. They’re out there constantly. Their volume is significant enough that I can get to that audience that is 25 to 50 years of age. They’re a captive audience, they’re on board.  There’s time for that safety speech to hit home.

"The final group I wanted to reach were on jet skis, paddle boards and kayaks. One business working with that customer base is Florida Adventures and Rentals, a family-owned business. The message to wear a life jacket is very important to them - they’re already doing this. For them it was just a reinforcement to take the message home.”

Chaney also wants the reward phase of his campaign to be simple.

"We went out with two approaches,” Chaney said, “some like the wrist band approach, for some a coupon can work better. I created the coupons, and we got sample wristbands made. We ask the businesses to go through the seven safety tips with their renters, give them the wrist band, thank them and let them know to go to Sweet Annie’s. The implementation has to be really simple. We were fortunate enough to have all four businesses come back and contribute dollars to the campaign. I had well exceeded my budget, and to have these businesses come in and say, ‘How can we help you?’ It was just unbelievable. They were very generous to help cover some of our costs. I couldn’t have done it without their support. It just shows how important safety is to them. To actually step up and invest in the campaign. They know the downside to not having safe boaters.”

On Saturday, May 21, America’s Boating Club will be hosting a Wear It event at Rose Marina. The Marco Island Police Department, Marco Island Fire and Rescue Marine Group, Flotilla 95, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will all attend. Sweet Annie’s will also be there.

"Sweet Annie’s will be there giving ice cream floats to people who show up,” Chaney said.

Chaney hopes this is the beginning of something big. We want other boat-related businesses on the island to know that there will be opportunities for them to become involved.

"I want all the businesses on the island to know that we plan to expand the program next year,” Chaney said, “we want to put safe boating awareness out there."