Checking Marine Safety Equipment

Marine safety should be of paramount importance and you should check marine safety equipment regularly. Not only is this important to your safety, but it reduces the chance of other people having to risk their life to attempt a rescue. Marine safety checks should be part of your routine before you head out boating and this guide outlines some of the marine safety checks you should carry out.



• Make sure that all marine safety equipment is working; radios and navigation equipment should be tested before heading out onto the water.

• Life jackets are on the most important pieces of safety equipment on any boat. They need to be in tip top condition and should be kept somewhere that they can be quickly reached. Although expensive, tagging systems massively increase marine safety for people on a boat. Checking that life jackets are in good condition should be part of your marine safety test before every trip.

• If you have a big vessel, consider buying a multiple person life raft, they are expensive but you cannot put a price on safety. Checking marine safety equipment, once in a routine will not take very long.

• Consider purchasing plenty of smaller safety equipment such as flares. Make sure that they are kept in good condition and in a safe but accessible place. This should be part of your marine safety checks to ensure that they are in the same place and everybody on board knows where that is. Make sure that there is no chance they will go off accidentally.

• Fire extinguishers are an important piece of marine safety equipment and you should have them onboard. You may need to have different ones do deal with different types of fire. For instance an electrical fire requires CO2 while a wood fire could be put out with water.

• One of the most obvious marine safety checks is to make sure the boat itself is in seaworthy condition. The engine and the hull should all be in tip top condition. Make sure it has plenty of fuel, a lot of people get into trouble because they didn’t realise there wasn’t enough fuel in the boat.

• Don’t forget to check the weather; this is one of the most important marine safety checks and one that often gets overlooked. Even if the weather looks good at the moment, it can change very quickly out at sea.

If your not confident to check your own marine safety equipment or you are unsure of what you need for your specific boat then the RNLI offer a fantastic free service called Sea Check where a safety expert will pay a visit to you on your boat and run through everything you need to know.

Is your safety kit out of date or in need of replacing/updating then check out our special offers on boat and personal safety kit here.