If you'd like to protect your family and possibly save some serious money, you should consider getting a free Vessel Safety Check from the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The CG Auxiliary checks all the things the Coast Guard will check if you're boarded for an inspection, the big difference is the Auxiliary examiner hands you a list of the items that need to be corrected while the Coast Guard inspection team leader hands you a list of the items that need to be corrected along with a citation and often a hefty fine for those items.  With citations for things like expired flares or improper or insufficient fire extinguishers running $150 or more, it makes sense to know before you leave the dock that all the federally and state mandated equipment is on board and in good condition.

If you own a boat with an inboard gasoline engine, are you sure that the ducting for the bilge blower is in good shape and doing its job of pulling the heavier-than-air gasoline fumes from the bottom of the bilge area before a spark from the starter motor ignites them?  What about your navigation lights, do you know when you're required to use them and will they even come on when you flip the switch?

Falling into cold water is always an emergency and falling into cold water if you're not wearing a life jacket can start the countdown to the last 3 to 15 minutes of your life.  Cold water immersion is a killer and life jackets buy you precious time you won't have without one.  Not having the correct number and sizes of life jackets aboard is not only potentially expensive if you're boarded but dangerous if not used every time you leave the dock.  And if you think one size fits all for life jackets you're dangerously mistaken; children on board must have appropriately sized life jackets and all children under 10 years of age are required to be properly wearing one at all times while the boat is underway.

Be smart and save money, protect yourself and your family by being a safer, smarter boater.  Contact the Coast Guard Auxiliary for a free "Vessel Safety Check"; to view the schedule for the Midcoast and Boothbay Harbor area go to flotilla25.org, or cgaux.org to arrange a free "Vessel Safety Check" just about anywhere in the U.S.. While you’re there, be sure to take a look at the boating safety classes being offered this summer.

Schedule: All events begin at 9 a.m. except as noted

June 6: New Meadows Marina

June 13: Robinhood Marina

June 20: Ocean Point Marina

June 20: Kennebec Tavern 10 a.m.

June 21: Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club

June 27: Carousel, Brown’s Wharf

June 27: Tugboat Marina

June 28: Hodgdon Yacht Services 1 p.m.