We have a very couple of special guests here this morning. We're talking about safety as we do the first Thursday of every month.
They're seeing County Traffic Safety Commission. We've talked about rules of the road highway works on safety today.
Water and boating safety. Yes, it's coming up water and boating. I know it's hard to believe because it's still wearing a winter coat out there.
But it's coming up and our guests are Lieutenant Mike Luel got that right and deputy Jerome Hipper is here as well.
Now deputy, you were actually on the water patrol, right? Correct. I run our routine County water patrol. Now we happen to have a lake right in our backyard.
I have literally a block and a half from my house. So boating safety is here. It doesn't work well when you're in like Wyoming or Kansas. They don't really.
I don't have anything here. The size we do. Okay, so we have a list here. Now there's a poster. You can see the poster is at.
And I remember this now because Tom later told me it's a Racine County. Let's see what I have a Racine County dot com slash staying safe.
And to see a list of all the posters we've done go to water and boating safety and you can follow along today.
Do you have to have a boating license in Wisconsin? You do. If you have been born after January 1st, 1989, then you have to take a boat or safety course per DNR.
If you're born before that date, you do not. So let me see. Oh, you don't. Correct. If you are born before that date, how old would that make it? Let me carry the two divided by five. How long?
About 36. Okay, so before 36, you have to have a white. Why that date date that they picked for the legislation. I don't know why specifically.
Okay, I don't have one. I'm not a big boulder. I think I went on except for the cruise ships personable. I hardly go on because I don't. I'm not a big fan of getting stuck in water and drowning.
You should come on down. I'll take you for a ride. I don't, you know, I salmon around once took me on a fishing boat. And we fit and I caught fish. I'm just, it's very scary. I think because there's nowhere to hide. There's no way to run. I mean, if something happens, you're in the water. That's just me.
And that's what we're there for. So some happens. Give us a call and we come out and give you a hand. Yeah, I know. I've seen it. You guys, you do save lives out there, huh? We do.
What's the number one voting price? It's people drinking and crashing their boats and partying too much. Well, that's a big problem with it. The biggest thing we recommend is wearing your PFDs because like you said, PFDs personal floatation devices, right?
Correct.
Your life jackets and layman's terms. So you never know when something's going to happen. You get a rogue wave. All of a sudden your boat starts leaking and you're just in the water before you know it. And that's going to keep you up in a float.
Rogue waves on like Michigan. It does happen. I've seen it.
The 10. Have you a big boater? No, I'm not very proficient on the water. But what is interesting about Racine County is we're not just the land of Racine County. Our jurisdiction goes out to the halfway mark of Lake Michigan, which is approximately 45 miles to the east, obviously.
And then if you go north, south, we're 11 to 13 miles. So once again, I don't like to do math on the radio, but that's approximately 400, excuse me, 450 square miles that Deputy Hipper and his co-workers have responsibility of and we have two boats that unfortunately are about as old as I am.
So we do what we can, but we are looking to improve our our boating patrol abilities.
So once you get past that mileage marker, then it's Michigan's problem. Yep, that we pass it over and pass the stick somewhere.
I'm drowning. I'm sorry. There's a number in Michigan. I can give you the call.
I think we'll help our buddies out if it's 46 to 48 miles or whatever. Let's talk about some of the items on the poster. Educate yourself. Take boating safety courses. Where do they get those?
They're online. So you can just go to the DNR website and you can actually take the class online through links on their website or they do them in person and the scheduling is dependent on when DNR is available.
Now getting a license is not like a driver's test. Nobody takes you on the water. Correct. It is all 100% online. And when you go out there, it's just hopefully you know what you're doing.
Well, and there are some like local yacht clubs that offer boating classes and sailing classes. And that's a lot of hands on stuff. So that's always an option, but it's not a requirement.
They can just get their license online jumping on boat and go.
Sailing is a whole another thing. I mean, you really have to be talented to know how to sail. It's it's when your boat. I can turn the wheel on a motorboat and control the throttle. And that's all you need.
Sailing is a whole different animal. And I've seen them on the lake here. The yacht club hell's the big their sailboats out there. I've seen them done. The lake from I used to walk my dog there. Yeah, they have.
I've never got as every year that they're racing out there. They're very good. Okay. So you can go online. Do you happen to know where that is online?
It's just a Wisconsin DNR. There's a DNR dot com. It's whatever the DNR website is stuff you Google DNR boating. Yeah, Wisconsin DNR. Just make sure it's Wisconsin because you need the DNR from our state. No charge.
I believe there's a charge for some of the links. There's no charge for the classes. Okay, that's pretty good.
Well, I know you drink. You don't. Is that water? That is coffee. See this morning just for this. I brought in my water. Just to get in the mood this morning. I'll hit up the water after the coffee.
Actually, I don't. I never had a cup of coffee in my life. I worked third shift for 10 years. So you get used to it. You know, I mentioned earlier is peanut butter a jelly day yesterday.
I've never had never tasted peanut butter or jelly in my yet put them together. I've never tasted it. Well, then you have to decide.
I'm not. I won't even touch the jar. My wife brings peanut butter in the house. I don't touch it. Never had coffee. Never had a beer. Never had a cigarette. Never. I mean, just cigarettes never been my vice. So we'll never try it together.
I never tried one. So yeah, my wife doesn't drink coffee. So we don't even own a coffee maker. So if you come from my house, bring your own coffee.
Or your studio. Yeah, right. Well, actually, we do have a coffee maker here. Okay. Yeah, they make tons of coffee either. I just don't drink it.
All right. So you can educate yourself. Life jackets. I know people don't look good in them. And I know some of the big tough people on the lake don't want to wear them.
But they do save your life. They do. We wear them every time we go out. If they're too uncomfortable for you, they do make ones that self inflate when you hit the water. They're a lot thinner.
They do. They're a lot thinner, a lot more comfortable to wear. Those are different types. You have to be wearing them for them to count as a life jacket in the boat. It can't be sitting next to you.
But they are a lot easier to wear. It's just a very thin collar. And of course, if you have a children on board, put them on the first thing before you even leave. Put them on.
Correct. It's actually required. If the children are under 13, they have to have a PFD on the entire time the boats underway.
Some of the lake wants. This is up north. I was dating somebody who was big on up north stuff. And we're on this lake.
And I got on this little pontoon island type of thing there with the oil barrels holding it up.
And I had to get back to shore and somebody said, oh, there are leeches all over.
I'm going to get back. So I jump in the water. And I see somebody with a leech on the show. And I start to panic.
And to this day, I remember exactly what that felt like being in the water, panicking and not being able to swim all of a sudden.
I'm not I'm a pretty decent swimmer, but I panicked and I couldn't go. I was sinking.
And if I had a life jacket, I could just sit there and float. And they do save lives because people panic. You see a boat go down.
You get upset. You're going to start panicking and flailing all over the place, worrying about your, your guests on the boat and everything.
That's the bad. But we're going to talk about the fun part of boating. It's coming up at just a moment.
Our guests this morning, we have a lieutenant Mike Luel. He's the public safety officer for the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
And deputy Jerome Hipper who's actually the voter here today. You've been boating all your life.
Yeah, my dad had a boat ever since I was growing up. So pretty much my whole life.
You got gills on your side and everything? No, okay. This morning.
And this morning, it's our first Thursday, the month staying safe program from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
And lieutenant Mike Luel is here. He's the public safety officer, public information officer. And deputy Jerome Hipper is here from the, you actually do the boating.
You were on the boating patrol, but you showed up in a car today.
Yeah, you're the waterway doesn't quite make it this far.
If you come on like one of those ducks, you see the dills.
I would love to have one of those. That would be great. I can just go right to work and try it on the water.
You have been on one of those ducks?
I have. I was there when I first moved to Wisconsin. We took one of the ducks with my daughter.
It's kind of creepy when you go on land and boom right into the water.
Yeah, it's a different feeling. I was actually on one that got a flat tire and they changed it with us on it.
Well, here's the creepy part. Those things are from World War II.
I mean, how many cars are on the road from World War II, but you'd feel safe driving it.
Yeah, not many.
Here's my boating story. I said I'd tell you. I grew up on the Long Island in New York City in Long Island.
And the, our next our neighbor who was like the, it was like the trash house of the neighborhood.
And he had a boat. And it was, it looked elapidated, but he said we're going to take it out today, born on the trailer.
And we got to the great South Bay. And I knew something was up when I saw a little bailing stuff for bailing water.
I said, I don't worry about it. So we get on the water and it can see water coming in on my feet.
Because don't worry, just scoop it out. I said scoop it out. How we're going to be on here for a couple of hours.
We'd scoop it out. He said scoop it out. If you don't, it's going to go down.
So, of course, my panic set in. I didn't enjoy the whole boating trip.
We didn't do any, I didn't do any fishing. All I did was scoop with this chlorox thing.
It was cut up to make like a scooper.
So all I did never went out with him on the boat again.
And he said, this is the boat. Just we just bail our waters.
And we're not going to go down. We just, if you want to keep pushing the water out of it, it won't, you know.
So I want you to fix it. That's too much, you know, too much of a bother.
All right. Let's talk about staying safe on the water.
Drinking. That's got to be one of the major problems out there.
People go on the boat. They want to party and they drink.
And it's a big problem, especially because it's not like a car where you're going to go out, stop in the middle of an intersection, sit there for a couple hours.
And a boat you go out on the lake and you just park there, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the fresh air, do some swimming.
And if you're drinking that whole time, it's going to catch up with you before you know it.
And if everybody's drinking before you know it, you might bump into somebody.
And it's not like on the road, you can pull over to the side of the road.
You bump into somebody, you go down.
And hopefully you're near a shoreline to do it.
Correct. So a drinking is a known I just you can have a drink.
It's just driving the boat. I wouldn't have any drinks.
I just it'd be preferable if you were sober driving the boat.
Everybody else can have a few drinks. You just don't have it.
So yeah, it would be the guy because I don't drink. I'd be the guy driving the one.
I don't know how to drive a boat. So now.
So okay, so stay sober. A boat operator with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10.
Is that more than that?
I was at it was a 0.08.
0.08 is the legal limit.
This is 0.10 for a boater.
Well, that's because the 0.10.
There are 10 times more likely to be killed in a voting accident.
So that's a statistic they found through examining voting accidents.
See, this is another reason I want to go on a boat.
Okay, a personal water craft. And that's a boat, right?
It's a.
It's technically not a boat. It's like a jet ski.
Okay, I got a jet ski, a jet ski story for you.
I never want a jet ski in my life. I'm up north.
And the guy, I take the jet ski. Now I work glasses.
But I didn't want to wear them on it because if they fall off, they're hard to find.
It's $400. Now I'm defined.
So I go on the jet ski and I never worked one of these things before.
And I get on the middle of the lake and it calms out.
And I keep getting it started. Keep the car king out.
And now I don't have my glasses and I'm looking for the shoreline to see where I'm supposed to go.
Because it's a resort area.
And I don't know where it is.
And this thing keeps conquering out on me.
And I go along the entire shoreline and look.
Finally, I recognize somebody and I say, get out of the way for me.
I'm not going this.
It conquers out.
Yeah, but you can get it restarted again.
I don't want to con because when it conquers out, it bobs back and forth.
With me on it.
And I don't want to do it.
I had a life jacket on, but I still didn't want to do it.
So that's my.
So far, I was on a boat that leaks a jet ski.
Okay, go ahead.
I would actually on a jet ski is a kid that we had rented.
And it had a leak in the crack in the hole that they didn't know about.
So as I was out on it, it slowly sink away underneath me.
And I still go on the boats.
Well, this thing didn't sink.
You just can't get out.
And that you've been on jet ski.
Oh, yeah, I've been on many jet skis.
Really?
The interesting thing about them is there's no breaks.
What sounds pretty obvious, but you get people who are full throttle.
And then they come off the throttle and they just keep going and they're bashing into things.
Don't you put your feet in the water to slow you down?
Yeah, you can try.
Yeah, but you have to do.
Yeah, but they have to do.
So I just load down.
Okay.
So we're talking about the jet skis.
What else is there any other type of personal water craft?
Those are the main ones.
So I mean, there's all different kinds of boats.
The jet skis are a lot of the fun ones that people like to play around with.
Hmm.
How about those paddles?
See those sun kind of saved to me.
I wouldn't recommend using those in Lake Michigan.
They're so small and the waves in Lake Michigan can kick up pretty quick without any warning.
So you're going to have to get back to shore if the weather turns nasty real quick.
And that's hard to do.
Okay, so jet skis off my list, regular boats off my list, paddle boats,
but aligned through that as well.
We're getting there eventually.
All right, we're talking about.
We're talking about water safety today, boating.
Yes, never too early to book, although the ice was on them.
When I passed over the Main Street Bridge, I mean, it wasn't a month ago.
That thing was frozen solid.
So our guests are Lieutenant Mike Luell.
He is the public information officer for the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission
and Deputy Jerome Hipper, who's actually involved in the water on the safety patrol.
Correct.
When do you start getting out in the water?
Oh, actually, we've already been on the water.
Our boats are in.
We've been out all week.
Yeah, it was ice a few weeks ago.
Yeah, it was.
It's a little chilly out there.
I saw one of those little fishing shanties.
You know, those little,
well, they put those little shanties on there.
They drill a hole.
Yep, price fishing.
And the whole thing goes right in the water with the,
but I don't know how people do that.
I just would be scared.
I mean, I hear a crap.
Do you hear something?
I heard a crack.
Where did you hear that?
All right.
So we're talking about boating safety.
And you want them to make sure we bring up the swimming aspect of this whole thing
because we have a beautiful beach, north beach.
And during the summer, it's crowded with with swim.
And, you know, those boats are not that far away.
Where the swimmers are.
This one area is actually a designated area.
So the boats are supposed to stay out of that area.
We have the north beach area.
We also have the zoo beach area a little bit further north of that.
So when north beach gets crowded, they'll open that up as well.
Those areas are both stuffed with lifeguards.
So that's why it's important to stay in those areas.
They're safer areas for the currents and the weather that like Michigan can provide.
So they're designated those areas.
We've had issues with people getting too close to the north pier area,
which is outside the swimming area.
And that's when people get into trouble.
And we had some trouble.
A couple of years ago, we had several drownings in that area due to the fact
that the wind was coming in out of the north.
It was creating rip currents and undertoes and just pulling people right under.
You see this, they tell you sometimes if you want to news,
there are a lot of rip currents out there.
What is a rip current?
So the rip current is basically the wind is pushing the water into
a narrow area and right there, it's a 90 degrees.
So when the wind comes out of the north, it drives right into that corner.
Because the top water is coming into that corner and is nowhere to go,
it'll go out to the side and it'll run along shore.
So if you get in a rip current,
it's actually pulling you away from the land.
And it'll just shoot you right down north up here until you get out.
You can't fight it, huh?
You can't fight against it.
Your option is to swim sideways to get out of the current and then swim back in.
Let me write that down.
Reason number 18 rip currents.
Don't go in the water.
Okay.
Good.
I've been in the water up to my ankles.
And I grew up in the ocean.
I mean, I grew up going through the ocean every day of my life in the summer.
And all of a sudden, I don't like it anymore.
I don't know why.
How about those people in January 1st,
running into the lake, huh?
All the polar bears?
My wife used to do that.
And before we got married, she used to say,
I said, what do you nuts?
You got a cold there.
We were running in, jumping over the ice berm and running into this lake.
What if you can't get out?
I know you, they have people there watching.
You know, very interesting, too.
We're on the fact of the water.
When they did the triathlon here,
it was running, swimming, and biking.
Those are the three of triathlons.
Do you know how they knew when everybody was out of the water?
How?
To trick, you know?
I do not, but I've done a triathlon or two.
They count the number of bicycles left on the beach.
Oh.
And if there's one bike left over,
they got to start looking for that person.
When all the bikes are gone,
they know everybody got out of the water.
That's the only way they could tell.
Well, I know.
I'm going to scare you in it.
Yeah.
You don't want it, but they never had a problem
where the bicycles left on.
So that's how they measure it.
I'm going to scare you in it.
Okay.
We talked about, when you go on the beach,
I mean, even if you have a little bit,
put the life jacket on.
When you're in the lake.
I mean, it's water.
You can go down in that stuff.
Do they have like a shelf under the water that dips real fast?
I know we're not grew up on the ocean they did.
But down by North Beach, it's all sand,
which we have no shelf that's going to drop off to,
you know, several tens of hundreds of feet quickly.
However, the sand is constantly shifting.
So you can get holes and stuff that all of a sudden you're over your head.
And then further out,
you see people standing at their knees because there's a sand bar out there.
So you just never know what the contour of the bottom is going to be.
I remember being in the ocean.
All of a sudden, you go down.
The shelf is right there.
And, you know, you start swimming to get back to where you were.
And of course panic sets in for me.
Let's talk about boats again, fire extinguishers.
Now, that's a meant you have to have those on there, right?
You do have to have a fire extinguisher on board.
Hopefully it's one that works.
Yes.
They're only good for so long.
They should have a gauge on them that indicates it's working.
Any boat with closed construction needs to have a fire extinguisher
because the gases from the fuel can build up in there and start a fire.
Okay.
Another reason I get nervous.
And you do have boats do have fires.
If you have a fire extinguisher, you put it out and you call for help.
If you don't have a fire extinguisher,
it's going to take a while for the fire department to get out to you.
Well, let me ask you,
how do boats have to go through inspections at all?
If we ever stop a boat, we inspect it.
But there's no like annual required inspections for the boats.
When you stop a car, you've got to have probable cause to go search a car.
Obviously.
Same thing with boats.
Correct.
We need probable cause to stop the boat.
Yep.
Okay.
How do you know people are drinking on a boat with a car?
You can see the car swarming all over the road.
You know people are drinking with a boat.
How can you tell?
It's very difficult to tell just by their driving if they've been drinking.
They're not due to the fact that boats can just go sideways with the winds and the waves.
So it's basically if we stop them for a violation to see if they've been drinking
when we talk to them.
If they're doing something really crazy out there, or we've had them where sometimes they go into the swim area
because they don't realize they just crossed the buoy line.
I saw this date line episode.
And involved a whole bunch of teenagers on the boat.
They crashed it.
They were going into a bridge and they crashed it into one of the,
the, I think what you call it.
The pylons.
Whatever it was.
Yeah, supports.
They crashed it.
A girl fell overboard.
She died.
And immediately these teenagers started concocting a story on what happened.
And it didn't mess you with what the results were here.
But they were drinking on the boat.
And they crashed it in this girl.
Well, innocent bystanders went overboard.
They were so drunk.
They didn't know where she was.
And she's just drowned because she was drinking as well.
And she just drowned and everything.
So it's dangerous out there.
I mean, when you let your kids out.
If I had a kid, I wouldn't live on a boat.
Of course, I wouldn't, I didn't want my kid ever driving a car.
She's 45 now.
And I still don't want her driving.
So anyway, the first time she got her license and she was off on her own.
She wanted to go to Butler's skate line, which isn't Butler in Milwaukee.
And I was panicking.
I had heart palpitations.
And I said, my wife, let's get in the car and follow her.
Just stay behind.
So she can't see us.
It was at night.
And we followed her there and we stayed the entire parking lot the whole time.
She was in Butler's skate line.
And she called us on a cell phone.
We had a big bag phone.
And we were right back of her.
I said, OK, I just be careful.
And we followed her home.
I said, we can't do this every time.
We've got it just trust.
But she's a good driver.
And so it's so at 45.
I have other people following her now.
That's going to be scary to let your kid on the boat for the first time by themselves.
I'm sure it's very scary for parents.
OK, let's talk about navigation lights because all boats have to have those lights on them.
Now, do robots have to have them?
Well, a robot has to have a light that they can display to avoid a collision.
But they don't have the standard navigational lights.
They're not powered.
But basically like flashlight lanterns, something like that.
Same thing with kayaks.
But powered boats.
They've got to have the full navigational lights.
Because if you think about it, it's not like driving in a street where there's street lights
or another car that's got headlights to illuminate you.
Boats don't have headlights.
And there's no lights out there at all.
So if the boat has no lights on, you're not going to know it's there until you've already ran it around.
You know, I see on the fourth of July when we go out to watch the fireworks on the late front.
And everybody's on the lake million to these red lights out there.
They got to be real close to each other because they're just all over.
Because they want to see the fireworks from the lake.
And I understand it.
But yeah, if you don't have the lights on.
And you're sitting duck, especially if somebody's cruising along at a nice speed and all of a sudden you're there.
They don't have brakes.
They don't have brakes and they won't even see you because it's not like they've had like shiny in front of them.
Do you want to say something?
No, not at all.
Okay, yeah.
When you, yeah, you don't have brakes.
You can't start that.
Yeah, but they do.
We can put your foot in the water.
Or even sort of to avoid it.
They won't see them until the collisions already happened.
And navigation lights in like headlights on a car and also like the brake lights.
Check them every once in a while.
They're not working.
Get a bulb.
I mean, how much does the bulb cost?
I know how to turn them on.
I've had people go out during the day and they're coming back at night with the lights on.
And they're like, we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on.
Is it like a switch?
There's a switch.
Doesn't it see like on and off?
It's not always not all the switches are labeled and some of the older boats.
That's the issue.
All right.
More coming up.
We're going to wrap it up in a few minutes here.
We're talking about boating safety because yes, the boating season's coming up before you know what?
People are going to head out there.
I guess memorial day weekends.
The big weekend.
Everybody gets a boat to the water.
That's usually when it starts to pick up and it peaks usually around 4th of July.
They have these red cross from the, um,
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
That's usually when it starts to pick up and it peaks usually around 4th of July.
They have these red cross from the, um,
the restaurant there at Joey's yard arm right across the day.
You get all the boat stored.
And I pass it every day.
And you know, boating season's coming where they take those wraps off the boat.
The, uh,
the plastic wraps and they start putting them in the water and it's going up.
Here it comes.
And
usually around the more early weekend in mid-May,
they start unwrapping them and put them in the water.
Well, and we've even got some in now.
The Marina that we're stationed at has two boats that came in yesterday.
So they've, it's already started.
And I won't put my snow shovels away yet.
I said, don't put them away.
If you put them away and it snows, it'll be your fault.
So I left them in there.
All right.
We have our guest from the Racine Traffic Safety Commission, Lieutenant Michael Well.
He is the public information officer and deputy, um, Jerome Hipper,
who actually goes on the water in the boats.
That must be a fun job on a hot, nice summer day.
It's, it's a lot of fun on a nice sunny day and not so much fun and thunderstorms.
Oh, yeah.
But still, I mean, what a way to live.
What do you do all day?
You know, we mentioned lifeguards before.
I forget.
I read this morning.
Lifeguards in Los Angeles.
They have eight lifeguards that make $300,000 a year.
They have 12 that are up to $200,000 a year.
Now the downside is you got to not a swim and save people.
Other than that, I mean, that's nice.
Just sit on the beach.
If everybody, nobody's drowning, you just sit there on the beach and get $300,000 a year.
See, then Los Angeles, it's year round.
It's not like here where it's, you know, just a few months.
But still, isn't that nice?
And that'd be a nice job to have.
Yeah.
But you're going to have to swim and save people's lives and, you know, who wants to do that.
WRJN
We're talking about boating safety today as part of the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission,
our first Thursday of the month.
And Lieutenant Mike Luella is here.
He is the public information officer and Deputy Jerome Hipper, the guy who jumps in the
water to save you.
He's here as well.
What do you have to save somebody?
How do you jump in the water with a police uniform on?
We just do it anyways.
So do you like to sink to the bottom?
No, lifejackets will keep us up.
So best way to go is just to get them near the boat and we have a lift.
Kind of like a crane that we installed on the boat last year.
I actually lift people out of the water.
Do you have to save a lot of people?
It sometimes.
It depends on the year.
A couple of years ago, we had a lot of incidents.
And last year, we had very few.
So it's good to see that some of these safety programs are working.
Do you go out during the day or night?
Both.
So we've got two shifts on.
So we'll be out there the day, out there in the night.
It all depends.
And then I also on the dive team.
So anytime an incident happens, they call us in the middle of the night.
We go on the spot.
Really?
Yep.
We had somebody, I won't mention it too much, but she had a problem.
And she drove her car off the dock on purpose with the boats going the water and drown herself
on purpose.
And she regretted it when the water was coming in.
It was too late at that point.
And they couldn't find her.
This was a night.
And they couldn't see it.
A dive team went under the water and they found the car with her in.
A horrible thing.
They have to go find people under water if you're a diver.
Because I see a dateline all the time with the divers going in in 2020.
And they have to find horrible things under the water and bring them up.
It is, but it's also nice to bring a resolution to the family and you know, bringing
them to everything.
Did you ever have to do that?
Yes, I've done it several times.
My body's under the water.
Yeah.
That would be nightmare stuff to me.
Let's talk about Bill's ventilators.
What are those?
So basically the bill is the bottom area of the boat.
It's usually where the engines are and it's covered up.
So you want to ventilate it because it's a bigger area.
And if they fuse from the fuel build up in there and catch a spark, it can actually explode.
Oh my goodness.
Let me put that down.
19.
Number 19.
Bill's ventilator.
I won't go in the stay away from that.
How do you know?
How do you know if it's going to happen?
Yeah.
Well, that's why you have a Bill's ventilator to vent the fumes out to prevent it from happening.
Man, there's a lot of stuff.
I thought you're going to boat.
You turn the key and you go out there and have a good time.
Come back.
Turn the key off.
Obviously there's a lot more to it.
And you should know there's a lot more to it.
The Bill's ventilator.
That's it.
A lot of people don't realize it.
How do you know if it's working or not working?
Yeah.
So you'll hear it if it's a fan system.
Otherwise, some of the systems are just used the fact that the boat is in motion to capture
air and then push it out the back.
So it's just automatically working.
Visual distress signals.
Are those typically called flares?
Oh, yeah.
The old method is flares.
They actually are some new methods that are flashlights that link SOS.
So they're called electronic visual distress signals.
So, but they're important to have in case your radio or your cell phone's not working, not getting
the signal.
You can just launch a flare and that'll let people know you need help and we can come out
and get you.
The cell phones work on the lake.
And depending on how far out you are, yes, they do.
What if he had Michigan?
And it's possible.
You're far enough out.
You might pick up Michigan.
Well, where are you?
Well, that's not our problem.
You better call the people and we're seeing on that one because we know we're not.
That's not your past.
The line.
The last time I ever heard of somebody sending up flares for distress was the Titanic.
And they never paid attention to them.
They thought they were just having a good time.
And they paid no attention to them.
But you paid attention to them.
Oh, yeah, we take them very seriously ever since the Titanic.
Well, I don't know.
I wasn't back around then.
So I don't know how it's changed.
You can do imagine that we actually had a Titanic survivor on the air here several years ago.
She's no longer with us, but Tom Carcaw and his director and had a Titanic.
I think it was a Titanic.
I'm going to remember.
I think it was a Titanic survivor.
I got to ask him.
I'm pretty sure.
But wow, she was a little baby on the boat on the ship.
And do imagine being on that thing having to go down.
I'm going to show the movie.
I saw like 12 movies of it.
And what a horrible thing to have happened on the ship.
You could not.
What they say.
Not even God could sink this ship.
What a dare that was.
You got to be stupid to say something like that.
Or as to a quick review, boating safety.
The boating seasons upon us.
It really kicks it in May.
Although you said people are.
People are going in right now.
Yeah.
All right.
It kicks in in May, I think, for the most part.
And all summer long, people have boats.
That's expensive to own a boat.
It is.
There's a lot of maintenance and upkeep.
Plus just the docking fees and all that stuff.
So it depends on if you have a slip or if you trailer it.
What?
What have you charged for a dot for a slip?
It depends on the size.
So it's all different prices.
All right.
You're going to give me a price.
I don't know the prices of pamphlet marinas.
But I know they have some slips that are 30 and some slips
that are like 60, 80 feet.
So there's a wide variance of them.
What do you get gas for your boat around here?
We actually, if you're on the water, there's two gas stocks.
Two marinas that have gas right at the water.
You just pull up and fill up and they've got tanks on shore.
They cleaned your windshield still?
No.
Okay.
They don't check your bill's fan.
It's not full service anymore.
They don't take your bill's ventilator when you're there.
No.
They don't have somebody go on.
No.
Hopefully they're running the bill's ventilator
or the gas and up though.
Yeah.
That's a concern.
Okay.
And let's talk again about courses.
If you've got somebody in your family, a young teenager
who wants to go on a boat, how do they get the courses?
They can go online to the Wisconsin DNR website.
And there's links on there.
And there's also classes that they teach in person.
So those are the easiest ways to get the courses.
And you say something.
It costs.
It's free to take the course from my understanding.
It's free if you do the in person class.
Okay.
The online class.
There's a cost associated with that.
And they give the in person classes.
They're all over.
So basically you'd have to go on the website, find their schedule
to see when they have wardens available to give the classes
and where they're giving them.
Because they're throughout the state.
Do you teach them?
I do not.
Okay.
What about, you have to have a license, right?
Yeah.
If you're born after a certain date, you have to have the boat
or safety.
And that's what 36 year we did try to do the math on it.
We didn't have a calculator here.
1989.
So that would be 90.
That would be what 36 you said.
36.
So if you're older than 36, you don't need a license.
Correct.
Yeah, if you're born before January 1st of 1989,
you don't need the boat or safety.
It's technically not a license.
It's a boat or safety certificate.
Okay.
And is there a limit to the size of the boats you can take out?
No, not if it's personal.
I mean, it's small.
I'm talking about small.
No.
No, there's no limit at all.
And what is it?
It's got to be an area where you can't go.
I mean, we have shipping on like Michigan.
You wouldn't go out that far with you.
Well, some of the fishermen go out that far.
You just have to make sure that if one of those big boats are coming,
that you're getting out of their way if they need you to,
because they have the right away due to the fact they're commercial
and that size.
No, they get the right away because they're big.
They're like the bullies of the lake.
It's the laws of physics.
So did I miss anything today?
Or do we get everything in?
No, I think we got everything in.
Biggest thing that we emphasize is just wearing the PFDs
and having them accessible.
We've had boats that we've stopped or like let's see your PFDs
and they move the cooler and all the food out of the way
and pull up the seat and then wiggle the package out,
unzip it after they break the brand new tabs.
Those are not accessible.
If the boat's going down, you need the PFDs out and ready.
Boy, and if you have children,
they'll make it there on that dock, put them on.
Correct.
And if they're under 13, if the boats underway,
they have to be wearing them.
I'd be wearing it as soon as I left home in the car.
But I can't get the seat built up.
I'm not taking it all.
You never know.
Well, thank you guys for coming to this morning.
I do appreciate it.
You're welcome from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission.
This is our first Thursday.
We're doing all these safety.
They will have the road.
Let me review.
If you go to the Racine County dot com slash staying safe,
you'll see all the the programs we've done.
