Coast Guard to Offer Boating Safety Class

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is offering a free boating safety course beginning today at the Coast Guard Recruiting Center, 4202 S. Victoria Ave., Oxnard.

Classes are held on 13 consecutive Tuesdays, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Instructors are local sailors and powerboat skippers trained and certified by the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Students enrolled in the boating safety course will learn how to use navigational aids and how to read the weather to determine if a storm is coming.

Officials said that the course will also underscore the importance of following such basic safety precautions as wearing life vests. They noted how one boater who drowned last week and his missing partner were not wearing life vests when their boat capsized near Oxnard State Beach.

“A life jacket will save more lives than anything else,” said Scott Smith, a staff officer with the auxiliary. “But they won’t do any good if you don’t wear them.”

Oxnard resident Sherith Perez, 51, a recent graduate of the safety program, said the program has made her and her husband, Michael, better sailors.

“The classes are great,” she said. “You learn to handle yourself in all kinds of conditions.”

For more information about the boating safety course, call John or Zane White at 483-0534.