Virgin Islands Search and Rescue (VISAR) is a voluntary organisation dedicated to saving life at sea. It is the officially recognised search and rescue service in the British Virgin Islands, where it provides 24-hour cover every day of the year in close co-operation with the Royal British Virgin Islands police, fire and ambulance services.

Its volunteers come from all walks of life, and undergo rigorous training in seamanship and small boat-handling skills, search and rescue techniques and first aid. They give up their own time to train and answer distress calls with nothing in return except the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing a vital job.

For more information visit, www.visar.org

The Aberdeen Boat Club was founded in 1962 by like-minded yachting enthusiasts and sports fishermen who wished to enjoy access to the seas off the southern side of Hong Kong Island. The Club was initially housed in relatively humble premises, and incorporated as the
Aberdeen Boat Club Ltd in 1967. The club moved into its current purpose-built premises in 1972 and has since become one of Hong Kong’s favourite recreational boating and sailing clubs.

The Club has a wide range of facilities for yacht, speedboat and cruiser owners spread over two club houses, with jetty and pontoon moorings available for members’ exclusive use.  The Club has around nine hundred members and their families, hailing from over 35 different countries.

For more information visit, www.abclubhk.com

Accon Marine continues to produce innovative marine hardware and accessories like the ones you’ll see here. It specialize in superior quality flush mounted, stainless steel hardware that enhances your boating experience.

It goal is not to be the biggest supplier of marine hardware, but to be the best supplier of the best marine hardware. If a product doesn’t meet the standard of quality and function that it demand on our own boats, it won’t sell it. It’s as simple as that. The Accon name has been associated with superior quality precision metalwork for more than 30 years. Accon began as a manufacturer of transistor bases and other precision metal stampings. In 1988, Accon entered the marine industry with the introduction of its 102 series lift rings and the POP-UP® CLEAT, and both the company and the marine industry were changed forever.

For more information visit, www.acconmarine.com

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.

The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings.

For more information visit, www.ncsu.edu/

The Sea Tow Foundation for Boating Safety and Education is kicking off its nationwide 2009 Boating Safety Challenge tour at the New York National Boat Show (Dec. 13-21) to help raise boating safety awareness. The Boating Safety Challenge encourages show visitors to test their knowledge of safe boating with a safe boating test, hands-on activities like knot-tying and putting on a life jacket in less than 30 seconds, and a Passport to Safety contest.

“It encourage all boat show attendees to stop by the Sea Tow Foundation booth (#926) and try a boating safety activity. Prizes will be awarded for various levels of participation,” said Sea Tow Foundation Executive Director Michelle Zaloom. “We go to boat shows to learn more about boats and boating. These activities will give everyone something fun and interesting to do while shopping and will hopefully make folks aware that they can never know enough about safe boating.”

For more information visit, http://boatingsafety.com

Lake Tahoe Boating Guide is intended as a resource guide for those who would like to go boating on Lake Tahoe and enjoy all that it has to offer. The site will be continually updated so please check back for the latest information. The Complete Guide To Boating Lake Tahoe is maintained as a public service.

Located at 6228′ above sea level in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and on the border of Nevada and California, Lake Tahoe is a boating paradise. Without a doubt one of the clearest, cleanest, and most beautiful lakes in the United States, Tahoe offers outstanding recreational opportunities for the entire family.Many beautiful and unique yachts are available for private charter by groups for events such as weddings, wedding receptions, parties, corporate meetings and family reunions.

For more information visit, http://boattahoe.com

Founded in 1971, the mission of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is to conserve, improve and protect the natural resources and environment of the State of Connecticut in such a manner as to encourage the social and economic development of Connecticut while preserving the natural environment and the life forms it supports in a delicate, interrelated and complex balance, to the end that the state may fulfill its responsibility as trustee of the environment for present and future generations.

The DEP achieves its mission through regulation, monitoring, inspection and enforcement, and licensing procedures that help control air, land and water pollution in order to protect health, safety, welfare and natural resources. DEP also improves and coordinates the state’s environmental plans, functions and educational programs in cooperation with federal, regional and local governments, other public and private organizations and concerned individuals, while managing and protecting the flora and fauna for compatible uses by the citizens.

For more information visit, http://ct.gov/dep/cwp/

The U.S. Coast Guard‘s Boating Safety Division (CG-5422) is dedicated to reducing loss of life, injuries, and property damage that occur on U.S. waterways by improving the knowledge, skills, and abilities of recreational boaters.

As an agency of the Federal government and a servant of the public, the U.S. Coast Guard, in its role as the designated National Recreational Boating Safety Coordinator, is a leader in improving the boating experience of the maritime public. It is an organization noted for working in partnership with all stakeholders within the waterways activity spectrum and across all modes of transportation to reach consensus solutions. It measure its success by its customer satisfaction, and its customers’ needs help define its workload and priorities.

For more information visit, http://uscgboating.org