PRESS RELEASE: Boating Safety Technology
Press Release
Contact: Grant Headifen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9AM, CST, November 8 , 2012
Ground Breaking Technology – for Boating Safety
“John you should meet Joe – he’s a big time sailor” – You’ve heard that plenty of times before – but is Joe really a big time sailor? What’s the gauge? And what about you? Are you a really big time sailor or not? Are you a safe sailor? A good boat owner? Are you good at proper maintenance? Are you a social sailor? An active sailor?
Until now there’s just been no gauge for any of this. Sailors, Yacht Clubs, Charter Companies, Sailing Schools and Instructors all struggle with a seemingly non definitive answer to any of those questions.
Additionally, is there a system out there that aids each individual boat owner to be responsible to themselves for boating safety and rewards them for the right activities?
Now, NauticEd online sailing school has released a software solution for all their students and affiliated sailing schools. The software encourages students to check off their everyday boating activities and thus earn points towards various Sailing Badges and Sailing Status.
An example would be to perform a well served inspection of safety items on the boat such as flare kit, tool box, through hull leaks etc. Completion of each activity earns a point towards a safety sailing badge.
NauticEd has released 10 badges that associate with 100 different safety and good boater type activities that they believe will have a grassroots major impact on boating behavior worldwide. The online software works so that each activity has a logical expiry period. Thus if you would like a helpful system to remind you to change the oil, re-register your boat, change the zinc anodes etc., just click away when you login to a free account at NauticEd.
Grant Headifen, Director of Education for NauticEd says “The software idea came about when one of our students sent in a photograph of a single chain link on his anchor rode that was dangerously and badly rusted and ready to break at any time. The student was very concerned that a single item like this, unchecked, could cause disaster under even a seemingly benign rocky leeshore overnight anchoring situation. “Everyone needs to check their rode NOW” he panicked. As we thought about this, it became apparent that NauticEd is ideally and uniquely situated to promote responsible boating behavior at the boater level. Our students have already demonstrated a desire to be safe by taking classes online, thus while they are still online, we can help them manage the details of safety with immediate realtime reward and recognition. You might say people now have boating safety at their finger tips.”
Sailing Badges
Headifen also said that the badges were designed to involve other sectors of the sailing industry. For example, students earn points when they subscribe to a sailing magazine, take practical sailing lessons from a sailing school, charter a yacht on a vacation, buy new equipment for their boat or buy a boat. They even earn points for taking someone sailing who has never sailed before, thus helping to grow the sport.
Headifen believes that NauticEd has now become a one stop shop for sailors. They offer over 80 hours of online sailing courses, a cloud based sailing certification, electronic practical experience logbook, online sailing resume management, boater safety reward badges and access to practical sailing schools worldwide. “It represents over 1 million lines of backend code and a pretty sizeable investment in our valuable and motivated students” Headifen said.
You can learn about NauticEd’s badge program at:
https://sailing-blog.nauticed.org/about-sailing-badges-and-status/
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