A national campaign is encouraging boaters to Spring Aboard by enrolling in a boater education course before the kickoff to the boating season.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) works with BoaterExam and Boat-Ed to offer online boater education courses and during Spring Aboard campaign week March 17-23, these companies will be offering 50 percent off the price of their on-line course. Use the code SpringAboard19 to receive the discount.
“March is the perfect time to take a course. The summer boating season will be here before we know it and all of us could benefit from a refresher course,” said Susan Stocker, boating law administrator for the Iowa DNR.
The exam covers required equipment, boating basics, navigation rules, environmental stressors, aids to navigation and takes about six hours to complete. Once a student has passed the test, they can print off their course completion certificate.
An estimated 231,346 boats are registered in Iowa. Last year, there were 32 boating incidents reported on Iowa waters.