GLIN==> News release: New Yorkers make 2010 Discover Clean & Safe Boating Pledge

PRESS RELEASE: October 6, 2010
Contacts:
·     Dave White, New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation & Tourism
Specialist, 315-312-3042
·     John Jablonski, Boating Industries Association of Upstate NY
President, 315-685-7558
·     John Jackson, Marathon Boat Group CEO, 607-849-3211
 
New Yorkers Make 2010 Discover Clean & Safe Boating Pledge
 
Oswego, NY ­ New York Sea Grant, the Boating Industries Association of
Upstate NY, and Marathon Boat Group have announced that more than 1,400 New
York residents from Clayton and Oswego to Skaneateles, Seneca Falls and
Syracuse have taken the Clean and Safe Boating Pledge in 2010, and thousands
more were exposed to good boating practices by the 2500-plus mile
February-September campaign.
 
The opportunity to promise to follow good boating practices came as the 2010
edition of the Discover Clean and Safe Boat traveled through Upstate NY on
its educational mission. The 19-foot ³made in New York² Grumman aluminum
pontoon boat was equipped with the legally-required and recommended gear for
safe boating on New York waters. Marathon Boat Group in Marathon, NY,
supplied the boat, also equipped with two electric motors and a generator,
for the tour.
 
People of all ages signed their promise to safely operate their boats,
minimize wake, prevent fuel and oil spills, practice good cleaning and
maintenance, use pumpouts and dump stations, keep waters free of litter and
waste, and control the spread of aquatic nuisance species.
 
New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist Dave White
traveled with the boat to sites and events including:
·     Central New York Boat Shows in February and September in Syracuse
·     The Great Lakes Seaway Trail Reveal Road Show: Ogdensburg, Sackets
Harbor, Oswego, Webster, and Niagara Falls, NY, and Erie, PA
·     The Antique Boat Museum Antique Boat Show in Clayton
·     Festival of Sail and H. Lee White Marine Museum in Oswego
·     Oswego County Fair, Sandy Creek
·     Skaneateles Antique Boat Show
·     Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls.
 
³Visitors to the Discover Clean and Safe Boat asked good questions about how
to keep themselves, their children, and their friends safe on the water.
Being able to see the various types of personal flotation devices (life
vests), and other safety gear is a great hands-on way to learn,² White said.
 
White added some people were surprised to learn how easily they could help
prevent oil and fuel spills with two inexpensive items ­ a bilge sock and a
fuel nozzle bib.
 
³The 2010 Discover Clean and Safe Boating Campaign was a new program for
Marathon Boat Group. We are pleased to return in 2011 to help New Yorkers
learn how to enjoy our fabulous boating waters by following good practices
to protect themselves and the marine environment,² said Marathon Boat Group
CEO John Jackson.
 
³The partnership of Boating Industries Association members, Marathon Boat
Group donating a brand new vessel to help attract interest, and New York Sea
Grant as the clean and safe boating educational arm made this campaign
possible in 2010. Support from the state, industry and tourism sectors
provided boating-related prize wheel items to make the exhibit great fun,
and I am excited to announce we already have planning underway for the 2011
Discover Clean and Safe Boating campaign,² said Boating Industries
Association of Upstate New York President John Jablonski.
 
Morgan Recreational Supply, Taylor Made Products, the Sailboat Shop of
Skaneateles, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic
Preservation, the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, and
the Great Lakes Seaway Trail byway donated 45 PFDs (personal flotation
devices/life vests), 500 boating bags, 220 bilge socks, and 60 Nautical
Seaway Trail Chartbooks to the campaign.
 
The 2011 edition of the Discover Clean and Safe Boating will debut as part
of the Boating Information Center exhibit at the February 2011 Central New
York Boat Show in Syracuse, NY. A different style of vessel will have a new
educational focus for the 2011 campaign. Watch for details on the New York
Sea Grant website at www.nysgextension.org or call 315-312-3042 for more
information. #
 
Sidebar Suggestion: 2010 Clean & Safe Boat Part of NY History
The Grumman aluminum pontoon boat provided for the 2010 Discover Clean and
Safe Boating campaign came direct from the Marathon Boat Group assembly line
at Marathon, NY, for its educational mission. It can be called a descendant
of the engineering that created lightweight, stretch-formed aluminum
aircraft use as carrier-based fighter planes during World War II.
 
In the summer of 1944, after portaging a heavy wood and canvas canoe in the
Adirondack Mountains, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Vice President William
Hoffman decided to create a lightweight canoe. The first aluminum canoe was
produced at the Bethpage aircraft plant on Long Island in 1945. By the end
of the war, Grumman was making six different length aluminum canoes. The
plant moved to Marathon, NY, in 1952 and began producing larger aluminum
boats there.
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