Posted By Gail Kulp,
Friday, November 15, 2024
Updated: Thursday, November 14, 2024
Last month, the spotlight was on boating safety at the International BoatBuilders' Exhibition & Conference (IBEX) in Florida as we announced the winners of the 2024 National Boating Safety Awards. The Sea Tow Foundation™, alongside our Boating Safety Advisory Council, recognized companies for their exceptional efforts in promoting safe practices on the water. These organizations, from manufacturers to media outlets, have shown a commitment to spreading life-saving messages and encouraging responsible boating behavior.
Now in its sixth year, the National Boating Safety Awards continue to honor innovative campaigns across the marine industry. This year’s winners stood out for their ability to engage diverse audiences through creative and impactful campaigns.
Let’s take a closer look at the standout efforts that earned these industry leaders their well-deserved recognition:
Marine Manufacturer Award: Bayliner Boats
Bayliner Boats earned the Marine Manufacturer Award for their National Safe Boating Week Daily Safety Tips campaign. Through a combination of engaging videos and social media posts, Bayliner illustrated their dedication to promoting safe boating practices. Their partnership with Freedom Boat Club during National Safe Boating Week helped amplify their safety message.
Yamaha received an Honorable Mention for their National Safe Boating Week Campaign featuring safety ambassador Hunter Bland.
Gear & Equipment Manufacturer Award: Garmin
Garmin earned the Gear & Equipment Manufacturer Award for their 2024 Safe Boating Campaign. They partnered with The Qualified Captain during National Safe Boating Week to extend their year-round efforts of promoting safe boating practices, ensuring that both new and experienced boaters are better equipped to stay safe on the water.
Marine Trade Assocaition Award: National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA)
The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) won the Marine Trade Association Award for their Discover Boating Top Safe Boating Tips video series in partnership with Progressive. By utilizing platforms such as YouTube, social media and email, NMMA successfullly reached millions of boaters across the country. Their freely available materials allowed other organization to share these critical safety messages, furter extending the campaign's reach.
BoatClass won the Social Media Influencer Award for their Organic Social Media Boating Safety & Instruction Campaign. Using short-form reels, BoatClass created engaging, safety-focused content and built effective partnerships with other marine industry companies. Their strategy sparked high viewer engagement, with audiences actively participating in discussions around alternative safety practices.
Marine Business - General Award: Freedom Boat Club
The Marine Business - General Award was given to Freedom Boat Club for their New Member Safety Orientation and Comprehensive Training Program. Combining face-to-face orientations, dock briefings and digital tools, Freedom Boat Club provided essential safety instruction to boaters, emphasizing the importance of proper training and safe boat operation.
Community Boating Education Award: BoatClass & Whitman Marine Training
This year’s Community Boating Education Award resulted in a tie. BoatClass was recognized for their on-water training program, which offered comprehensive instruction to new and experienced boaters through partnerships with key industry players such as NASBLA and Freedom Boat Club.
Whitman Marine Training stood out for their extensive community outreach and training programs, combining classroom instruction, on-water training modules and partnerships with local marinas to effectively teach boating safety to their community.
The 2024 National Boating Safety Award winners have made an incredible impact in advancing safety on the water. By encouraging responsible boating and raising awareness through creative campaigns, these companies continue to make a difference in the industry and within their communities.
Thank you to everyone who participated – we are already looking forward to next year’s awards! For more information on this year’s winners and next year’s application, visithttps://www.boatingsafety.com/page/Awards
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Updated: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Yamaha won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Marine Manufacturer.
Please brieflydescribe your winning entry and tell us about the process of creating/launching it.
Yamaha worked with Yamaha Professional Angler and Safety Ambassador, Hunter Bland, to create a 12-month safety campaign. The team worked on the project throughout the year and collaborated to create monthly blog posts and/or videos to advocate for safe boating practices.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety?
As a leader in the marine industry, Yamaha takes boating safety very seriously. We believe it is in the best interest of all boaters to be aware of and to practice safe boating at all times. This campaign allowed for the opportunity to help educate boaters on how to keep themselves, their family, their friends and fellow boaters safe.
What partnerships, media coverage and/or opportunities have you received as a result of winning the award?
Yamaha Safety Ambassador, Hunter Bland, continues to grow as a leading voice in boating safety. The Yamaha safety campaign, along with his unique story and passion for other boaters to be safe on the water has resulted in Hunter speaking at numerous events and his continued work with other boating safety organizations.
What was a key takeaway you received as a result of working on this project or campaign?
The key takeaway is that there is still a lot of work to be done but it’s refreshing to see how receptive boaters are to the message.
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Updated: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
The Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA) won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Marine Trades Association.
Please brieflydescribe your winning entry and tell us about the process of creating/launching it.
Our entry was about our Wake Responsibly campaign that has long been an effective way to educate homeowners and boaters alike on courteous behavior on the water. The campaign recently underwent a rebrand to reflect our new legislative push featuring events in communities having waterway access issues. These community events are incredibly unique to the industry. The campaign is expansive and is comprised of a variety of resources including hang tags, metal boat ramp signs, downloadable graphics, print and digital ads, its own website, a compliance exam and more. There has been considerable effort in building this campaign to be one of the most respected educational campaigns in the industry.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety? Was this the first time doing so or has there been previous boating safety promotions?
Promoting boating safety is key to promoting and protecting our industry. Not only does boating safety support growth within the industry by cultivating a culture of responsibility and trust, but it can also lead to increased participation in our activities. We are enthusiastic about sharing our love of towed watersports and believe the best way to share that passion is by fostering a sense of confidence in recreational boaters. For the sustainability and success of our industry, we all must do our part to encourage safe and responsible boating practices on all waterways.
What partnerships, media coverage and/or opportunities have you received as a result of winning the award?
Since earning the Sea Tow Foundation’s award, we have seen an uptick in interest in our Wake Responsibly materials and events. The award reinvigorated communities to continue empowering excellence in towed water sports with advocacy, education, safety, and community. It is endearing to see just how impactful this campaign has become, and we are committed to continuing this level of excellence into the future.
What was a key takeaway you received as a result of working on this project or campaign?
Our key takeaway from the Wake Responsibly campaign is that collaboration is key. We are much more effective when we come together to foster peaceful environments on all our waterways. Our campaign relies on community connection and when we all do our part, we know we can protect the watersports we know and love. The watersports community is extraordinarily passionate, and we have loved seeing Wake Responsibly be a vehicle for which that passion thrives.
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Updated: Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Boating Magazine, which is owned by Firecrown Media, won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Marine Media Outlet.
Please brieflydescribe your winning entry and tell us about the process of creating/launching it. Did it take a lot of planning or was it something that came together fairly quickly?
The video “Penny Wise, Lifetime Foolish” was an effort to dramatize a very real shortcoming among new boaters in terms of boating safety. It springs naturally from parents’ understanding that kids grow quickly and buying clothes that are much too large is a common practice to optimize the expenditure. But, in boating, a life jacket that doesn’t fit, doesn’t do the job it was designed for and the money is wasted. As a result, children’s lives can be in danger.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety? Was this the first time doing so or has there been previous boating safety promotions?
Boating Magazine and its sister publications, Yachting, Cruising World, Sailing World and Saltwater Sportsman have been engaged with the U.S. Coast Guard and Water Sports Industry Association for over a decade to produce content that promotes best practices in boating safety. Since we began our work, the USCG has congratulated us for doing our part to decrease boating deaths.
What does winning this award mean for your company?
The recognition associated with this award raises the esteem and importance of our project’s efforts and encourages all stakeholders to continue in our work to make boaters safer.
What was a key takeaway you received as a result of working on this project or campaign?
Some of our audience commented that the ill-fitting, cheap life jackets on the kids in the video were just not realistic and this was actually reassuring to our team’s effort. But, our goal was to highlight that behavior and offer a dramatic lesson on the importance of correcting it to reach the boaters we’ve seen and know who have fallen prey to the misconception that “kids will grow into their life jackets,” they have to fit NOW.
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Updated: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Boat Safe Chicago won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in two categories: Top Community Boating Education Program and Top Social Media Influencer.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety? Was this the first time doing so or has there been previous boating safety promotions?
Boat Safe Chicago prioritizes guest safety as charter captains, so it seemed obvious that we would start to teach responsible boating to the community. We know that anyone can go online and get a boater safety card, but we felt a call to teach on-water boating safety including close-quarters maneuvering, emergency procedures, and other responsible boating practices.
What does winning this award mean for your company?
The award was significant because it validated our team’s efforts, and the national recognition brought meaningful benefits. We used the awards as a stepping stone to grow our safety training businesses, Boat Safe Chicago and launched our new company, Boat Safe Great Lakes.
What was a key takeaway you received as a result of working on this project or campaign?
On-water training works! We started training all new and returning Carefree Boat Club members in Chicago and Wisconsin in April of 2023, and we recently found out that they went from several claims a year to having ZERO claims in 2023. The results were so impressive that several Carefree Boat Clubs in Michigan have started using our training for their members.
Is your company working on any future boating safety projects or campaigns? If so, is there anything you can share about what you’re planning to do?
The public needs on-water training! No one wakes up and says, “I am going to really destroy my boat today.” We need to continue working together to make our waterways safer for everyone!
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Updated: Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Regal & Nautique of Orlando won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Marine Retailer.
Please brieflydescribe your winning entry and tell us about the process of creating/launching it.
Regal & Nautique of Orlando has been a long-time advocate of boating safety, and we were very pleased by the opportunity to share our strategic retail initiatives and activities in hopes that other dealers will “see the light” and share in similar efforts. Our winning entry reflected our dealership’s holistic approach to boating safety which runs throughout all aspects of our business and operations, from active engagement among our leadership team in industry-sponsored boating safety initiatives, to our own ongoing customer education and promotion via safety training and onboarding, along with participation in multiple events and marketing communication platforms.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety?
Boating safety is an integral component in our dealership DNA and has been a major mission for our dealership since Day One. We believe safe boaters are happy boaters. Educated boaters are far more confident on the water and that contributes to a more fulfilling and enjoyable experience for everyone on board. As a dealership, boating safety is a key part of our stewardship to provide the best boating experience possible for our customers.
What partnerships, media coverage and/or opportunities have you received as a result of winning the award?
We appreciated the solid national media coverage generated as a result of winning this award and we also shared the news locally, and directly with our customers through various marketing communication channels. We have long-standing boating safety partnerships in place with “Ride Dry. Drive Dry” and others, plus we have intentionally shared and promoted the good works of multiple other boating safety organizations via our social platforms, website Learning Center blog and via customer eblasts.
Is your company working on any future boating safety projects or campaigns? If so, is there anything you can share about what you’re planning to do?
Regal & Nautique of Orlando will continue to promote and participate in ongoing boating safety activities and initiatives on both the national and local level for our team members, customers, and with our dealership events and tournament series.Some big news to share is that we have launched our exciting online pro shop at www.WakeUnited.com. Here, we offer a full line-up of the latest boating safety equipment and gear that is sure to resonate with our customers and the boating community at large!
Posted By Administration,
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Updated: Tuesday, July 2, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Boston Whaler won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Marine Public Relations and Marketing Effort.
Please brieflydescribe your winning entry and tell us about the process of creating/launching it.
Our winning entry for Boston Whaler was a comprehensive boating safety campaign that was aimed at encouraging Boston Whaler boaters to participate in safe boating. We utilized social channels, our website, and emails to drive the most awareness and make give our audience some important tips that could be useful during their own boating. And Capt. Wil Rogers helped with lots of videos on boating safety tips.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety?
For Boston Whaler, boating safety is one of our biggest priorities. We maintain the reputation of being unsinkable, and therefore upholding quality boating for all our customers. Recognizing the significance of maintaining our reputation, our company has consistently prioritized safety initiatives, ensuring that every boater feels confident and secure on the water. This campaign, building upon our unsinkable legacy, represents another milestone in our ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of safety within the boating community.
What does winning this award mean for your company?
We are so honored to win this award because it validates our efforts in promoting boating safety and it also acknowledges the impact of our initiatives within the industry. It serves as recognition of our dedication to ensuring the safety and well-being of boaters and emphasizes the need for ongoing boating safety campaigns, not just during National Safe Boating Week.
Is your company working on any future boating safety projects or campaigns? If so, is there anything you can share about what you’re planning to do?
Looking ahead, Boston Whaler remains committed to promoting boating safety in future projects and campaigns. We continue to release blog articles and landing pages for our audience that contain essential safety tips. We find that providing these resources to our boaters is the best way to communicate the importance of safe boating. We continue to explore new avenues of reaching boaters and emphasizing the importance of safety. Our goal is to continue raising awareness and providing resources that empower boaters to make informed decisions and enjoy the water responsibly.
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Friday, July 26, 2024
Updated: Tuesday, July 2, 2024
The Sea Tow Foundation is showcasing the winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards via individualized blog posts that answer specific questions posted to each winning company.
Garmin won the 2023 National Boating Safety Award in the category of Top Gear & Equipment Manufacturer.
What inspired your company to promote boating safety?
Many people think that safe boating just means wearing a life jacket (which is important), but there are so many additional ways to ensure you have an enjoyable – and safe – day out on the water. Garmin’s mission is to create products that are an essential part of our customers’ lives, which includes boating and fishing. From up-to-date mapping to sonar technology, marine radars, AIS and VHF equipment to inReach satellite communicators, Garmin products can help make the difference between a good and bad day on the water, and we’re passionate about ensuring our customers know how to use their electronics so they can make the most out of doing what we all love so much – enjoying the water.
What partnerships, media coverage and/or opportunities have you received as a result of winning the award? Since collaborating with The Qualified Captain to raise awareness for boating safety last year, we have continued to strengthen our partnership with them and their platform. What started as a place to highlight on-the-water incidents that could have been avoided has turned into a platform for boating safety education and we are proud to continue collaborating with them to expose more people to tips on how to make the most of their time spent on the water.
It was also great to see many consumer and trade media outlets cover the awards program, which hopefully generates more boating safety content and commentary on their various news platforms.
What was a key takeaway you received as a result of working on this project or campaign?
It’s rewarding to see the interest and engagement in safe boating content increase from year to year – it means we’re reaching more boaters and anglers and hopefully making our waters safer for everyone. We were also thrilled to learn that the Sea Tow Foundation received a record-breaking number of entries to their Safety Awards program in 2023 – the more people promoting boating safety, the better! It’s great to see so many companies and brands from all facets of the industry coming together to raise awareness of something that will impact generations of boaters for years to come.
Is your company working on any future boating safety projects or campaigns? If so, is there anything you can share about what you’re planning to do?
We recently issued a report outlining Garmin inReach SOS data from 2023, which showed that boating was the fourth highest activity people were doing when they triggered an SOS. The top reasons Garmin customers are triggering an SOS is for injury or an accident, which validates our efforts to promote safer boating practices for anyone leaving the dock. As we look ahead, we remain committed to creating purposeful, informative content, media outreach, education and more for a stronger and safer community of boaters.
Posted By Gail Kulp,
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Updated: Friday, September 29, 2023
The winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety Awards were presented at the Soundings Trade Only event on October 2, 2023 prior to the start of IBEX in Tampa, FL.
The Sea Tow Foundation received a record-breaking number of entries for their Boating Safety Advisory Council to review and judge. The winners for 2023 are:
Blog Home
All Blogs
