I’ve been boating long before I was a Mother, but my experience with kiddos and the lake has given me a leg up when it comes to boating with my own child.  Though we have always considered safety important, it’s now paramount to my own boating experience.  My on the water happiness is directly connected to the situation I create for my son.  Here are a few of my tips for boating with your babies!

1. Get the expensive life jacket.  The neoprene tends to be softer and the fit is better. They are much more likely to stay content if their life jacket isn’t rubbing their tender skin raw.
2. Put them in a long sleeve rash guard and hat. If you’ve ever put sunscreen on a squirmy baby that’s more like a bag of snakes than a human, you know how tough it can be to get full coverage. Cover them up!
3. Create a soft place for them to land on your boat. They will inevitably get sleepy and nap so make sure there is a spot out of the sun that you can put them down.
4. If anchoring and swimming around is on your usual lake agenda, consider a Maui Mat or Lilly Pad. This doesn’t negate the need for a life jacket, but it does give everyone a way to safely play in and around the water and no one is forced to take turns sitting on the boat to watch baby.
5. Make sure all the products used on your boat are non toxic. Hula Boat Care is my go to for a few reasons, but the top of my list is that it is marine and kid friendly so I know for sure that my little guy is safe if exposed to treated areas.

There are so many ways that boating with a baby or toddler can be difficult, but with a little preparation, you can share your love for the water with your mini me.

Besides the fact that a lot of people are afraid of spiders, you don’t want them in or around your boat. Spider droppings can stain and stick to a boat’s gel coat and vinyl seats. It can be very difficult to clean spider droppings from a boat’s exterior, and if the droppings are on the vinyl, they won’t come off. You may notice that spiders are more of a problem as you pull your boat out of storage.

You need to be careful of the type of product you use to get rid of spiders since some products have pesticides or hazardous chemicals in them, which isn’t water safe. Our Amped Spider Repellant is a safe, eco-friendly repellent that’s made of natural ingredients so it doesn’t impact the water quality where the boat is parked and it repels spiders for up to 3 months.

Just like the exterior, it’s important to prepare your boat’s interior surfaces for the summer ahead. With all the water that gets into your boat from people getting in and out of the water doing water sports or splashes from waves, your boat will probably take in quite a bit of water throughout the summer. Protect your boat’s vinyl, carpet and storage cubbies with our Chill Mold Retardant, which is a coating that prevents mold and mildew from growing on these areas. It’s really easy to use – just spray the surfaces and let it dry.

We recently completed a field test with this product and had great results: we applied it to the vinyl seats of a boat that was stored on a lake over the winter. Five months later, there was no sign of mold or mildew growth!