COAST GUARD CORPS WILL OFFER SAFETY LESSONS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

There are 6,675 fishing boats, personal watercraft and other aquatic vessels registered in the Santa Clarita Valley, and two U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary classes will teach their safe operation.

Only a small percentage of recreational boaters takes any sort of instruction before venturing onto the ocean or fresh water, increasing the potential for accidents, injury or death as a result of improper safety procedures or seamanship, Coast Guard officials say.

Of the 116,459 vessels currently registered in Los Angeles County, 5.7 percent belong to owners in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

In an ongoing effort to make the waters safer - particularly in a valley where Lake Piru, Castaic and Pyramid lakes are popular recreational destinations - the local volunteer corps of the Coast Guard will offer a 10-week coastal navigation class and a 14-week boating skills course. Both will meet weekly, in a classroom at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, 23225 Lyons Ave.

The navigation class will begin at 7 tonight; the boating skills course will start Tuesday, also at 7 p.m.

A chief concern is the popularity of personal watercraft - like Jet Ski, Wave Runner and Sea Doo - and the relative inexperience of many of their riders, said Chuck Holzapfel , who spent six years as a volunteer for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's Flotilla 43.

``Personal watercraft are generally run by young people (and often) they have no boating training,'' Holzapfel said. ``The Coast Guard considers (personal watercraft) the same as a boat, and they have to comply with the same navigation rules as a a boat.''

Holzapfel estimated that 80 percent of the deaths on the valley's three lakes are related to personal watercraft.

But the core of the problem is that recreational boating is far less regulated than driving an automobile, authorities said. For instance, there is no separate nautical driver's license required to operate a pleasure - not commercial - vessel or a personal watercraft.

The minimum age also is lower than that required to drive a car. Further, laws that prohibit carrying open containers of alcohol in a car don't apply to boats, leaving open the possibility that intoxicated people can take the helm of a vessel or the controls of a Jet Ski, Holzapfel said.

Another common oversight is the lack of safety equipment that every sailor should carry on his or her vessel, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Fernando Requejo.

Boaters of all types also leave the shore unprepared about proper operation of their vessel and with an unfamiliarity of the waterways they are traveling, Requejo said.

Taking seamanship classes addresses those deficiencies and also has an added bonus: Insurance companies generally reward mariners who have completed such instruction with lower rates, Requejo said.

Carolyn Sears and her husband Carrol are longtime volunteers with the Coast Guard Auxiliary's Flotilla 43.

The organization's workshops will cover a wide array of topics, Sears said. Among the highlights:

how to choose a vessel that is best suited to your recreational needs, whether it's sailing, fishing, towing water skiers, powerboat racing, diving or personal watercraft;

how to anchor or tie down your vessel;

what flags boaters must post to alert other vessels of their activity, such as diving or pulling skiers;

what types of lights, horns, radios, pumps, motors, floatation devices, fire extinguishers and bailing equipment that vessels must carry;

occupancy limits that must be observed for each size and type of vessel;

pre-launch safety checks;

filing a ``float plan'' that outlines a boater's planned route and expected time of return;

how to maintain control of your vessel in choppy seas or inclement weather;

how to navigate with a compass;

what to do in a ``man overboard'' situation;

proper protocol when leaving port - especially the ``no-wake'' rule that prohibits vessels from speeding out of the harbor because it causes anchored boats to toss on the waves or topple;

how to decipher the lights and colors posted on buoys that are intended to warn sailors about shallow waters, reserved areas for water skiing or fishing etc.;

how to send a distress signal, either with flags or by broadcast over the shipboard radio.

Although the instruction is free, there is a charge for the textbooks and course materials, Sears said. Students who pass the courses receive a certificate of completion from the Coast Guard.