Zip, Clip, Go!

Our free BoatU.S. Foundation Life Jacket Loaner Program is ready to serve you this summer, and we’re making borrowing right-sized life jackets even easier.

In June 2022, Barbara Ann Benson, who had 27 years of experience at the helm, took out her bowrider on New York’s Hudson River with two other adults and five children aboard. Before departing that day, she stopped at a local boat club to borrow children’s life jackets from a BoatU.S. Foundation Life Jacket Loaner station because she didn’t have the correct sizes aboard for her young guests.

As the group headed home after spending a fun day at a popular anchorage, wind-driven waves combined with the wake of a passing commercial vessel came over the bow and swamped the boat, leaving everyone aboard up to their waists in water. Thanks to assistance from local police and fire rescue as well as good Samaritans, the eight aboard were safely returned to shore and the boat was recovered.

After the event, Benson said, “That afternoon was very stressful as it all happened so quickly. But just knowing that everyone was wearing a properly fitted life jacket helped us get through the emergency and be able to talk about it.”

While the BoatU.S. Foundation doesn’t know just how many of the life jackets it loans at no cost have helped save lives, accounts like this one highlight the ongoing importance of the program, which has been around since 1997. Now almost three decades later, the program has built up some 600 loaner sites nationwide, and those life jackets are loaned around 140,000 times each year.

Improving Access

Whether you have extra guests aboard or you discovered your youngster has suddenly outgrown the life jacket that fit last year, borrowing a life jacket for a day or weekend is easy: Visit BoatUS.org/LJLP and use the map search to find life jacket loaner sites near you. Sign out one or more jackets as needed at no cost. When finished, return the life jackets to the site. Easy-peasy.

Even so, the folks at our BoatU.S. Foundation have wondered whether the checkout process could be even easier and more accessible. So they applied for – and won – a grant through the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard, to pilot several new life jacket loaner options. These include new digital lockers, unmanned loaner sites, and digital checkouts.

The pilot sites will also include enhanced life jacket education, including QR codes that can be scanned to access fitting guides and videos. By the time you read this, some of these new pilots will be available at up to 150 loaner sites across the country.

According to Tiffany Gonzalez, BoatU.S. Foundation program manager, these pilot models represent an evolution of the Foundation’s long-standing Life Jacket Loaner Program. “They allow us to connect with sites and borrowers in smarter ways, helping us better understand community needs, best practices, and program impact,” she says.

Insights collected during these pilots will help inform the industry with data-driven best practices for increasing access to life jackets and improving proper wear. “BoatU.S. Foundation is committed to finding innovative ways to expand access while reducing potential loss to ensure programs like this have the greatest impact,” adds Gonzalez.