Gander Mountain to host B.E.S.T. courses

DAYTON, Ohio – Outdoor retailer Gander Mountain, has begun offering a new boating education and hands-on training program exclusively for women, in partnership with the Marine Marketers of America, MMA said in a release yesterday.

The MMA-developed Boating Education and Safety Training course just for women, is being held July 19-20 at Gander Mountain’s Huber Heights, Ohio store location, and will be taught by certified instructors. The course includes on-the-water, hands-on boat handling instruction as well as an approved boating education class. The new program is designed to give women who are experienced or new to recreational boating the knowledge, skills and confidence to operate a boat safely on the water.

The B.E.S.T. program is being launched this summer under the auspices of the Marine Marketers of America, which has developed the pro-bono pilot project to benefit the U.S. boating industry. Gander Mountain is the first recreational retail marine dealer among a total of five marine retailers around the country participating in the pilot program to test and validate the concept of a dealer-based women’s boating education course that will be launched nationally in 2009.

Participants at Huber Heights will also be completing an approved boating safety education course taught by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 6-2. Additional program training provided through Gander Mountain will include a land-based trailer launching and recovery session and an extensive on-the-water boating skills session. Upon completion, B.E.S.T. program participants will have received boat operation skills training and be eligible to receive their Ohio boating education card.

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