If you thought people seemed happier spending time on a boat, you’re right. In a first-ever survey of the half a million recreational boat owning members of the national boating advocacy and services group, Boat Owners Association of The United States, 99.4% responded “yes” when asked: “Do you wave (to other boats)?”

“Waving to nearby boats is natural for many boat owners,” said BoatUS President Margaret Podlich. “It doesn’t matter what kind of boat – power, sail, fishing or personal watercraft. Nor does it matter who does the waving. It’s a universal gesture.”

The survey was a response to a short cruise Podlich recently took on her own local waters. She realized that while she was waving cheerfully to each boat she encountered, many weren’t bothering to wave or engage with others while cruising down the waterway.

Said Podlich, “After double checking my wake and confirming I was not being discourteous, I started asking myself, why aren’t other boaters waving?”  So the BoatUS President commissioned the survey, and her Association members responded definitively.