Leaving your mark is a life’s dream. Accomplishing that while raising the bar makes you a legend. The boating industry lost a legend earlier this year. BoatUS founder Richard Schwartz passed away at 85, leaving behind a locker full of accolades, including the largest US boat owners organization, fighting boating battles and making boating safer! Schwartz created the Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) and for nearly a half-century advocated for boat owners and operated a nationwide discount marine retail chain with 62 BoatUS retail stores. In the early 1960s it wasn’t much of a stretch to visualize Schwartz, a young Princeton and Yale Law School graduate and anti-trust attorney, establishing the nation’s largest and most influential recreational boating organization. While a guest on a friend’s boat, the friend was given a ticket for something Schwartz felt was unfair and not the boater’s responsibility. Discovering there was no one fighting for the interests of boaters, BoatUS was conceived, adopting a mission of “service, savings and representation.” Schwartz ascertained the boating manufacturing sector was also complicit as it built in issues and inconsistencies into boat construction and safety. He created the only Consumer Protection Bureau for boaters seeking redress with manufacturers. Boaters never think about insurance polices until they file a claim or pay premiums. Schwartz put a lot of thought into insurance so boaters wouldn’t need to, replacing gobbledygook insurance industry jargon with plain English common sense. Realizing most boating insurance policies were full of leaks, he introduced BoatUS insurance in 1967. Listing his accomplishments would take away from boating time. Anyone enjoying time on the water owes Schwartz a salute. His Capitol Hill testimony resulted in the watershed Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971, giving the US Coast Guard the power to hold manufacturers accountable for certain…