[bmcald]

The unfortunate loss of Jamie Boeckel''s life in the Block Island Race (see today''s news section in SailNet) and a similar boating tragedy that happened recently on Long Island raise the perennial question: should boaters always wear life vests?

In Boeckel''s case and the other case I am aware of, winds were under 30; I don''t know if Boeckel wore anything or not, but in the other boater''s death, he wasn''t wearing one although PFDs were on board.

The new automatically inflatable suspender style vests make it hard to argue that they''re too uncomfortable to wear all the time. But I know people will still be inclined not to wear them, unless weather conditions are really terrible.

Case in point--after reading about the one boater who drowned when a wave knocked him overboard, I ordered a SOSpender. The day it arrived, I went sailing. It''s not easy to see what the wind is doing from my dock, and I was surprised by the strength of the wind once I was out there. Still, I didn''t put the PFD on until after a jibe, when the boom swept the cockpit so quickly I realized I could have been knocked unconscious and into the water. Winds weren''t above 20.

It doesn''t take a gale to make dangerous conditions, but I bet most sailors don''t consider PFDs necessary in conditions less than a gale.

What do you do?