Can You Buy Safety?

[Guzzi]

You can buy all the safety gear you want. One must PRACTICE safety at all times or any amount of gear is useless.

[Diceman]

Very Good Article on Safety.
Diceman

[RedtheBear]

The Bears' two cents worth:
Excelent article to be sure, if only everyone would read it. As I was taught my first safety officer and reinforced on every job I ever held is, the best piece of safety equipment you will ever have is the 2+ pound brain between your ears-if you will use it!
Think before you do anything and don't become part of the problem.

[RatHatDiver]

No your local sailing area very well. The Wife and I were watching the RedBull event in San Diego harbor for new years eve. After the guys made there jump, we headed back to our slip in heavy fog. Maybe 50' of visibility. We were also in a rented Ben 34. Our trip back was more exciting than watching those guys jump 250' over the water. We made it back with no problems and it was a great experience for the both of us.

[Woodvet]

The key to surviving disaster is to drill so often that your reaction is down packed. That way the extenuating circumstance is only an annoyance.
I think I need not ask what you think of smoking dope or drinking underway. They are many a right, or acceptable risk. May be -but not on a boat...
I have a very good sense of humor but it has no basis in alcohol or dope. They are not "the life of the party" that's an illusion or myth.
Even in my sailing course I was taught to accept drinking but pot was illegal.
Some argue smoking pot causes less road accidents but perhaps this might be due to the fact most pot heads can't ever remember just where it was they put their car keys.
Drinking and smoking are in no way conducive to safety and I do argue that, (just as I have with a drunken skipper headed into a squall). When I think of someone abandoning their perfectly good sailboat on a psychotic notion I think of my friends who smoke pot and talk about how flying saucers are causing the aurora borealis.
I think of drunk and stubborn ego maniac's and purple rages.
So the single best piece of sailing safety equipment my not be what you buy or take on but what you left at home. Life is complete you don't need it.

[Brent Swain]

In the June issue of Sail magazine, they gave the numbers for boating fatalities in the US in the last year. Total boating related fatalities, 758. Sailboat related fatalities, 28.
It appears that the Coast Guard, police and Mounties would save far more lives if they left sailors alone, and concentrated their time and effort on the boats which have the highest number of fatalities , power boats. Not doing so could even increase the number of boating fatalities.

[Woodvet]

I would agree on that but most sailors see stink pots as a conveyance between service stations. Mount the big speaker system to take away all the peace and quiet and you have a hearing hazard...
The reality of Homeland Security (first brought up by Clinton) is that under Bush the 4 out of 10 first hired were not able to later clear screening because of past criminal back grounds.
Sailboats in this area of San Francisco have reported that the CG/homeland security only want to look at their heads or how it is they discharged. Fines can exceed the worth of the boat depending on how it is plumbed.
In my opinion it's not so much about safety as revenue stream to maintain all those craft they bought in the post 9/11 splurge. Homeland security not only changed the directive of the Coasties but has both feet in flood insurance (FEMA) and other BIG agencies that have little to do with boating.
Of course this thread is on the subject of 'safety' unless you count PTSD of being boarded, or your flood insurance suddenly becomes mandatory and they charge you 2300 a year extra on your mortgage insurance.

My two bits centers on alcohol culture that has thrown up all over boating culture.
READ THIS:
"Drowning appears to be the overwhelming cause of death associated with recreational aquatic activity with alcohol detected in the blood in 30%–70% of persons who drown while involved in this activity. The few relevant studies on degree of increased risk suggest persons with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 g/100 ml have about 10 times the risk of death associated with recreational boating compared with persons who have not been drinking, but that even small amounts of alcohol can increase this risk. The population attributable risk seems to be in the range of about 10%–30%. (from the National Library of Medicine and National Institute of Health).
The problem has been noted by eye witness accounts that alcohol for reasons unknown and in even small amounts can cause some subjects to swim downward thinking it is up.
Research is sketchy because it results in death. Where the subject lives there is no reason to give an account.
Alcohol and a safe passage are less than bosom buddies...

[rgscpat]

[quote=Woodvet;906094]....
Research is sketchy because it results in death. Where the subject lives there is no reason to give an account....[/quote]

I've heard of "Curiosity Killed the Cat", but this is a truly shocking finding.
Are university researchers in an even more deadly profession than those guys on "The Deadliest Catch"? Does the multivariate statistical data analysis give off toxic fumes that tragically cut short the lives of many promising young researchers?

Sorry... couldn't resist.

[outbound]

Excellent article- think lin/larry speak from a different perspective. I have always had the utmost respect for them. Realize these are people who have done countless miles off the shelf in blue water in a small wooden boat. Personally I feel safest in blue water where there are no hard edges to sink my boat. I can see weather at least 1/2 to 1 day off. Nobody is around to run into me. Personally make use of all the modern aids I can afford but still carry a sexton/knot stick etc. Would not think to not have a raft/epirb/ssb/ais etc. but still believe coastal is more dangerous. With appropriate modern weather routng the mdoern sailor should able to avoid most severe weather with a modicum of commonsense. Yes your personal skill set, a strong boat, and the right attitude are the keys to safety but there is nothing wrong with mitigating risk by doing the "what if?" routine .