Art Allen

[earthbm]

“At any given moment, all sorts of objects are drifting in the ocean, a surprising number of them Americans. The Coast Guard plucks 10 people a day out of the ocean, on average. Another three die before they’re found. Which is to say that 13 Americans, every day, need to be hauled out of the water or off some crippled sailboat or sea kayak or paddleboard.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...rnment-service

[Nicholson58]

CG has a lot of data on this. On the Great Lakes the number used to 9 of 10 drownings were young men, alcohol involved, zipper down. At one time they were handing out bumper stickers, “Don’t Pee Without Your PFD”

That kind of statistic really skews the 13/day. I’d add to that from our time on the Great Lakes that trailer launched power boats and small power cruisers accounted for most. Sailboats hardly figured. It probably explains why the CG and other water cops leave the sail boats alone.

[Connemara]

Great read and a topic of great interest to us all. I wonder how widely this system is used nowadays? And is anyone working to refine it?

Connemara

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Great read and a topic of great interest to us all. I wonder how widely this system is used nowadays? And is anyone working to refine it?

Connemara

USCG STATS

It’s pretty well worked over.

Have fun deconstructing this.
https://www.uscgboating.org/library/...stics-2018.pdf

Go to page 7. Note accidents by type of vessel. Note there are no sailboats.

Go to page 25. Compare power boats to sailboats.

See again page 48, 49, 50, 51

I discover in a quick skim that our boat and use, with our credentials, years operation is in the bottom most mud of data, statistically insignificant in the error bars. Doesn’t seem to influence our insane insurance quotes.

[Connemara]

Fascinating data that accords pretty well with what I would have expected -- sailors (as opposed to motor-boaters) contribute less to the mortality stats. I think it's because a) we're not hitting things at high speed, and b) we generally know better than to do stupid ****. I don't think you get a lot of young testosterone junkies tootling around in sailboats.


But what I meant by my comment was: how widely is this system and the knowledge base it requires used outside US waters?

I sail part of the year in New Zealand, where the Coast Guard is a private charity and I suspect doesn't have the resources for an oceanographer. Mind you, the Navy does a lot of the major rescue work.

Connemara