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> This is meant as a 'just for thought' observation.
>
> "In 70% of all drownings the victim was not wearing a PFD."
>
> I have often wondered what percent of people who fall in the water
> unintentionally (read without PFD) actually drown.  Seems to me like that is
> the meaningful statistic to know.  Or - what percent of the 70% would have
> lived had they been wearing a PFD?  Can you extrapolate from your stats that 3
> out of every 10 of that 70% would die anyway?

That's a tricky question.  Lots of variables.  Sort of, what percentage of
MOB rescues were unsuccessful, plus how many solo boaters failed to self
rescue (PWC, paddlers, windsurfers etc.) plus how many outright capsized
and/or sank.  And I do not have an answer or a SWAG for your question.

From 14 years personal experience racing with my sailing club, I have seen
over 100 involuntary swims.  In 30+ years of operation we have never lost a
soul on the water either pleasure sailing or racing.  Of course when racing,
the "lifejacket mandatory" flag goes up when the wind picks up.

The best set of breakouts on fatalities I can find are Canadian.  Loads of
breakouts and graphs on every aspect:

http://dbw.ca.gov/Ar/98/sec6b.htm

Their cause of death figures look like this:

Drowning 74%
  70% no PFD
  30% PDF

Blunt trauma 19%
  27%  no PFD
  73%  PFD

Unknown 7%
  75% No PDF
  25% PDF

Statistics seem to indicate open power boats, PWCs, and rafts account for
the vast majority of deaths, and a majority of their operators have never
even taken a safe boating course.

To get back on topic of navigation, halfway between Hammond and St. Joe on
Lake Michigan in October (going on the hard in St. Joe for the winter) in a
34' sailboat, the boat was approached twice in on afternoon by power boaters
wanting to know how to get to St. Joe.  The first, a cigarette type boat.
Asked if he had any nav gear.  No.  Asked if he had a compass.  Yes.  Gave
him a compass course to steer.

An hour later, the second, an open boat with dad, mom, and kids onboard.
Same questions, but he did not even have compass!  Approx. 15 mile from the
nearest shore, out of sight of land for all practical purposes, and no clue.
He did not want to tag along with something as slow as a sailboat, so the
skipper pointed out a direction to him, told him to try to watch us and
steer so that he could only see our bow, and if he did not see land before
our sail got out of sight, come back and follow him in.

Don't suppose teaching him how to find north with a tooth pick and his watch
would have helped, the watch was probably digital ;-)

Navigation by asking the nearest sailboat.  WOW!

Bill

   

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