horrible thread

[unbusted67]

Whenever I was little and was getting on an airplane my mom would sooth my nerves by saying, "relax, there is way more of a risk of getting into a car accident than having your plane crash." in hindsight it would seem that my mom was instilling the fear of god in me about being in a car but it definitely calmed me down. Are there any stats like this for boating? What is the ratio for boats in water vs. boats that suffer a major accident? I know it is ludicrously high for cars, especially in America.

I would like to lie and say that this is so that I can calm my sons nerves but alas I am still a whimp and have no son. I will say that this is in leu of recent events where two fishing boats in the last two weeks have gone down off the coast of MA and ME. It's given me the jitters.

Is it just that the press only covers the disasters or are there really a lot of disasters? Just how dangerous is boating?

[btrayfors]

Accident Statistics

[unbusted67]

Well thats helpfull. Don't drink on the water, wear a PFD, Sail don't motor, don't not pay attention, buy a big boat, don't sail into weather. Your chances are pretty good of living.

In 2005 5 out of every 100,000 registered boats had a fatality onboard. Wait so, correct me if I'm wrong but, that means everytime you get on board a registered boat you have a 1 in 20,000 chance of dieing? That's alot better than smoking.

[btrayfors]

"In 2005 5 out of every 100,000 registered boats had a fatality onboard. Wait so, correct me if I'm wrong but, that means everytime you get on board a registered boat you have a 1 in 20,000 chance of dieing?"

Not quite. You'd have to take into account the total number of persons who were aboard those registered boats, as well as the total days involved. In other words, your chance of dying when you step aboard a registered boat is FAR less than 1 in 20,000!

Bill

[unbusted67]

Wait, far better or worse? Less is not a quantity that is applicable. What is the stat for automobiles in the US. How many deaths a year, how many drivers?

[unbusted67]

In 96 the average for people in automobiles was around 16 in 100,000 which means you had a 1 in 6,250 chance; almost 4 times worse than on a sailboat. The leading killers through and through are cancer and heart disease. For now I am not going to get over nervous about sailing and put a stop to my part in this extremely morbid discussion.

[btrayfors]

That's probably a good thing, 'cuz statistics doesn't seem to be your strong suit :-)

BTW, sailboat fatalities (n=16) in 2005 represented only 2.3% of all fatalities (n=697) among registered boats (n=12.9 million).

Tell your kids that boating, especially sailboating, is probably a lot safer than playing with their iPOD or Blackberry, and a damn sight safer than going to school :-))

Bill

[dana-tenacity]

And your chances of being killed by a terrorist? OK I'm stirring the pot, but it makes you think about where our respective govts should be putting their money and effort if they wish to protect their citizens.

[hellosailor]

Fishermen? If you mean commercial boaters, they have to go out in conditions where most of us would just stay in. If you mean recreational fishermen...that's still something else again. Some go 'fishing' only because it's a quiet place to get drunk, and they are best compared to drunk drivers.

How safe a boat is, depends on the operator. Boats rarely just blow up or fall into the water. If the operator respects the sea, learns what conditions are/not safe, learns how to operate and inspect the boat, the boats that go out almost always come back safely. Getting hit by an oncoming drunk driver, debris from a another "truck", etc., just isn't common enough to worry about, compared to all the other risks in life.

In recent years a number of elderly drivers have simply mowed down groups of pedestrians. Is there any way to avoid them, short of moving to a community where there are no cars? Or do you continue to walk on sidewalks anyway?

A lot of boating is about choice, and the duality of freedom and responsibility. Learn what you are doing, respect the sea gods, and if you have the freedom to choose when you will or won't go out...Odds are you are coming back. If you can't be happy with that...just don't go boating! If it can't be a pleasure, there's rarely any need to do it.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

BTW, sailboat fatalities (n=16) in 2005 represented only 2.3% of all fatalities (n=697) among registered boats (n=12.9 million).

Bill

Dude, I'm pretty sure what I said doesn't contradict this but okay. I don't have any kids and yes, I suck miserably at statistics. And yes I worry alot. HelloSailor, I don't care what you say I am still scared of the water

They were commercial fishermen and yes one of the two boats was out in adverse conditions. I grew up in a place where a lot of people have died of ocean related incidents and it has given me a pretty serious feeling of reverence for the sea. This is something I battle with when making my decisions about boating. It is human nature to want to quantify the unquantifiable. Ask the astrophysicist.

[ssullivan]

Here's a good link to put it all in perspective:

LiveScience.com - The Odds of Dying

Do you drive? Because check out the little table at the bottom of that article. I pasted it in for reasy reference below. The cause of dying is listed below with the odds. A good way to read 1-in-xxx data is to say, "one out of every xxx people I know will die of..."

I'd say a 1 in 20,000 (plus all the other factors involved people have mentioned) means sailing is farily safe. Of course, you could still have your accidental injury aboard (1 in 36 people will die of that).


Heart Disease
1-in-5
Cancer
1-in-7
Stroke
1-in-23
Accidental Injury
1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident*
1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide)
1-in-121
Falling Down
1-in-246
Assault by Firearm
1-in-325
Fire or Smoke
1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.)
1-in-3,357
Electrocution*
1-in-5,000
Drowning
1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident*
1-in-20,000
Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above)
1-in-30,000
Legal Execution
1-in-58,618
Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above)
1-in-60,000
Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above)
1-in-83,930
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting*
1-in-100,000
Earthquake (included also in Natural Forces above)
1-in-131,890
Dog Attack
1-in-147,717
Asteroid Impact*
1-in-200,000**
Tsunami* 1-in-500,000 Fireworks Discharge
1-in-615,488

[bill good]

I use to eat a lot of natural food until I found most people die of natural courses!! learning to wait until weather has passed & keeping the boat in a safe operating condition is what it is all about. Have fun & sail.

[hellosailor]

Unbusted, I would argue that having a reverance for the sea (and I do respect it) and having a fear of it, are two totally separate things.

If your fear of it creates real problems (like, getting off your island without needing a plane) then get real help for it. If you can simply avoid it, then that's also a perfectly good way to cope with it. In this day and age very few people *must* go to sea. If you're not happy there, be elsewhere.

No big deal.

[unbusted67]

Hellosailor, please note the emoticon next to the line where I said I was afraid of the sea. The small winking, smiling devil would imply I was only kidding. : ) Growing up where I did has given me reverence for the sea, and by definition reverence (1 : honor or respect felt or shown especially : profound adoring awed respect) implies not only fear but a whole lot of love.

And I would not fly off of my island because Airplanes are just too damned dangerous.

[dana-tenacity]

I'm afraid of heights, so instead of climbing mountains I go sailing.