Is Boating Dangerous ?

[niel12]

Just going off into the blue yonder without proper route planning, equipment, spares, food and water and of coarse beer .... that can be very dangerous!!

[Capt Phil]

I'm still on the right side of the grass so it can't be that dangerous... Capt Phil

[veprjack]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Yes Sir! I was in the bar the other night and was just looking at my boat when I fell off the stool!

Mark, I fell off my computer stool laughing at you falling off the barstool. That makes YOU dangerous???

[niel12]

Glad that you're still with us Mark! I hear some druken sailor once broke his neck falling from a bar stool somewhere in a pub in Barbados!

[gonesail]

it can be dangerous to your wallet. for example: i just bought a part online with free shipping for 12 bucks .. the same part is sold by west marine for 60 bucks .. that is a 500% markup

[veprjack]

S/V Triumph lost in Atlantic! My friends' boat sank 800 miles off Cape Cod on sail to Azores. They are OK - see my post in main thread. THEY are the reason I'm on this forum and looking for a boat to live on! I'm just glad they were saved!!


Here's the thread:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tic-65393.html

[veprjack]

Here I am joking about Boating being DANGEROUS while my friends were being rescued at sea. Doug and Evelyn are the REASON I'm here looking for boat to live aboard. They are good friends and the nicest people - both Coast Guard licensed captains with LOTS of experience. Doug lived aboard S/V Triumph for 20+ years and his seamanship (and the rescuers) saved their lives. He spent THREE scary hours in the water after he fell in during the rescue in a storm 800 miles off Cape Cod on the way to the Azores.

Here is the story, complete with the audio between Doug/Coast Guard/Rescue Ship. THANK YOU COAST GUARD! Amver, Saving Lives at Sea Since 1958: Amver ship saves two sailors in dramatic Atlantic rescue

[mbianka]

Well the short answer is yes. But, so is driving. I do both and prefer to be on the water rather than the pavement any day. That said you don't need to be heading for the Azores for things to go bad. You might be racing a J boat in New York Harbor on a summer afternoon. What could possibly go wrong there?:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: THE SQUALL RULES!: Anatomy of a sinking.

[Missou]

Compared to driving in Montreal with all the bridges and tunnels losing major blocks, boating is really safe Driving around here feels more like practicing an extreme sport than anything else. I always feel safer once I cross the border

Did I ever tell you that I was hit by a car while crossing a street?

[sww914]

Sitting at a desk in a high stress job eating deep fried everything is much more dangerous in my opinion.
Boating is a calculated risk. You prepare yourself and your equipment, you train, you make intelligent decisions and usually everything is OK. It's a rare boating disaster that you can say they did everything right but still lost their boat. It's usually a series of mistakes and failures and things overlooked.
I raced cars for many years. I always felt safer on the racetrack at 140MPH than I do on a crowded freeway at 60. On a track, at the very least, everyone [I]intends[I] to be a better driver and their car has been inspected. At best, everyone is an expert and calm and their cars are completely prepared. On the street few people are even paying attention, they have no idea what their car is capable of, and they probably don't have any real skills and almost certainly no training beyond one class when they were 15.
Be like the person on the racetrack- prepare your equipment, grow your skills, and make wise decision after wise decision and you'll tell your great grandkids wonderful stories of the sea.

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by veprjack

Here I am joking about Boating being DANGEROUS while my friends were being rescued at sea. Doug and Evelyn are the REASON I'm here looking for boat to live aboard. They are good friends and the nicest people - both Coast Guard licensed captains with LOTS of experience. Doug lived aboard S/V Triumph for 20+ years and his seamanship (and the rescuers) saved their lives. He spent THREE scary hours in the water after he fell in during the rescue in a storm 800 miles off Cape Cod on the way to the Azores.

Here is the story, complete with the audio between Doug/Coast Guard/Rescue Ship. THANK YOU COAST GUARD! Amver, Saving Lives at Sea Since 1958: Amver ship saves two sailors in dramatic Atlantic rescue

When are people going to realize that a USCG captains license is only a start often bought through teaching schools........ and a lifetime of experience for some might as well have been in a bathtub.

Some people are dangerous even when walking around the block...no matter what quals they have earned along the way.

I used to teach the USCG licensing course... it broke my heart to pass about 90 percent of the class as my 13 year old at the time probably knew more about boating...and at least could tie a bowline under duress.

[niel12]

Theory and practice one useless without the other, however, experience caps it all!

[niel12]

Just saw on sky news a boat sunk in the Comores with 30 live lost, has anyone got any xdetails?

[rgscpat]

True, though it seems more like a casual inter-island transport and was most certainly not a recreational sailing vessel. The Sydney Morning Herald is saying at least 45 lives lost out of about a 100 on board a boat heading from the main island of Grande Comore to Anjouan Island that lost engine power. This seems more like the disasters we hear about in places such as the Philippines.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...810-1il8u.html


In a BBC story, Public Prosecutor Solih Mahoud said the boat capsized after its engines failed and it hit rocks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14463625

[Rakuflames]

I think the most dangerous part of any kind of boating is getting on and off the dock. It is there that you're likely to be thinking about other things, have your hands too full, etc. One reason I have netting on my boat is so I can set my groceries on the cat walk and know it won't fall overboard, so I can get on "hands free."

If you're caught in a storm or the boat is rolling, you know to hang on. It seems safer at the dock, but falling between the dock and the boat can be a nasty fall.

Everything is dangerous. It just depends on how safe you want to be.