I see someone posted a question in the Virtual Marinia on my boat asking why everyone is wearing life jackets when the "boat is so big"... Just so the comments section of my boat posting doesn't become a message board in itself, I thought I would address that here. So here's my response:
The boat is not "so big" to not wear life jackets. The boat is not "so big" that it will not sink (and sink fast). I have plenty of the inflatable life jackets for everyone to wear (for kids and adults as shown in the pictures) and the boat is frequently off shore out of sight of any land and I don't care how good of a swimmer a person is, a person probably couldn't swim 100 yards in the waves on the ocean or the bay. Saying that, even being able to see land should not give comfort to anyone. If someone falls off or the boat sinks and they are not wearing their life jacket, chances are, they will die. period.
So... there you have it... my boat... my rules... want to go out on my boat you put on a life jacket. I'll even let you drink beer on my boat, but you will be wearing a life jacket. Don't care if I'm on the river or the bay or the ocean. Chances are, you can't swim 100 feet in any body of water. If you complain about it, I'll make you wear a big ugly orange one instead of an inflatable one. I also carry a 6 person offshore life raft, a dinghy, an EPIRB, a ditch bag with supplies (water maker, flares, food, blankets, extra radio, batteries) just in case I drift around the North Atlantic a few days after the boat sinks...
When I see people 20 miles off shore not wearing a life jacket, they are STUPID! and when I see pictures of kids WAKE BOARDING without a life jacket... well... you get the point. Geez... just go drink a six pack and drive around some back country roads... probably safer. (that is sarcasm)
I tell a little story. I grew up boating on Lake Huron in a little town called East Tawas. My father had a cabin cruiser and they were nice enough to let me have a small day cruiser sailboat. One day out on Tawas Bay I was a few miles off shore and a wind storm came out of nowhere. You could see the wind change coming across the water and when it hit me, my boat almost capsized even letting the sails out most of the way. I thought my boat was "big enough" and my sole lifejacket was by my feet. The wind blew it, along with most everything else on deck, off the boat and it disappeared. I lowered the mainsail and using just the jib pointed the boat best I could towards Tawas Point and hit a sand bar that is inside the point but is a long way from shore. The wood drop down keel hit the sand bar so hard it cracked the fiberglass hull on the boat. I drug the boat into shore next to a lighthouse/coast guard station and sat on the beach and cried. I was 15 years old... I would not get on a boat for a year after that. A person that was on a Hobie Cat out there died after his boat capsized.
Want to go for boat ride with me? You will wear a life jacket.... Make my point?
The boat is not "so big" to not wear life jackets. The boat is not "so big" that it will not sink (and sink fast). I have plenty of the inflatable life jackets for everyone to wear (for kids and adults as shown in the pictures) and the boat is frequently off shore out of sight of any land and I don't care how good of a swimmer a person is, a person probably couldn't swim 100 yards in the waves on the ocean or the bay. Saying that, even being able to see land should not give comfort to anyone. If someone falls off or the boat sinks and they are not wearing their life jacket, chances are, they will die. period.
So... there you have it... my boat... my rules... want to go out on my boat you put on a life jacket. I'll even let you drink beer on my boat, but you will be wearing a life jacket. Don't care if I'm on the river or the bay or the ocean. Chances are, you can't swim 100 feet in any body of water. If you complain about it, I'll make you wear a big ugly orange one instead of an inflatable one. I also carry a 6 person offshore life raft, a dinghy, an EPIRB, a ditch bag with supplies (water maker, flares, food, blankets, extra radio, batteries) just in case I drift around the North Atlantic a few days after the boat sinks...
When I see people 20 miles off shore not wearing a life jacket, they are STUPID! and when I see pictures of kids WAKE BOARDING without a life jacket... well... you get the point. Geez... just go drink a six pack and drive around some back country roads... probably safer. (that is sarcasm)
I tell a little story. I grew up boating on Lake Huron in a little town called East Tawas. My father had a cabin cruiser and they were nice enough to let me have a small day cruiser sailboat. One day out on Tawas Bay I was a few miles off shore and a wind storm came out of nowhere. You could see the wind change coming across the water and when it hit me, my boat almost capsized even letting the sails out most of the way. I thought my boat was "big enough" and my sole lifejacket was by my feet. The wind blew it, along with most everything else on deck, off the boat and it disappeared. I lowered the mainsail and using just the jib pointed the boat best I could towards Tawas Point and hit a sand bar that is inside the point but is a long way from shore. The wood drop down keel hit the sand bar so hard it cracked the fiberglass hull on the boat. I drug the boat into shore next to a lighthouse/coast guard station and sat on the beach and cried. I was 15 years old... I would not get on a boat for a year after that. A person that was on a Hobie Cat out there died after his boat capsized.
Want to go for boat ride with me? You will wear a life jacket.... Make my point?
