“Have you ever been in a storm? Fallen overboard? Gone aground? Wrecked your boat?” It’s inevitable—every time a group of boaters gathers with non-boaters the conversation eventually turns to drama and near-death experiences and this gathering was no exception.
“Have you ever had to call the Coast Guard?” The boaters in the crowd all kind of looked at each other and shuffled their feet with this question, “Well, yes.” Came one response, “but it wasn’t for me. I saw an overloaded runabout get swamped by a big wave.” Another sailor told about assisting a boat that had gone aground and calling when it was clear they weren’t going to get it off the rocks before nightfall. Still another admitted calling after losing their mast, “We were fine. We just wanted the Coast Guard to know.”
The landlubbers seemed satisfied, and having confirmed the theory that boating is dangerous, they drifted off. For the boaters though, the conversation continued, “Are we doing something wrong? Are too many boats getting into trouble?”
The answer is yes. And no…
So What Goes Wrong?
Tune in to VHF channel 16 on any day and you’ll discover the real question is “what doesn’t go wrong?” The Coast Guard responds to accidents that range from people falling overboard, to boats sinking—five of the most common mishaps are:
- Collision with Recreational Vessel
- Collision with Fixed Object
- Flooding/Swamping
- Skier Mishap
- Capsizing
In BC the top reasons for calling the Coast Guard included:
- The boat becoming disabled
- The boat going aground
- A medical emergency
- A capsized boat
While the wisdom of PFD use is stark and indisputable it’s not the only factor in on-the-water safety that we have control over. The Red Cross points out there are several basic principals of boating safety that operators who have accidents often seem to ignore. These include drinking alcohol while boating, not gaining enough experience before heading out, and failing to “verify weather conditions such as wind, waves, and water temperature.”
U.S. stats bear this out in an extensive survey of what types of actions lead up to an accident:
- Alcohol and drug use
- Excessive speed
- Operator inattention
- Keeping an improper lookout
- Operator inexperience
- Rules of the road infractions
- Boating in poor weather or hazardous waters
How to Improve Your Odds
Get Training A safe and fun boating trip begins well before the dock lines are untied. In the U.S., statistics show less than 10 percent of serious boating incidents happen to boaters who have had some sort of safety training. These safe boating courses (some are even free) cover safety, navigation, rules of the road, fueling, docking and undocking and more.
While in Canada, the Pleasure Craft Operator Card is obtained after an exam (no course is required) that tests your knowledge on 150 basic boating safety principles including simple nautical terms, steering and sailing rules, safety equipment (and its proper use) and knowing what to do in a boating emergency.
Get Prepared Once you know what you’re doing, the next step is to make sure your boat is prepared. One option is getting a Pleasure Craft Courtesy Check. These voluntary safety checks are meant to be educational and often turn up problems such as missing or damaged safety gear. But even if you skip the courtesy check, following a pre-departure checklist can save you all sorts of misery on the water. Transport Canada’s office of boating safety publishes one version of the checklist that reminds boaters to check the weather, their fuel levels, running lights and also brief their passengers on what to do in the case of an emergency.
Follow the Rules It might seem like boating and drinking go together—but would you pop open a beer on the highway? Drinking and driving a boat is still drinking and driving, and as Transport Canada points out, “anyone operating a watercraft while under the influence of alcohol is committing an infraction.” Plus, the website explains, thanks to the effects of “fatigue, sun, wind and the rocking movement of the boat, drinking one alcoholic beverage aboard a boat is the equivalent to drinking three on land.”
Not convinced? In Canada, alcohol was present or suspected in almost 50 percent of the victims the Red Cross recorded, and in the U.S., alcohol was the primary factor in over 300 boating accidents.
Know Your Boat Weather and hazardous waters follow not far behind alcohol use when it comes to the precipitating factors in on-the-water fatalities and accidents. But this doesn’t mean boats are heading out in massive storms—it’s more a matter of boat operators overestimating the type of conditions their boat can safely manage. The Red Cross says part of the risk can be moderated if boat operators would, “verify marine weather and water temperatures before setting off in their boats.”
But knowing the weather isn’t the only factor the Red Cross says. Boat operators also need to know how their boat will perform, “under adverse weather conditions such as wind, waves, and cold.” The problem is that it’s not always possible to find this data because boaters don’t have easy access to safety reviews for boats and flotation devices. Because of this the Red Cross is calling for better regulations for small open boats, “to ensure that they are safe to operate even when sudden changes of wind and waves pose a threat to survival, and that they provide a reasonable safety platform and the possibility of self-rescue even when swamped or overturned.”
Getting Help When You Need It Knowing how to get yourself out of trouble once you’re in it is just as important as avoiding accidents. Even when assistance is coming, boaters should still be taking steps to help themselves. One way to prepare is to go over possible emergency situations and brainstorm ways of solving them in advance. Another wise plan is to make sure there is an alternate skipper on board—someone else who can handle the boat and who can assist in an emergency. It’s also important (and legally required) to make sure that all your guests know where to find and use the safety and communication equipment.
It’s almost always better to call for assistance early on in an emergency—even if it’s just to let the Coast Guard know what has occurred and what your management plan is. Recent studies of U.S. land-based search and rescue efforts show that when people put off calling for help, those emergency calls ended up being far more dangerous, for both the rescuer and victim, than they may have otherwise been.
Although there are no matching studies of on-the-water emergencies, it makes sense that when you call for help before all hell breaks loose it’s less likely you’ll end up experiencing a catastrophic cascade of failures. In fact, there are three different levels of urgency just to cover the fact that not every crisis is a matter of life and death. A Mayday is called when there’s imminent danger to life or to the continued viability of the vessel. But when there is no immediate urgency, boaters calling the Coast Guard should alert them to a problem by using a Pan Pan (danger to property) or a Securite (danger to safety).
Knowing when to make the call is as important as knowing how to call. With cell phones becoming more common, people are tending to rely on them for help (Dialing *16 will even get you the Coast Guard on some phones). There are real problems with this type of cell phone use though: their batteries can die, you can get out of range and unlike a VHF radio call (where everyone in your area can hear that you need help) a cell phone call means only one person hears your call.
The Red Cross points out that on-the-water accidents and deaths “do not strike randomly as thunderbolts from the sky.” Boaters have an awful lot of control over their safety and wellbeing. And tragedies on the water, while heartbreaking, are often predictable and preventable.
Plan ahead for safer boating
1) Take a course—The Canadian Power and Sail Squadron canboat.ca offers a 40-hour Boating course, 13-week Piloting/Seamanship class, 14-week Advanced Piloting class, a Maritime Radio Operator seminar as well as classes in Marine Maintenance and the Fundamentals of Weather.
If you are buying a new VHF radio, look for one that has digital selective calling (DSC). This feature provides automatic digital distress alerts. Don’t forget to obtain a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number for your radio to get the safety benefits from this automated system. These numbers are assigned for free by Industry Canada. Call 1-800-667-3780 or visit Industry Canada at www.ic.gc.ca for more information.