I have trouble following your logic, and where did you get those
numbers???
here's a good source:
http://www.uscgboating.org/statistic...dent_stats.htm
News f2s wrote:
I think your answer, if not directly available, can be implied by
the stat I quoted on an earlier date:
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Boats (12,000,000 - of which sail and Aux sail 40%)
12 million boats are registered, but only about 140,000, or 1.2% are
auxiliary sail, with slightly over have being outboards. I don't know
how you could think 40% of all boats are sail!
Deaths pa 800 (5 times as many injuries)
The death rate has dropped about to 700 or less for 4 of the last 5
years, there has been a significant trend towards safety in recent years.
0.25 per 100,000 of population
???
7 per 100,000 boats
deaths per boat?
2.8 per 10,000,000 hours (heroic assumption; 250hrs per boat pa)
This has to be hugely overstated, but what's the point?
However: sailboats are only 1% of deaths!
Sailboat related deaths occur in almost exactly the same proportion as
their numbers in the registered fleet. They probably are
statistically safer if you could include all of the unregistered human
powered vehicles (which also includes some sailboats) since canoes and
kayaks are a major source of fatalities.
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It would be reasonable to assume that if sail and auxiliary sail
boats represented 40% of the fleet, but only 1% of the deaths,
then deaths (and severe injury for that matter) due to props on
these vessels are not significant.
Your 40% assumption is bogus, but the accident stats do actually say
how many of the prop strikes occur for sailboats. My tally showed 2
of the 1000 strikes in the last 8 years were related to sailboats,
where 12 would be the expected number.
Unfortunately, these numbers only list the "first event" in an
accident, so it does not include cases where the engine/prop strike is
the second event. Unlike every other category, 2/3 of engine/prop
strike accidents are second or third events, meaning that most strikes
start with another event, likely falling overboard (or capsizing,
ejection, etc.). However, there is no reason to think sailboats would
be any worse in "second events" than in "first event."
And surely that's the point. There may be a target group in which
prop guards make economic sense - small motor vessels?
Actually in 2004 10% of the strikes were vessels 26 feet and over, and
they represent only about 5% of the fleet. (Small numbers are at work
here, though.)
The one stat that does jump out is that stern drives are only about
15% of the fleet, but were involved in about 45% of the accidents!
This seems to vary year to year, but there is a definite trend.
But perhaps there's much better value for money educating peple to
use lifejackets and buoyancy aids - whose lack is one of the
biggest contributions to death on the water.
Yup. And education.
The other major contribution - alcohol - has been tackled in cars
through draconian punishment. Very difficult to apply in the pure
leisure field of boating!
Of course, we could just accept the fact that there is a certain risk
in living.
Personally, I would favor required training, and stricter enforcement
of drinking, speeding, and reckless boating laws. But sometimes we go
"overboard" on some of the safety regs - for example, my 11 year old
kid is required (in some states) to wear a PFD while sleeping down below.