Donal wrote:
The British government recently tried to bring in "drink sailing"
laws. In the government white paper they admitted that not a
*SINGLE* life would have been saved over the last ten years, if
drunken sailing had been illegal!!

In the USCG Annual Boating Statistics for 2001 there are 681 fatalities listed. In 232
cases alcohol was listed as "the investigating official has determined that the operator
was impaired or affected while operating the boat." In 91 fatalities alcohol consumptions
was listed as the primary cause.

Of course, for sailing the numbers are a much lower - 12 fatalities for aux sailboats, 18
for sail only, and most of these were downings - so one might conclude that alcohol was
actually a very minor factor in "sailing safety" as opposed to "boating safety."

http://www.uscgboating.org/statistic...stics_2001.pdf