Larry W4CSC wrote:
Evan Gatehouse wrote in
:


People that have their babies wear a lifejacket in a car seat sound a
bit much though! If the baby is strapped in the car seat, and the car
seat is attached to the boat, why bother?




* 30' boat flips from rogue wave. Adults thrown overboard. Child strapped
in car seat, car seat attached to boat is now underwater, face-down, in
inverted boat.....or on bottom of lake/river/ocean in sunken boat.

** 30' boat sliced open from uncharted rock 2' underwater. Boat sinks in
seconds as adults scramble to unstrap child from stupid, non-PFD car seat.
Adults not wearing PFDs drown trying to save him.

Any more stupid questions this afternoon?

No, I think you have the "stupid question" market sewn up, Larry.

You're argument is based on events that are extremely rare. Cruising
sailboats don't sink very often, and they don't capsize. The one case
I know of where a keel got ripped off actually had a young child on
board, but there were no injuries.

The statistics are quite clear: cruising boats are vastly safer than
riding in a car. For example, almost 300,000 children are injured
each year in car accidents. This means that one out of every 250
families has a child injured. Given that there are about 230,000 aux
sailboats, one might expect 1000 injuries, but in fact there was only
1 in the last two years.




What brand/model of infant PFD can that 8-month-old tiny baby wear that's
on your boat? If we put the baby in it and throw him overboard, assuming
he is not strapped down to the sinking hulk headed for the bottom, will he
breathe any water into his lungs? Will his head slip through the hole if
you're not there to hold him in it?

So, how many sailboats do you think sink every year? Its about 4, or
about two for every 100,000. How many infants do you think die from
all accidents? The rate is about 22 per 100,000. Actually the odds
sinking are about the same as drowning in the bathtub.



Why bother?

Why not? The most dangerous part of sailing is driving to the marina.