Dave wrote:
...

The overall rate is about 2-5 fatalities a year. It seems like many
of them are related to houseboat rentals, and propeller guards may
make sense in that area. Since the stat includes "engine strikes"
along with "prop strikes" its hard to say how many lives would
actually be saved if all outboards had guards.

Given the large number of risks we face every day, I have trouble
supporting "blanket" safety procedures, such as prop guards on all
boat. Until we're ready to ban alcohol, and enforce speed limits, we
shouldn't penalize all boaters for a risk that doesn't quite exist.


While I'm philosophically inclined to agree, there was a reason I asked not
about all boats, but about "sailing craft." And I was in fact inclined to
ask about "sailing craft with inboard engines."

I went back 8 years. A total of roughly 1000 accidents were listed as
"struck by motor or propeller." Of those, only 2 were from auxiliary
sailboats. As I said, there were only a small number of fatalities,
but I would think that any propeller strike would be serious.