Change the law! My dad was killed on that boat. Chapter 46, Code of
Federal Regulation, part 185.508 needs to be changed to take the
decision to make the passengers wear PFD's out of the hands of the
master of a vessel. Make it a requirement to wear PFD's when crossing
any inlet or bar. To bulky, or cumbersome? Got to be macho? Then
you're stupid, and selfish. Wearing a PFD for 10 (ten) minutes while
crossing an inlet or bar will not ruin your trip. Not wearing a PFD
could end up costing you your life, and those that love you a large
chunk of theirs. I ask that you contact your senators and congressmen
and ask them to change this ambiguous law to be more specific. If not
every time when crossing a bar or inlet, then at a minimum when the
Coast Guard has issued a small craft advisory. Great to be
macho...DUMB to be dead.

Sorry about your dad.

The law that says the master of the vessel can order the passengers into PFD is
a good one.

The situation here resulted from the charter skipper's reluctance to use his
authority, as well as a combination of bad luck and poor judgment, rather than
an absence of law.

Had your dad worn a PFD, he would either have survived or would have been the
*only* fatality among the group to have been wearing a PFD. They are effective
in certain situations. The PFD wearers were resuced because they stayed afloat
long enough to be hauled out of the water by folks watching from shore. If the
chrater boat had gone down a few miles offshore and rescue wasn't on site
within ten or fifteen minutes, some of the PFD passenges would begin succumbing
to hypothermia.

Up here in Puget Sound, the SAR people can all tell stories about finding
little fishing boats adrift with beautiful PFD's stowed under the seat "out of
the way". The corresponding body is usually found somewhere nearby.

There is a difference between a charter passenger and the operator of a
personal fishing boat. There is less reason to presume that a guy who goes
charter fishing, maybe for the first time in his entire life, should be in a
position to be able to evaluate the risks and make an informed decision about
PFD. (Obviously, if your dad and the other passengers knew what was in store
for them that morning, their decision would have been not to set foot on the
boat......rather than simply to wear a PFD).

While a law might not pass, or even be needed, nothing now prevents a charter
company from requiring all of its skippers to require all the passengers to
wear a PFD while crossing a bar or when conditions are less than ideal. If
everybody on the boat is wearing one *including the skipper* there is no
"wussiness" involved.
(In fact, if the first thing the skipper had done when boarding that charter
boat was to make a rather obvious show about putting on a PFD and even just
asking around, "Who else wants a PFD? Better to have it and not need it than to
need it and not have it!" more of the passengers would have been wearing one).