www.suncruisermedia.com I 2012 SunCruiser SHUSWAP
IF YOU DON’T WEAR IT – IT WON’T WORK! Submitted by the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron
LIFEJACKETS HAVE BEEN SAVING lives for hundreds of years with the first recorded history of use by Norwegian seamen who used simple blocks of wood. The forerunner of the modern lifejacket was invented by Captain Ward of England. In 1854 he created a cork vest designed to be worn by lifeboat crews for both weather protection and buoyancy. This early style of lifejacket can be seen in the movie the Titanic. It was a useful survival tool but eventually gave way to those made of Kapok. Kapok was a softer alternative to cork which was good news to navy seamen who often wore their lifejackets whenever aboard, including even when they were sleeping. Now, no one
is suggesting that you wear your lifejacket when you sleep aboard, but the message that the Canadian Safe Boating Council and the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron has been delivering for years; “Boat Safe, Boat Smart – Wear It” and “It’s Your Life….Preserve It” are certainly relevant for most other times we are aboard especially in smaller open boats. The question is why do we continue to ignore those messages, putting ourselves, our loved ones and friends at risk? Interestingly, CSBC and Smart Risk’s research
demonstrates that most of us insist that our children wear their lifejackets. However the willingness to wear a lifejacket drops from 85 percent for children under 5, to a low of 37 percent by they time they reach their teen years and continues to decline significantly after the teen years. So what’s the result of all this
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complacency and unwillingness to wear a lifejacket? Across Canada, 89 percent of recreational boaters
who drown each and every year were not wearing a lifejacket. Most of these drownings occur in small open power boats, accounting for 60 percent of these preventable deaths. A majority of these victims were males between the ages of 19 and 35, out for a day of fishing. An average of 140 unnecessary drownings occur every year. Many boaters who drown believe they are good swimmers, so they feel that having a lifejacket on board and within easy reach is good enough. But what good is a lifejacket that is stored under a seat or under the bow going to be when the unexpected happens? Most drownings happen unexpectedly when
small boats capsize or someone falls overboard. The lifejacket that you leave behind is not much use, especially in cold water. Speaking of cold water, in Canada, many boaters
like to extend their boating season as long as they can when water temperatures particularly at the beginning and end of season can be very chilly. There are also parts of this country where water temperatures remain cold all year around. Hypothermia is a condition most boaters have heard about, and can lead to many problems such as disorientation and rapid incapacitation, but the real shocker is found in the new research on sudden cold water immersion. Death from sudden cold water immersion happens very, very quickly. Research by Dr. Michael Tipton, a
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