There is a VERY GOOD editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune regarding boating laws, and their influence on tragedies like the one that just occurred. I've add the link and the full text below, but the summary point (quoted below) is spot on.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20160629/NEWS/160629559/2416/FRONTPAGE
I'm tempted to start referring to a certain boating instructor by using the name of a fictional character: Captain Obvious.
But it doesn't mean I always agree with him.
C. William Myers teaches boating safety to a lot of people. I hear from him often, mainly because he wants lots more Floridians to take courses like his.
He is a good guy with great credentials. He teaches for free. He isn't primarily looking for free publicity. What he wants is news media pressure on lawmakers to get them to require boaters to take more safety courses and pass tougher boating tests.
Like the spoofy TV captain, Myers can be really predictable. I knew, for instance, that he would send me a snail-mail letter within days of the tragic sailboat disaster that claimed the lives of a Sarasota man, Ace Kimberly, and his teenage kids. And he did.
Every time a serious boating accident is in the news, Myers writes. Each time, he thinks he can show how a failure to use proper procedures or follow safety guidelines contributed to the deaths or injuries.
I usually agree, but then we have the usual discussion about whether such accidents and lapses in diligence or judgment would really be reduced by more bureaucracy and laws.
In this particularly bad boating tragedy, not much is known for sure but much seems evident.
Ace Kimberly had called his brother to report that his 29-foot sailboat was in six-foot seas offshore of Englewood and having a tough time on their trip from Sarasota to Fort Myers. A Coast Guard search that began two days later located two bodies, one of them Kimberly's, and a debris field that included a sailboat mast, life jackets and documents linked to the family.
The waves Kimberly had told his brother about were apparently the sort that could be uncomfortable and challenging for those aboard a sailboat of that size, though probably not big enough to account for the disaster unless coupled with other problems. But there are reasons to think Kimberly's boat was in serious need of maintenance and was not very seaworthy.
So other problems probably arose.
And so, it now seems obvious that Kimberly made a dangerous decision going into the Gulf of Mexico in an unready boat, especially with his children.
Almost as obvious to Myers and many boaters are issues about safety equipment. The boat apparently did not have any electronic means to call for help aside from a cell phone, which is only usable when close to shore.
The boat had life jackets, but it seems most were not being worn despite the worrisome conditions. Most were found in the debris field.
It is impossible to know what else might have been amiss. Maybe the boat lost its mast because of worn rigging, and so lost steerage. Maintaining a live-aboard boat on a tight budget is difficult. Maybe crucial parts were in urgent need of replacement.
Whatever the details, it is easy enough now to insist that Kimberly used terrible judgment and underestimated the danger. It is an obvious explanation, and he can't argue with it.
So Myers concludes that more formal boating instruction would likely have saved the family, either by steering them away from a bad decision to take that trip into the Gulf at all or by helping them respond better to conditions and problems they encountered. He sees the deaths as obvious evidence that more training should be required for all boaters.
I see it as evidence that people – some much more than others -- sometimes make serious mistakes. And though some might do so out of ignorance about safety equipment and procedures, most would be just as prone to make errors no matter what course they took.
Good judgment is easy in a classroom, and hard in real life. Otherwise, no one would drive too fast or while buzzed or while texting, and no one would ever use a boat that isn't totally ready for Coast Guard inspection. Those boaters short of money for the best boat safety equipment would always stay ashore.
When people fail to be that careful, it is rarely because they don't know better. My guess is that, like most boaters who make fatal mistakes, Kimberly knew better and still made risky decisions.
Human beings do that. When lucky, they get away with it. When not, it becomes easy to imagine that if we just had more laws, such fatal accidents wouldn't happen.
To me, the validity of that conclusion is not obvious at all.[/quote]
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20160629/NEWS/160629559/2416/FRONTPAGE
I'm tempted to start referring to a certain boating instructor by using the name of a fictional character: Captain Obvious.
But it doesn't mean I always agree with him.
C. William Myers teaches boating safety to a lot of people. I hear from him often, mainly because he wants lots more Floridians to take courses like his.
He is a good guy with great credentials. He teaches for free. He isn't primarily looking for free publicity. What he wants is news media pressure on lawmakers to get them to require boaters to take more safety courses and pass tougher boating tests.
Like the spoofy TV captain, Myers can be really predictable. I knew, for instance, that he would send me a snail-mail letter within days of the tragic sailboat disaster that claimed the lives of a Sarasota man, Ace Kimberly, and his teenage kids. And he did.
Every time a serious boating accident is in the news, Myers writes. Each time, he thinks he can show how a failure to use proper procedures or follow safety guidelines contributed to the deaths or injuries.
I usually agree, but then we have the usual discussion about whether such accidents and lapses in diligence or judgment would really be reduced by more bureaucracy and laws.
In this particularly bad boating tragedy, not much is known for sure but much seems evident.
Ace Kimberly had called his brother to report that his 29-foot sailboat was in six-foot seas offshore of Englewood and having a tough time on their trip from Sarasota to Fort Myers. A Coast Guard search that began two days later located two bodies, one of them Kimberly's, and a debris field that included a sailboat mast, life jackets and documents linked to the family.
The waves Kimberly had told his brother about were apparently the sort that could be uncomfortable and challenging for those aboard a sailboat of that size, though probably not big enough to account for the disaster unless coupled with other problems. But there are reasons to think Kimberly's boat was in serious need of maintenance and was not very seaworthy.
So other problems probably arose.
And so, it now seems obvious that Kimberly made a dangerous decision going into the Gulf of Mexico in an unready boat, especially with his children.
Almost as obvious to Myers and many boaters are issues about safety equipment. The boat apparently did not have any electronic means to call for help aside from a cell phone, which is only usable when close to shore.
The boat had life jackets, but it seems most were not being worn despite the worrisome conditions. Most were found in the debris field.
It is impossible to know what else might have been amiss. Maybe the boat lost its mast because of worn rigging, and so lost steerage. Maintaining a live-aboard boat on a tight budget is difficult. Maybe crucial parts were in urgent need of replacement.
Whatever the details, it is easy enough now to insist that Kimberly used terrible judgment and underestimated the danger. It is an obvious explanation, and he can't argue with it.
So Myers concludes that more formal boating instruction would likely have saved the family, either by steering them away from a bad decision to take that trip into the Gulf at all or by helping them respond better to conditions and problems they encountered. He sees the deaths as obvious evidence that more training should be required for all boaters.
I see it as evidence that people – some much more than others -- sometimes make serious mistakes. And though some might do so out of ignorance about safety equipment and procedures, most would be just as prone to make errors no matter what course they took.
Good judgment is easy in a classroom, and hard in real life. Otherwise, no one would drive too fast or while buzzed or while texting, and no one would ever use a boat that isn't totally ready for Coast Guard inspection. Those boaters short of money for the best boat safety equipment would always stay ashore.
When people fail to be that careful, it is rarely because they don't know better. My guess is that, like most boaters who make fatal mistakes, Kimberly knew better and still made risky decisions.
Human beings do that. When lucky, they get away with it. When not, it becomes easy to imagine that if we just had more laws, such fatal accidents wouldn't happen.
To me, the validity of that conclusion is not obvious at all.[/quote]
