Interesting Statistic

[Roger Long]

Heard at the RVOC meeting:

Since about the time of the Titanic, lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved.

About ten people a year die worldwide in accidents during lifeboat drills such as have been in the news recently.

Life is full of unintended consequences.

BTW the lack of lifeboat seats for every person on Titanic wasn't as outrageous at the time as it seems now. It was only a very few years after the introduction of radio. There wasn't much point in getting off a sinking ship into boats that probably would never be discovered or able to make land on their own. The purpose of the boats was perceived to be to transfer people to a rescue vessel if one happened to come along or see distress signals. You don't need a full complement of seats for that.

Sudden sinkings were fairly rare except in weather conditions where the boats would not have been of much use anyway or in collisions where one ship usually remains afloat and its boats could also be used.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

As with any statistic, one needs to consider the bias. In this case, how did the author denote the number of people saved by lifeboats who may otherwise have perished? Absent a statistically valid denominator, valid conclusions are hard to denote.

 

[Roger Long]

In this case, how did the author denote the number of people saved by lifeboats who may otherwise have perished?

It was a side comment in a presentation about a very different subject but by someone well qualified to have considered those factors.

 

[sinnettc]

speaking of which . . . I'm reading Bligh's narrative of the mutiny on Kindle. Pretty decent read given the era when it was written.

 

[Captandrew]

Heard at the RVOC meeting:

Since about the time of the Titanic, lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved.

About ten people a year die worldwide in accidents during lifeboat drills such as have been in the news recently.

This is exactly the reason that in the US mariners can no longer (officially) ride down in the lifeboats when conducting training or drills. And yet the old style open lifeboats, operating on Gravity Davits this can be done relatively safely, even in the event of gear failure. And can always be safe if all required maintenance is carried out routinely and fully. The fully enclosed lifeboat is in a sense a death trap as whatever happens to the boat you are going with it. Free-fall boats, are now equipped with full harness seat-belts and other excellent features. The main reason for the casualties is in the release gear rather than the boat itself.

 

[Bob 04 H260]

Interesting comment. Were the 4500 passengers on the Costa Concordia saved by their own life boats or by boats from shore ?

Seems it would not take many of these big cruise ships using life boats to save passengers to exceed the number of those killed doing life boat drills ?

I have no idea how many are saved by using life boats each year and do not know how to find out. I'm not trying to prove the speaker wrong I'm just thinking out loud here.........Bob

 

[Roger Long]

I'm just thinking out loud here.........

I guess it depends whether they were saved or evacuated. If the ship had sunk in open water and they were all found floating in lifeboats, I suspect that the Concordia could have changed the statistic. That kind of event hasn't happened a lot.

It's possible the speaker said something like, "Most years.." and I missed it. It was a throw away line in a long talk about insurance. Speaking of the Concordia sinking, the gist of the talk was that this event, together with Sandy, has sucked all of the money out of the re-insurance market and premiums for all insurance, your boat, car, health, homeowners, everything; are going to skyrocket for several years.

A similar statistic I can believe but not confirm is that boat explosions actually increased after blowers were mandated. Gasoline only explodes within a very narrow range. Without blowers, the bilge fumes quickly got too rich for an explosion and people smelled the gas. Blowers guarantee that the mixture goes through the critical range twice.

I wouldn't suggest for a minute not having them but they need to be used properly. Sniff and check the bilge first and then run the blowers long enough to really change the air. I must have seen people turn on the blowers and then start the engine 10 seconds later al thousand times.

 

[FourPoints]

the gist of the talk was that this event, together with Sandy, has sucked all of the money out of the re-insurance market and premiums for all insurance, your boat, car, health, homeowners, everything; are going to skyrocket for several years.

I suspected something like that may happen as soon as I had heard about the number of boats damaged in Sandy, and then last night I got a letter from Boat US in the mail saying that my insurance underwriter is being changed from Continental Casualty Company (CNA) to National Liability & Fire Insurance Company, a member of the Berkshire Hathaway group, but the unexpected part is that they reduced my premium by $134 with no apparent loss of coverage. I was expecting the letter to include a 20% price hike or something, not a price DROP!

 

[Roger Long]

I was expecting the letter to include a 20% price hike or something, not a price DROP!

There may be underwriters out there that were in markets where they didn't get burned by Sandy / Concordia and can now go out and undercut firms with those albatrosses around their necks. BoatUS's switch might be due to that.

In any disaster, there are usually a few winners. I'm glad you are one of them. Of course, there is always next year's bill....