This story was posted at USCG Prevention Blog:

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council magazine by Mr. Fred W. Poppe, Vice President, of National Boating Federation.

A recent Coast Guard study indicates that fewer boating fatalities occur in states that have implemented requirements for boat operators to be educated in a more rapid timeframe.

Thus, the course for future reduction in accidents, injuries, and fatalities is clear:

• Every state should enact mandatory boating education for all recreational vessel operators.
• The National Boating Federation, its member organizations, and their delegates continue to be involved in efforts to pass mandatory boating education laws in their states. In addition, members participate in and contribute to 42 national, regional, and international maritime organizations through the federation’s executive committee members and member delegates.

Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/fall2010.

This sounds incredibly worthwhile. I’m constantly amazed when I see folks boating without PFDs. I try not to be one of those “Safety Nazis” wagging fingers every which way, but even so, I do a double-take each time I see it. It’s about as jarring to me as when I see somebody driving without a seatbelt, or bicycling without a helmet.

Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets Northwest:

[Sailors practice a group "huddle" technique to stay warmer and be more visible to rescuers. Photo courtesy of David Sutcliffe.]

A Northwest sailboat racer for 20 years, Steve Blaine considered himself a good swimmer and typically only wore a lifejacket in the roughest of conditions.

That changed a few weeks ago after Blaine, the skipper of a 40-foot Hanse, took a safety course that required him to jump into a swimming pool wearing foul weather gear but no lifejacket and swim to the end of the pool and back. It was an eye-opener.

“Imagine two or three bath towels wrapped around you that are totally soaking wet, and imagine trying to move your arms and legs,” said Blaine, who lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia.

“You get tired very, very quickly. And what hits home is that this is a pool – it’s not particularly cold, there are no waves and I’m still having this much difficulty.”

Sailor Cam Telford, who’s raced for almost two decades and also took the course, summed up the pool training more bluntly: “You start thinking, if I’m in colder water with some waves, I’m basically dead.”

Read more

She’s on her way to the Tall Ships Tacoma festival, July 3-7 in the Foss Waterway. She’s coming down Admiralty Inlet today, bound for Seattle, and will stop in Edmonds to pick up several “Distinguished Representatives of the World Press”. Oh, and me, too, by the way.

So until I get a chance to post something about my trip, I’ll assign some background reading to the class. Be sure to do the reading…the vessel’s Nazi history is fascinating, and the fact that she was “taken a prize” at the end of World War II harkens back to traditions from the age of sail.

Eagle‘s home page at the USCG Academy

Eagle info page at the USCG website

USCGC Eagle article at Wikipedia

This is one of those uplifting, heartwarming stories I sometimes feature. No gear and gadgets this time around, although I suspect lots of unique, special-purpose gear and gadgets are in use aboard some of these vessels!

“Greg Williams used to be an ironworker before he fell seven stories and emerged a paraplegic. Ed Gallagher had great eyesight most of his life before a fateful motorcycle accident led to blindness. Cristina Rubke, a 28-year old lawyer, was born with no use of her arms or legs. The one thing these three have in common? They’re all avid sailors. And they’re all good ones at that. “

It turns out they’re active members of the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors. Navagear salutes BAADS and its members: You guys are awesome! By the way, that logo is just too cute.

Click here to listen to a 16-minute podcast about these sailors, produced by The Idealist.