Life jackets
A hot topic of conversation or is it really ?

All of us continuously see racing crews and other crews without life jackets may it be pictures on social media or when sailing.

This is really not as cool as these sailors think!

I believe that not wearing a life jacket makes no sense. Sadly every year sailors die as a consequence.
Research comes up with pretty shocking numbers :

USCG and other US safety agencies data indicate that a vast majority of boating and sailing fatalities in the US are due to drowning, and that 86 % of drowning victims in recreational boating accidents were not wearing a life jacket.

Research by Helly Hansen released in 2021 showed the shocking stats that nearly half of UK boaters don’t wear a PFD and that in the UK, every year, around 140 people die by accident in UK and Irish waters with half of those who drown never intended to be in the water.

A significant percentage of sailors continue to sail without a life jacket believing that “it will not happen to them”.

Today’s life jackets are light comfortable and easy to wear.
So does this make sense ?

As an RYA Yachtmaster instructor, race coach and avid racer, I advocate wearing a life jacket at all times. I compared this to not wearing a helmet whilst motorcycling , cycling or skiing:
Very dangerous and not cool.

Most of us have accepted the later and yet so many sailors are fighting against wearing the “jacket“.

Why?
If you are a skipper, would you want to return home and have to tell a family that they have lost a loved one because you were not willing to impose a life jacket discipline?
I cannot believe you would ever want to be in that situation.

The RYA leads by example and when students come on board for a course, they must all wear a life jacket.

So why not join this great example and ensure that your crew wears a piece of gear that can truly make a difference between life and death!

Hopefully at some point this will become standard and possibly law. But until then, how many lives must we continue to lose within the sailing community before this question is no longer an issue?