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Are yachties less at risk?


k88

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Another terrible drowning tragedy (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11165510) involving lifejackets in apparently calm conditions.

Makes me think again, and I am guilty, sailing all these years, I've noticed not many yachties actually wear life jackets as a matter of course (everytime), either sailing, racing or even rowing to shore or to pile moorings etc...However I have to say, I seldom hear of yachtie drownings (I do not know the actual stats). Is yachtie at a lower risk not wearing jackets compared to others? skill, lucky, or should we be more careful? How many of you wear life jackets every time we go out regardless?

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But in this case, the Father was not wearing any life jacket and the little Kid had his Adult jacket on, in which she instantly slipped out of. Stupid incident to happen once again and one more nail in the topic of Yachties being made to wear lifejackets because of silly people.

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At the risk of getting this debate fired up all over again... yes yachties are quite clearly at lower risk of ending up in the water than, say, kayakers, SUPpers or dinghy sailors. There's obviously less risk of falling overboard associated with a bigger boat with lifelines, etc. I mean, who puts on a lifejacket every time they step on a ferry?? :eh:

 

But if you can't swim at all, you'd still have to be a pretty big risk taker (or just a pretty big moron) not to wear a lifejacket on the water (OK except maybe on the ferry...) because there is always a chance of ending up in it.

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such a senseless tragedy

 

- if the father had worn the life-jacket he would have been able to hold the child while the people on shore, watching, took 5 min to get out to help them

 

- even if the life-jacket was too big, if it had crotch straps, and they were used and tightened, the child wouldn't have slipped out and both would have been able to use it to keep their heads out of water while those on shore came to get them

 

- if part of the child's play education had been in deep water with floats and rings etc they would have known how important it was to keep a hold of the jacket even if it was not being worn

 

- if the father had known how to swim, float on his back or even tread water etc etc etc

 

it seems the father simply had no experience with deep water and the minimum requirements to safely enjoy it

 

100 years ago so many brit immigrants to nz died by drowning it was called "the nz disease"

 

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/deaths.htm

 

so the nz gov undertook a long term plan to teach children to swim at primary school

 

i was taught to swim in the 60's by my teacher at a small rural classroom primary school with 32 students

 

in a short, shallow pool, roughly made by local farming fathers

 

the school now has over 100 students and the pool was deemed to small, old and unsafe so it was simply closed and the daily lessons over summer have now become once a week trips into the town pool

 

seems the teachers and education ministry wanted to get out of the business of teaching swimming....

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seems the teachers and education ministry wanted to get out of the business of teaching swimming....

 

Seeing the paper work and the health and safety stuff they have to do for it im not surprised as Its been red taped so much that schools just dont want to bother with it any more.

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seems the teachers and education ministry wanted to get out of the business of teaching swimming....

 

Seeing the paper work and the health and safety stuff they have to do for it im not surprised as Its been red taped so much that schools just dont want to bother with it any more.

 

i taught for awhile at a small private school in london run by an eccentric colonel

 

swimming was compulsory

 

it was the only subject, he said, that was almost guaranteed to save your life

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seems the teachers and education ministry wanted to get out of the business of teaching swimming....

 

Seeing the paper work and the health and safety stuff they have to do for it im not surprised as Its been red taped so much that schools just dont want to bother with it any more.

 

i taught for awhile at a small private school in london run by an eccentric colonel

 

swimming was compulsory

 

it was the only subject, he said, that was almost guaranteed to save your life

 

If only everyone had that view over here...... Pools would still be in every school. I know that if it wasnt for my primary school having a pool I wouldnt have learnt how to swim as neither the intermediate or college that I went to had one and my parents would have never had the money for private swimming lessons. Instead people in high places now see it as something where students can be injured while participating and the red tape has forced schools into dropping it.

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Wonder if this was the poor bastard's first time on a lake. Being a long way out in deep fresh water has given me the heebie-jeebies ever since discovering the hard way how little buoyancy it provides.

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Search for the last lifejacket thread, I put up the latest Stats on who is drowning.

 

Yachties are easily one of the safest out there and by quite a margin over any of the other options. I think you are more likely to drown due to something motor vehicle related than you are yacht related. The Stats show a completely different set of numbers than most would expect.

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You might be surprised by the number of schools that still operate their smaller 15 metre pools. We do and $25k worth of heat pump ensures that our kids swim for six months of the year. Community members buy keys and use it outside of hours as well. Swim Safe also offer free tuition to schools which we access at the start and end of each season. School camps also give the kids the opportunity to experience deeper water as do the community and secondary school pools which we can access. I see also that schools without their own pools can get into a programme to get a portable pool. A great alternative if the school hasn't got a pool.

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I can't figure why people don't teach kids how to swim. It was great fun with my two, the absolute best fun to be had. we don't even think about teaching them to walk, swimming ought to be the same.

However lots of things could have happened that we don't know about such as cramp, cold shock, panic attack. Certainly, my heart goes out those families affected.

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I can't figure why people don't teach kids how to swim.

In this instance, the family was Chinese; am inferring immigrants.

This one makes me sad... they fell through the awareness cracks, but I can't think how you'd go about reaching that last 5% without breathtaking expenditure and/or draconian regulation.

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Sorry, I don't get this schools teaching kids to swim. They should know way before then. My grandparents taught me to swim long before I started school and all our children have been swimming way before 5. At school we learnt strokes and water skills.

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Yeh for sure, my son was called Fish at school. Now he's president of a boardriding club is Oz. Chinese seem to be really practical people so why don't they teach the kids to swim?

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I am a good swimmer, was a swimmer long before yachting came along but boy was I glad a could swim when I went sailing.

Did several Trans Atlantics and can only recall being tethered on 2-3 times but in most cases I was on a 65 ft. plus boat

 

I would not think of going offshore without a harness and tether now. I guess that's the difference between being Young Dumb and full of .......ahem something rhyming with um, and being older and hopefully wiser. :wink:

 

Had a 1st mate on one boat that could not swim to save his life- he came from Nova Scotia where the water is so cold even in the summer the thinking was if you fall in -why prolong the inevitable.

 

Taught my own son to swim at 16 months old and he is a fish now.

Lets all forget about political correctness an all and insist on swimming at school and lets hang the friggin namby pambies that insist on red tape up by the balls with red tape :twisted:

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Saw this on facebook and so far I think im the only person to comment to say that life jackets are not the silver bullet.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11165938

 

Edit: at least for yachties.

 

I saw it and commented - but then read through the rest of the comments and decided common sense is out of place amongst the rabid left wing NZ Horrid readership.

 

My post, more at home on the coastguard's Facebook thread on the same subject

 

Somewhere between 3 yachties in an inflatable paddling 50 metres to shore in a sheltered bay and 6 overweight samoans in a leaking tinny in the middle of a shipping channel hopefully lives a little common sense, but I doubt it. I'm sure the stupid law will be passed by stupid people and the stupid will still drown.
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Hi All,

 

Its all about common sense, and the problem is we don't all use it a lot of the time :(

 

Being able to swim is one thing, the shock of being thrown into the water, or of being hit by something then falling in the water can create a problem even for up to average swimmers, add age and possibly alcohol into the mix and without a life jacket you just became another statistic.....

 

I always wear my jacket, I'm only a really average swimmer and I'm not willing to take the risk of having a problem....

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