THE HARBOR COLUMN:Statistics show boating safer than bicycling, bathing

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Ahoy,

Someone almost made the Darwin Awards while cruising the harbor in a Duffy.

He was skippering an electric Duffy boat when he made a conscious decision to cut in between the Brusco tug and the scow being towed for the upper Back Bay dredging operations, according to Eric Hovland, my radio show’s roving reporter.

I need to rephrase the last sentence to remove the verb “skippering,” because anyone who would be this brainless is not skippering a boat. What did the “driver” think was connecting the scow being towed to the tug?

My main concern is the safety of other boaters from people who make foolish maneuvers on the waterways.

Operators of tugboats and charter boats can temporarily lose control of their vessels or crush someone in between the tug and tow when they have to make emergency maneuvers to avoid another boater not abiding by the rules.

However, the latest statistics reveal recreational boating has never been safer, according to Scott Croft of BoatUS. The facts show boating is safer than riding a bicycle or motorcycle, and more people perish in bathtubs and swimming pools.

“The rate of recreational boating fatalities per 100,000 boats has been cut by 75%, and the number of boating fatalities has been reduced by 58% since the implementation of the landmark Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971,” said BoatUS President Nancy Michelman.

In 2006 approximately 72.6 million people participated in boating in the United States and the total number of recreational boats rose to 17.73 million.

California is ranked second behind Florida with the most registered boats. Our state listed 963,758 registered boats in 2005, with approximately 70,960 of them in Orange County.

Question of the week: who can tell me what boat I am hearing every weekday morning at 6, and where it is going? I hear the roar of the engine off the Pacific Ocean while I am in my office, and it sounds as if the boat is on a southerly course.

There could be no better mode of transportation to go to work than by your boat.

Safe Voyages.