| I feel a rant coming on. This is one of those things that | | | | passenger air bags and safety belts improve one's |
| makes me pound my fists and drum my heels, but that | | | | chances of survival rather than guarantee it. Same |
| I have no choice about. Which makes it even more | | | | with comparable boat safety stuff. |
| frustrating. | | | | Except boats aren't like cars. They don't automatically |
| I was immersed in the subject of cruising gear while | | | | come equipped with safety gear, and the cost of |
| writing my third booklet in the Take Her Sailing Cruising | | | | adding appropriate gear ranges from, say, a couple of |
| Series. I had just finished writing about life rafts, man | | | | hundred dollars for life jackets, sufficient flares, and a |
| crew overboard systems, and EPIRBs, all the while | | | | horseshoe buoy to several thousands of dollars for |
| reflecting on how expensive it is to fit out with stuff | | | | raft, bluewater crew overboard system, EPIRB, |
| you hope you'll never use. As if telepathic, Skip picked | | | | personal flotation vests fitted with strobes, and so on. I |
| this time to tell me it is time to get the life raft | | | | know that it's money that needs to be spent, but it |
| repacked. | | | | makes me upset. On the one hand, how much safety |
| Dang! I hate dealing with a life raft repack. It means | | | | gear is enough, and how much will it really stack the |
| spending a minimum of $500 for someone to test the | | | | deck in favor of survival? On the other hand, every |
| raft, plus whatever it will cost to replenish outdated | | | | time I think about not including appropriate (and |
| flares and such. AND, if the raft doesn't pass minimum | | | | expensive) safety gear on a boat, I think about how |
| requirements, it will be unceremoniously scrapped, we | | | | terrible it would be to need the stuff and not have it. |
| will still owe the money, and we will be faced with | | | | And therein lies my conflict, which causes the |
| having to purchase another raft. Ugh. | | | | drumming of heels and pounding of fists. |
| Still, it has to be done. We are about to take the boat | | | | Wouldn't it be cool if safety gear actually DID come |
| out onto the Gulf of Mexico, traveling from Tarpon | | | | built in to a boat the way it does in a car? A life raft |
| Springs (Florida) to Fort Walton Beach (same state), | | | | that automatically deploys the same way an airbag |
| and though I might be willing to venture out without a | | | | does in a car, a jackline system built in to the boat |
| repacked raft, Skip is not. This is not a subject to | | | | body, an EPIRB as part of the standard equipment. It |
| argue about-if he wants to be certain that we have a | | | | still wouldn't avoid the periodic expense of update and |
| working raft, I need to respect that. The issue of | | | | maintenance, but at least the initial buy/not buy decision |
| safety is as much psychological as physical, and if a | | | | would be taken care of. Oh, okay, before you start |
| member of the crew feels strongly about including | | | | pelting me with emails about the impracticality of this |
| certain features, I don't think it's good idea to enter into | | | | idea, let me dream about it for a little while! |
| debate about it. | | | | Actually, that makes me wonder: If cars were the |
| But the repacking issue always fans my internal fires | | | | same as boats vis-à-vis safety gear, would I |
| over safety gear. Every time I have fitted out a | | | | spend the money to add air bags, extra structural |
| cruising boat, I get into a stew about what I tend to | | | | features in the body, and safety belts? |
| think of as a very expensive life insurance policy. | | | | Hmmmm......good question! |
| Actually, safety gear aboard a cruising boat is more | | | | Well, here's hoping the raft passes inspection (cha |
| like car safety features than insurance. I mean, | | | | ching goes the sound of the cash register). |