Boot Key Harbor
"Marathon- the Heart of the Florida Keys"

An On-Line Cruising Guide for the Florida Keys & Cuba
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LifeJackets - a practical commentary.

We all hear the basic boating slogan about lifejackets: They float, you don’t - wear them. While this is true my thoughts are that this is such a simplistic approach that it becomes ineffectual. The truth is that most of us don’t wear our life jackets, whether we’re a safety officer in the Power Squadron or not. The truth is also that NOT wearing your life jacket really is a very safe and reasonable thing to do much of the time. This is tantamount to blasphemy coming from a power squadron officer. Most of us don’t wear them all the time for the obvious reason that they are very awkward and cumbersome to wear, and aren’t really required all the time. In most of the weather and seas in which we boat, if we fell overboard most of us would simply swim back to the boat and be the butt of the man-overboard jokes for quite a while. We have to interject some common sense and accommodate different scenarios to make the most of our personal flotation devices (PFDs). A 16 foot open boat in 8 foot seas presents an entirely different scenario than a 40 foot enclosed cruiser in the same seas. Coast Guard statistics will show that most drownings occur from small boats by hunters and fishermen. While the enclosed pilothouse of our 48’ cruiser provides significant protection, there are times when the use of life jackets would be prudent. High seas far offshore, and the need to spontaneously rush on deck or the swim platform for urgent situations frequently finds us not wearing needed PFD’s. A very practical and useful compromise is the use of the USCG approved inflatable life PFD’s. We find these very wearable and will put them on even in the pilothouse when weather becomes adverse. Prudent boaters should work out in advance the situations in which they will consciously put on their PFD’s and stick with that plan. The idea of the USCG requiring everyone to don a PFD when they dinghy to the dock in a quiet harbor is ludicrous, but the self-imposed requirement to don a PFD when circling around Knight’s Key from oceanside to gulfside in nasty weather is something else. Please examine your own rationale and timing for the use of PFD’s and use them accordingly.

Cdr. Gregory Absten, AP
November 2000