Ahoy There, Matey! Your Boat Probably Needs Safer Skipper

If you're boating this holiday weekend, you'll be on the water with lots of powerful vessels full of excited people having tons of fun.

You should stay alert for land lubbers who don't know the difference between heaving to and heaving up, but statistics show a bigger threat is the tanned, confident veteran who isn't paying attention, doesn't really know what he's doing or has had too much to drink.

Getting your sea legs doesn't endow you with sea brains. About 85 percent of deaths on the water involve boaters who've been boating for years but never bothered to get formal safety instruction.

Florida could be a better, safer boating state if it made sure everyone who kicks up a wake understands the rules, safety procedures and basic equipment.

Unfortunately, a proposal to phase in mandatory safety training for boaters was rejected this year by the Legislature. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had recommended that a safety program for boaters 21 and younger be expanded to eventually require everyone operating a boat of more than 10 horsepower.

Statewide, 77 people died in boating accidents last year and 377 others were injured. The rate is less than highway deaths, but when you consider the family boat is used much less often than the family car, you realize you're more at risk of being killed on the bay than on the interstate.

Nationwide, the rate of boating deaths is going down, but Florida is bucking the trend.

One bright spot is young boaters. The required training is working well. In 1995, boaters aged 21 and younger were causing 21 percent of boating accidents. Now that they're required to have safety training, the rate is down to 14 percent. It may not sound like much, but it represents seven accidents out of 100 that didn't happen.

When all boaters receive safety instruction, boating fatalities will fall by 25 percent, experts estimate.

Here's how boaters are getting themselves hurt: They break navigation rules they never learned. They stay on water in bad weather. They drop anchor in dangerous places. They fall overboard without life jackets. They overload their boats. They think it's OK to drink and pilot a boat, when in fact the drunk-driving law is just as strict as for motorists on the roads.

They don't know when to use their horns or what to do if an accident happens. They haven't learned about fire extinguishers, distress signals and navigation lights. They underestimate the risks.

Boaters need to take a basic safety course and next year the Legislature should make sure they get one. Wearing a captain's cap and suntan lotion isn't enough to keep you safe in congested channels, rivers and bays.