Safe Boating Means Being Better Than Perfect
by Dave Ochs
dave@vabass.com

Your boat driver’s kill switch cord might be too long.
And that could cost you your life.

You can do everything perfectly and still get killed on the water. That’s why you need to look beyond the basics

Boating season's here and we want it to be a safe one. With the fun of boating, just as in driving a car or drinking, comes responsibility. Most boaters probably know the basics of safety, such as proper equipment on the boat, life vests and throw vests for all on board, life vest on when the outboard is running, no wake within 50 feet of docks, don't drink and drive (for crying out loud, on water the road is moving, too!), and so on.

Beyond the basics, the real trick to safe boating is being ready for the one thing that you never expected. You can be on the water, drive perfectly, make no mistakes, do nothing wrong, and find yourself in deep, deep trouble. As examples, here are four events involving people I have known over my 13 years of tournament fishing. In all of these cases, people who did nothing wrong, and some who did everything right, found themselves in frightening circumstances.

Case one. Several years ago my brother, Dan, was in a field of about 180 fishermen in Kentucky’s state tournament. Several launch sites were used. My brother was one of those who launched at a site other than the starting point. Another competitor launched ahead of Dan, who followed in his boat moments later. Dan and his partner were the first ones on the scene. There had been a fisherman out on the lake through the night. In Dan’s words, “No one knows whether he had his lights on or whether they were low and blocked by
his body, but one of the tournament boats ran right over the back end of the fishing boat then flipped over. The driver of the fishing boat, the only occupant, received a concussion and a head laceration requiring about 20 stitches. One of the tournament boaters broke several ribs, the other person was unscathed. Both boats were demolished.”

Lesson learned: If you can't see something up ahead, especially in dark or fog, always assume there's something there. And use the lights.

It’s possible that nobody did anything “wrong.“ But somebody didn’t see something

Case two. A friend of mine has twice had scary moments at tournaments after having repairs on his boat. In one case, after several miles of running up the James River, the steering felt wrong. He started turning the wheel, and nothing happened. He had enough time to pull back the throttle before running into a line of cypress trees. The dealer working on his boat had not correctly attached the hydraulic steering line. The same friend also once had a dealer work on his lower unit, only to find out the hard way that control cables had been crossed, allowing the motor to start while in gear. When he turned the key, the boat jumped forward onto a floating dock. Luckily, no one was standing there. In both cases, my friend didn't do anything wrong.

Lesson learned: Check your mechanic's reputation. Test your boat's equipment before joining a tournament crowd.

Case three. The first year I owned a boat I joined a friend for a day on the Chickahominy River. I had worked the night shift the previous evening, was tired, and gave the key to my friend, because he was a more experienced boat driver . It was a good decision,
possibly one that saved my life. As we moved into one of the wide S-bends in the lower Chick, we could see a string of about four boats across the river in front of us. One of them was another bassboat coming directly toward us up the bend a bit. In a head-on situation, the rules of the road say that both boats should bear toward the right. We turned toward the right. The other boat veered toward his left. Still head-on, we veered right again. The other boat veered left again. At 60 miles an hour, we were out of time and out of water. My friend whipped the steering wheel as hard as he could to the right and drove my boat about 15 yards up onto a low-tide mud flat. The other boat circled back to check on us. Both people in it were drenched. We had come so close to a head-on collision that our wake had broken their windshield. After helping us pull our boat off the flat, the other driver told us that he couldn't turn right because of the other boats, and that because of all the traffic on the Chick he had formed a habit of always staying toward the nearest shoreline and giving oncoming boaters the widest area of water possible. All we knew was that the rules say bear right. We followed the rules. We almost got killed. Fortunately, my friend was quick enough, and lucky enough, to be better than perfect.

Lesson learned: Slow down in a head-on situation and don’t make up your own rules.

Case four. Here, mistakes were made. But they could have been offset. At a tournament launch, a friend took his hand off the steering wheel for a second. That was enough time for torque to take over and whip the boat into a violent circle. The twist threw the passenger into the water, and threw the driver into the passenger's seat. The boat spun about and hit the man in the water, slashing a hand and leading to two surgeries and months of pain and rehabilitation. In this case, the driver was sitting in the passenger seat with the kill switch cord still connected. This could have been nothing more than a rough dunking if the kill switch had pulled out. The driver's kill switch cord was too long.

Lesson learned: Keep the kill switch cord short. I go by this rule of thumb -- if I can stand up in my boat, and the kill switch cord stays connected, the cord's too long. There’s nothing more critical than my life and the lives of my passengers that requires me to be standing in my boat with an outboard engine turning a lethal propeller behind me.

If you're new to boating, if you want a refresher course, or if you just ride and want to make sure your driver is acting safely, there are plenty of places to get information. Check out boating information through the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, take a U.S. Power Squadron or U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boating course (they're wonderful), surf the web (see http://www.cgaux.org/cgauxweb/public/cme.htm, http://www.boatus.com/, or http://www.boatsafe.com) , talk to people at marinas or boat sales representatives, talk to your insurance agent, and read boating books or magazines ("Bass and Walleye Boats" is an excellent one)

Riders, remember, you can learn about safety, too, and you have a right to speak out and demand that the driver of your boat act responsibly with your safety in mind. That driver is accountable for your comfort and safety. If you're scared, say so!