are small boats safe?

[vinegarj]

duh...........
reading the current thread about a lack/need for some good news about small boat sailors lead me to this site and the attached thread concerning the safety of small boats. 
http://members3.boardhost.com/SCABoard/msg/1194039333.html

[Joe Pyrat]

LOL, decided to stay out of that one, but some of the posts were good for a chuckle. 

[Captain Smollett]

I had seen that thread a few months ago.

I reject the premise that even suggests the question "Are small boats safe."  The question that is really being asked here is "Are small boats safer than large boats."

No.  Of course not.

We read as many (if not more) news stories of cruisers on larger boats having problems/needing rescue.

But for some reason, when that happens, it is never "the boat," or even the skipper - it's always "just nature, these things happen, good thing they had an EPIRB."

When it's a small boat, however, the comments are instead geared toward the boat being too small or what equipment was or was not aboard.  Or the experience of the skipper.

I wish we could compile some real data of rescues per bluewater sea mile normalized to LOA (or some such) ... but even then, there would be so much variability in hull design, rig condition, skipper/crew experience, etc, that the measurement would be near meaningless.

In the end, controversy sells newspapers and magazines - questioning the boat decision of a sailor AFTER the fact of things going South is a sure fire way of keeping readers.  And the mindset feeds the readers the psychology of "stuff" that fuels their advertising.

[Joe Pyrat]

Mornin' Cap,

I wonder why it never occurs to these people that it isn't the size, but rather design and how well built the boat is that makes the difference. 

[TJim]

Exactly!!  There isn't anything built that some so-called engineer can't come up with a cheaper, crummier
way to build and convince someone that it's as good or better than the original design intent.  But where do small boats stop and big boats begin? For me these wide-butted flat bottomed 30 footers with their fin keels built today are big boats and for the most part are not something I want to face heavy weather in.  You can't carry sail on them and they won't stand up to heavy weather.  Most of them won't right themselves if you get them turned upside down. On the other hand, there all kinds of "OLD" small boats that will take you where you want to go and handle just about anything that mother nature throws at them if you have a sailor/s aboard.  The Alberg and Hess boats are at the top of my list but my heavy keel Triton is second to none.  She couldn't be replaced by a new boat if you had a quarter million bucks to throw at a new boat.

[Captain Smollett]

I found some interesting statistics here (PDF WARNING!!): USCG 2006 Boating Accident Statistics

I saw some interesting trends in the data, but the only one I computed in detail was fatalities per registered boat by length of boat.  This was for both sail and power boats combined.

For registered boats 26'-40':  1.04 x 10^-7 fatalities per boat in 2006
For registered boats >40' : 4.61 x 10^-7 fatalities per boat in 2006.

So, in 2006, you were 4.43 times (443%) more likely to be killed while boating aboard a boat greater than 40 feet than one 26-40 feet.

Fascinating that the mindset exists that big boats are prima facie safer on the basis of LOA alone.

[Frank]

Gotta love these exchanges  ;D  design is so important..as is construction. The top of the list though,IMHO is the skipper.Slocum's boat was a tired old gal that by design standards...wasn't good for offshore.There are a multitude of examples of boats 'not worthy' by design standards ..both large and very small, that have safely made long passages. If the person at the helm KNOWS his boat, how it reacts,how to move about on it,what to do in various situations ...then it is a much 'safer' craft than a better design with a lessor skipper. Thee most important safety item on board is the experience of the captain.  Having said all that..I'd take my old Ariel (Alberg design) over any other boat I've sailed offshore. They just seem to be in their element out there.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Exactly!!  There isn't anything built that some so-called engineer can't come up with a cheaper, crummier way to build and convince someone that it's as good or better than the original design intent. 

Sadly so true. and not just in boats.

[Lynx]

God, when did some somebody boats are the problem and not the Skipper?

Any fool can sink a boat. If there are more boats under 30 feet by how much? then it would just figure that there would be more problems. If you take the numbers down and compare places as well. Then the stats would be more real IF the skipper is also figured in. 

This is just the alarming (terrorist?) press c (can't use that word), B (can't use that either), Normal sad state of affairs.

[Oldrig]

As the owner of a so-called "obsolete" Alberg-designed Cape Dory 25D, I've got to agree with what most of the folks have already said on this thread.

And I've got to agree with what Lynx just posted: As the industry continues to implode, it continues to churn out wide-assed, flat-bottomed, fin-keeled monstrosities loaded with all the comforts of a suburban home. (A certain mass-market magazine recently had the gall to publish a long feature called "50 is the new 40," as though we're all sailing 40-footers--and what we need now is to upgrade to 50-footers.)

I'll stop before this turns into another of my rants. But boat design, boat construction and skipper's seamanship (and luck) have a lot more to do with accidents and survival than a boat's displacement or LOA.

--Joe

[Toucantook]

One thing I didn't see mentioned here is the KISS principle.  Keeping things simple pays off in so many ways.  You can get away sooner because you aren't spending money on conveniences, there's less to maintain, which means you spend more time enjoying the cruise... and need I point this out? It can't fail if it's not there.