I know it's a pain in the butt... but, I think we have to invest in a better alternative to our existing trap gear.

Accidents WILL and DO happen, people do die in accidents, how do the incidents of injury and possibly death stack up between sailing small boats and driving go carts

Annetts was the first safety boat employee on the scene. Giving evidence, he said: "When I arrived, the catamaran was on its side and two of the girls were floating in the water."

The twins swam to safety but Laura was unable to free herself. He told the girl to be calm but at that point the catamaran turned upside down, dragging her under. He dived to her rescue.

"I immediately found Laura struggling, panicking to try to get to the surface. I immediately tried to locate the hook and release her and bring her to the surface. I could not release her. She appeared trapped in some other wire."

"Because the visibility was poor and there was lots of struggling and waving around, I could not identify how she was trapped. At that point I had to come back to the surface for air." Mr Annetts radioed for help and dived back under.

"The struggling was continuing and Laura was climbing on me and I could still not release her."

Since the accident, the RYA has revised its conditions for training centres in an attempt to minimise the risk of “entrapment and entanglement accidents”. Forty-four such incidents were logged during 2003 and 2004, 18 of which were regarded as “very serious, with crew or helm being trapped under water for a period”.

We can justify it all we want. Personally, I don't believe that the "more people die in activity X, therefore it's alright that people die in activity Y" rationale is ethical. The fact is that an eleven year old girl needlessly drowned. If the boat had been fitted with a mast float, she would still be alive, doing whatever 14 year old girls do.


Links: One, two, three, four.

Mast floats clearly save lives, with little downside, why aren't they used?

For those born before 1986

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat
was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as
we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy
or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion
of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have probably never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.


Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the Good old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

8. Having read this, you are thinking of forwarding it to some of your other friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting old!!

. . . under 16's cannot sail without adult supervision.

Gareth

. . .The fact is that an eleven year old girl needlessly drowned. If the boat had been fitted with a mast float, she would still be alive, doing whatever 14 year old girls do.
. . .mast floats clearly save lives, with little downside, why aren't they used?

For those born before 1986 ...

cycling to school down hills (something you are a little short on in NL) faster than the cars !