From Ron Brooks,
Your Guide to Saltwater Fishing.
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The Bay City News recently reported “One man was killed and his two fellow passengers were injured in a boating accident near Sausalito this afternoon...”

The cause of this accident as it was reported by the Coast Guard that the boat “was traveling at an unknown high rate of speed... when it ‘struck a submerged object of some kind’ and one man was thrown overboard into the water.”

Why did this accident and countless others occur? In 2002, the Coast Guard reports 124 collisions with submerged objects, causing 27 injuries and four deaths and an estimated $954,582 in property damage. Furthermore, the Coast Guard statistics show that 58% of those collisions occurred in boats between 16 feet and 26 feet in length. Sixty-one percent (61%) of all boats in these types of collisions were deemed “open boats”. An “open boat” is defined as a “Craft of open construction specifically built for operating with a motor, including boats canopied or fitted with temporary partial shelters.”

To clarify, let us look at the other major participant in collisions with submerged objects, garnering the dubious score of 23% of all collisions. These boats are classified as “cabin motorboats”. Cabin motorboats are “Motorboats with a cabin which can be completely closed by means of doors or hatches. Large motorboats with cabins, even though referred to as yachts, are considered to be cabin motorboats.”

So, it is obvious that our Sausalito accident, while slightly larger (in length) than the normal accident statistic, was definitely an “open boat”. Unfortunately, our accident victim was not a statistical anomaly! So again, why do these accidents occur?

Open water doesn’t mean unobstructed water

There is a falsity in our collective understanding of what open water is, and is not.

Open water or blue water, is not readily defined in the major boating texts (Dutton, Chapman’s). However, the collective broad understanding of these terms mean that when one is in open or blue water they are “off-shore” and in deep-water.