LaughingCat

Maybe this question has been asked before. if s, it is worth revisiting. I once asked a racing friend why the enclosed canpy boats have harnesses, but open canopy sees the drivers/passengers untethered. His answer had something to do with being able to seprate from teh boat if a problem occured. Seeing how we have lost some comrades lately in open-canopied, HP Cats, wouldn't it seem prodent to have 5 point hernesses regardless of the enclosure style? I'd hate to hit the dash if you stuff a Cat at 110mph.

Thoughts?

Maritime_Eng

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ight=seat+belt

Many opinions.....

BLee

Assuming the VERY slim chance you're still conscious, if it's flipped over and you're locked in a harness with a life jacket on, you're going to drown before you can free yourself. Being thrown free of the boat, instead of pinned underneath it, gives you a much higher chance of surviving especially if you've been knocked unconscious. If you have passengers in the back that are strapped in, they will either be decapitated or suffer broken necks.

Race boats usually have oxygen masks for the occupants to breath while they free themselves or wait for divers.

RELIABLE ONE

The biggest misleading thing about quarter canopys are they are just a windscreen and can not withstand much of a side load ,only seen them work in a strait on stuff

29Firefox

Over the years I've seen an evolution of this subject in patrol boats. Stand up bolsters have long gone the way of black & white TV. The standard is now hydraulic or pneumatic cushioned seats. 5 point restraints are now standard. Paramilitary organizations keep tons of records on mishaps and screw ups and extrapolate new designs to manage risk during high speed rough water operation. The biggest "old wives tail" amongst the sport boat crowd is if it hits the fan and your strapped in & get knocked out your gonna drown. On the surface thats true. However! You 15 times more likely to get knocked out during ejection than when strapped in. Over the years the rate of losing consciousness for both mishaps involving both ejection and restraint was counted in a combined method. The light came on when the data between the two types of mishap were compiled separately. The injury & death rate goes way down when restraints are used in patrol boats even in open cockpits. Your odds of survival go way up if you stay in the safety of the boat till things come to a standstill. Let the boat adsorb all the impact not your body. The only exception to this is in the paramilitary sector is Assault type boarding craft where the consensus is its hard to duck bullets if your strapped in.

bcschoe

Last time I checked this was RECREATIONAL performance pleasure boating.

Why not drive (or learn) so restraint systems are not an issue.

FireFox I would really like to see the data. I only know of a few U S Navy Craft with full active restraint, Mark V’s had STIDD seats but really apples to oranges comparison.

Recreational boat manufactures in general do not employ FEA or similar engineering practices in their builds. The structure is only as good as it is designed, verified and built. A quarter canopy attached to a fiberglass flange becomes a guillotine; enjoy the thought of being restrained behind it. Not to mention the broad force of the water blowing your eye sockets out, etc, etc. The entire craft must be properly designed, evaluated, verified, and then built.

Remember this is Performance PLEASURE boating. If you want to strap up go buy a race boat. They are less expensive anyway……….

MikeyFIN

word!

bulletbob

I respectifully disagree. With "pleasure" boats running in the 160+ mph range a friend ran into just this problem with his 100# girlfriend. Cruzin at 118 in a 36' skater in 2' to 4' seas his girlfriend was having problems staying in her seat. We talked about rigging up velcro restraints just to keep her and him in the boat in the rough. I realize I'm a dead man in the back seat at 160mph.
I guess it depends on what you consider a pleasure boat. Lol

Respectfully Bob

Twin O/B Sonic

if you go over at speed your probably getting knocked out at the very least. If you're strapped in on your Sunday cruise when you go over, who's pulling your out cold ass out from under your boat?
Had friends out playing in the river in their drag O/B's a few yrs back.
Two capsule boats and one open. Two of them get back to the ramp to realize the third boat wasn't there. A fisherman tells them their buddy is down river and upside down and still in the boat.
He was dead when they got to him but they managed to bring him back. That driver sold everything and never looked back.

Calling a 160 MPH boat a pleasure boat is the joke here. The canopy comments are also very valid. Unless you've been in a high speed accident you can NOT fathom the forces at work.
I've been around long enough to remember all the drivers we lost back in the 80's before the restraints.
These were the drag racers and the F-1 tunnel boat drivers in OMC's new V-8's.
The first 100 yrs of racing we wanted the drivers thrown clear of the crash site. About this time in the '80's, due to post accident autopsies the medical community realized what was killing the drivers wasn't the boats hitting them it was the force of the human body hitting the water at warp speed. More specifically, the brain hitting the inside of your skull when the skull stops moving.
They started strapping drivers in, the fatalities virtually disappeared.

Back to the "PLEASURE" boats. Think of all the nasty accidents in the last 10 yrs where the boats went over but drivers/passengers survived. Now lets strap all of them in. Let's also say you had no onboard O2 or on scene rescue boats w/trained rescue divers nearby.
Wonder how many of those survivors would still be survivors?

I'm in "ah" at the current hardware that some of y'all have but when I watch most of you load up at the dock (friends, family, people you just met and are giving rides to) w/no safety gear (and/or visible concern) I have to assume you just know something I don't cuz you're scaring me silly just watching.

Anyone remember the accident a few yrs back (Michigan I think) where the guy was showing off his new step bottom V and hooked it in a turn? Four in the boat.
The two passengers in the back seat were thrown out and killed. They were two guys the owners met at the dock and gave rides to. When rescuers were still searching for their missing bodies, no one even knew their names!!!!
So you think those two guys understood the risk when they were lucky enough to get a ride in that noisy, gorgeous, bad ass ride?
Or the driver understand his responsibility in giving that ride?

When I have family/friends attend our go fast boating events and want a ride (we know they all do) I make them come and get me and tell me who it is before I'll let them go.

Pleasure boats?

bulletbob

Gary, we were contemplating velcro, tear away lap belts just to keep us in the seats running in the rough. And no more girlfriends in the boat when running 120 mph. You might be suprised at how many cats are on the big poker runs that run in excess of 120 mph. I know I was. For the record I don't recommend putting seat belts in a "pleasure boat". My definition of pleasure is a boat that runs under 120 mph.