^

I'm 38 yrs old. I've been in boats on regular basis since I was 2. In those 36 yrs, I've been in 2 boats that were swamped. 1st time was a canoe my wife didn't believe me would flip if she didn't sit down in (haven't been in a canoe with her since). The 2nd time was in a bass boat on Rayburn. Driver run us aground on a sandbar & the 3' swells came over the sides (never went in boat with him again after that).
Now, I said all that to say this. If you've been in multiple swamped boats, you're an idiot for not correcting the problem (the operator). Saying that the boat not having flotation & sinking caused the fatalities is like saying the glass companies that produce the beer bottles are responsible for drunk driving accidents. IT AIN'T THE DAMN BOAT'S FAULT, IT'S THE DUMBASS AT THE HELM!!!!! It doesn't matter what boat you're in if the operator's an irresponsible idiot.

Amen, boats don't drown people, people drown people....

Here in florida Ive fished alot of bass tourys and while under power use half to were a PFD or you will be disqulifyed at least in the ones ive fished , but I friend of mine was ejected from his boat when he hit a sandbar , no life jacket 1ft of water on impack he broke his neck and drowned in this case its hard to tell if he would have live or not with a pfd on. No body will ever know if they will save your life in a acceident your either gonna die or your not.

Sudden Storm -about 6:30 PM - 50mph squall blew in from the North....

Storm blew in so suddenly that their small recreational boat was swamped
in the East Side of Trinity Bay before they could reach safe harbor....

2 adults - rode their swamped rig till Coast Guard rescued
them - everyone safe....

Dang good thing they had full USCG floatation.....

Now they just need to come get their rig off the rocks just south
of my place --- LOL


Story - http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=9130977

The reason they were found so quickly....

Because they were able to stay with their swamped boat
their cell phone GPS locators allowed rescuers to zero in
on their position...

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas ... 585530.php





If they had been swimming with submereged phones - it might
have been 12 hours or more before they were found....

PJ and I were our roaming Trinity Bay all afternoon in our GoDevil rigs
on Friday - when you run big water - it adds a whole lot of safety
to run it in a USCG full floatation rig !