The survey comes more than 15 years after BoatU.S. first testified before Congress that it didn't make sense to pass new federal laws and regulations affecting millions of recreational boat owners without the benefit of sound statistics on how boaters boated and recreational boats are used. Funding for the survey comes from the Aquatic Resources (Wallop/Breaux) Trust Fund which collects federal gasoline taxes paid by boaters and distributes the proceeds to the Coast Guard and the states for boating safety programs.

According to BoatU.S. Government Affairs Director Michael Sciulla, who pushed for the study, "Now that we have a reliable set of statistics upon which everyone can agree, we are hopeful that the government and the private sector will take the time to evaluate their positions on a number of public policy issues in light of what boaters are saying as well as what is actually going on out on the water."

The $1.8 million survey is by far the largest sampling of boat operators conducted to date. Between September 2001 and September 2002, some 25,547 questionnaires were completed — by mail and by telephone — and analyzed by Strategic Research Group (SRG) of Columbus, OH, under a contract with the Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety. For each state and territory, 250 surveys went to registered boaters and 250 to non-registered boaters. The survey asked some 57 questions and the results fill four volumes, including a state-by-state breakdown. For example, if planners wish to find out how many powerboat operators in Oregon have taken a boating class or how many kayakers in Ohio wear a life jacket, it’s in there. All the results are posted on the Internet, downloadable from www.uscgboating.org/stats.htm.

The data should prove to be a gold mine to boating groups, government agencies and the marine industry. However, unlike past surveys that were more limited in their sample and focused mainly on demographics, this survey queried those who operated boats on some of the major issues of the day: their attitudes toward education, life jackets, and accidents. It also will give the Coast Guard statisticians more information on boat usage habits, by boat type, to give some context to annual accident figures.
“It will help us figure out who our customers are and their exposure rates to see if we can get our hands around boating risk exposure,” said Capt. Scott Evans, chief of the Office of Boating Safety which received the final survey results in February. “We haven’t digested all the data yet but we’re going through it to create discussion points to go out to all our partners and get feedback.”

Agree or Disagree

Boaters were asked to agree or disagree on several key safety topics and overall, boater agreement was at 80% on questions such as more enforcement of alcohol laws (92%), more enforcement of reckless boating laws (90%), requiring boaters to pass a competency test (74 %), putting restrictions on crowded boating waterways (66%), and requiring children under 13 to wear life jackets (86%). The only issue topic not getting a majority of agreement was whether all boaters should be required to wear a life jacket — only 43% said they thought it was a “good idea” and 55% disagreed.

What to Wear?

The SRG survey specifically asked boat operators to report on their use of life jackets and the results indicate that 34% say they wear a life jacket whenever they go boating while 96% carry the proper number of life jackets on board. Thirty-seven percent said they rarely or never wore one. The operators most likely to be wearing a life jacket most of the time are on personal watercraft (88%), kayaks (76%) and canoes (64%). Only 12% of operators of cabin motorboats said they wore a life jacket.

Interestingly, the younger the operator the better the life jacket usage: 73% of boat operators under the age of 19 wore a life jacket most of the time. Children’s wear is gaining ground as the survey found a rate of 96% of kids under 6 and 89% of kids 6 to 12 wear life jackets. Women boaters were more likely to report wearing a life jacket than males.

The activity when boat operators were most likely to be wearing a life jacket were waterskiing or tubing (82%), boating in rough water ( 65%) or strong currents (62%), or in strong winds ( 62%).

What Do We Know?
Boating education has been a prominent issue with 38 states currently requiring some type of boating course. The survey found that the younger the operator, the less likely they were to have taken a boating safety class than older operators. Apparently state laws, many that first target youth operators and then move up in age groups progressively each year, are not having a substantial effect yet.

Of some concern should be the fact that overall 60% of boat operators have never taken a safety class. By boat type, the exceptions are auxiliary sailors (31% have never taken a course), cabin motorboaters (35%) and sail-only sailors (46%). However, of these last three groups who were more likely to have taken a class, over 20% of them said they took it more than 10 years ago.

Among operators of inflatables, personal watercraft and rowboats, 4% had less than one hour of boating experience. And these operators of smaller boats were far less likely to have ever taken a safety course (canoes, rowboats, open motorboats, inflatables and personal watercraft) as well as have less than 100 hours of boating experience.

Strangely enough, the survey found some unusual attitudes: operators who had not taken a safety class were actually more likely to agree that boaters of all ages should be required to wear a life jacket.

Incident Report

Perhaps most telling of all, boat operators were asked about incidents in which they were involved where injuries or boat damage occurred. At least one such mishap was reported for an average of every 15 hours of boat use; property damage without injuries was reported for an average of every 8 hours of boating. On the plus side, the survey found serious incidents actually quite low overall involving fewer than 15% of boat operators.

The most serious types of incidents were reported the least frequently — only 2% for damage accidents and 1% having injury accidents. About 9% of operators reported finding themselves in a situation they felt they needed help to get out of; 7% reported an incident in which they felt an urgency to get back to the dock or shore.

Bolstering the point that it’s not the equipment that is usually at fault, the survey found that in 34% of damage incidents, the cause was something the operator or a passenger did. In addition, a hazard in the water accounted for 30% of boat property damage incidents. An open motorboat was the most common type of boat in use when property damage (49%) or injury requiring treatment beyond first aid (36%) occurred. The second most frequently used boat in these types of incidents was a personal watercraft. In incidents where the problem was with the boat, the largest single cause (24%) was engine failure.

The survey queried operators on falls overboard and boaters responded that 50% of the time, those who did fall overboard were wearing a life jacket while in 14% of incidents, some of the boaters were wearing life jackets and some were not; 35% of the time, no one who fell over was wearing a life jacket.

Youth also appears to be a risk factor. The results indicate that younger boaters are more likely to report having had a boating mishap overall as well as report having more serious incidents than older boaters. For example, operators under 20 were twice as likely as those over 30 to have an incident in which the boat appeared to be a total loss. They were also twice as likely to experience an incident in which they felt someone in the water was in danger.

Alcohol remains a major risk factor as the survey includes boaters’ self-reporting of alcohol use. Those who said alcohol “always” was consumed on their outings were more than twice as likely to report an incident in which they were concerned about getting back to shore or thought they were lost than boaters who said they ”never” consume alcohol while boating. The “always” drinkers were three times as likely to report incidents of property damage and five times as likely to report an injury incident, compared to those who “never” drank.

So Much Boating, So Little Time

While there are 13 million registered boats in the U.S., the SRG survey found that 60 million recreational boats were used cumulatively between September 2001-2002, and the estimated number of days primary and secondary boat operators went out was over 1 billion. As expected, the boat used most often was an open motorboat (48% of respondents) but next largest usage was canoes (30% of respondents). Personal watercraft was the vessel used by one-fourth of operators. The boats used the least often were houseboats (3%) and auxiliary sailboats (4%). About 51% of all boats used during the survey period were owned by the operators or shared, while 16% were rented. The rest were borrowed (13%) or operated by someone else with the owner (19%). The highest percentage of boaters by age group was 40-49 (24%).

Of the boat the respondents said they used most often, 43% were less than 16 feet long and about 35% were between 16 and 20 feet in length. Some 56% of the boats used most often had propeller propulsion and of those boats with motors, nearly 60% were outboards and only 26.7 % were inboards. The vast majority, 91%, are powered by gasoline; diesel accounts for only 5% of boat engines. Manual oars and paddles were used on 26% of boats.

While fears of fast, powerful boats have alarmed safety advocates in recent years, the survey showed that only 22% of boats with engines have 200 hp or higher; half had 99 hp or lower.

Counting the Hours

While boating sometimes has a “party” image, we actually are a solitary bunch. The survey found that most boat operators took only one passenger with them on most outings.

Cabin motorboats were used the most often at a mean number of days of 31.5; open motorboats were used the next most at 29 mean days and auxiliary sailboats were used 25 mean days. Open motorboats were used only an average of one to five hours per day when in use.

By far, the main activities for boaters are fishing (51%) and cruising (44%) and the waterways where the majority of boating occurs are lakes, ponds, reservoirs and gravel pits (52%). The second most popular boating venue is rivers, streams and creeks (21%). States with the highest percentage of boat operators were California, Florida, Michigan and Texas.

Are boaters joiners? Apparently not. Most operators do not belong to any boating organizations. Of those that do belong, BoatU.S. had the highest percentage of members at 11%. The next highest was a yacht club or marina at 8.4%.

Just over half of boaters (58%) said they had seen, read or heard information on boating safety and the way most boaters got safety information was through television or magazines (42%).

The Coast Guard’s staff statistician, Bruce Schmidt, said this nationwide survey brings the Coast Guard much closer to understanding accidents and relative risk. “I think we have a decent assessment of how many hours primary and secondary operators were out there,” he said. “The amount of time spent boating has been the missing link in analyzing how safe it is out there. But we’re getting closer. With this data, we’re drilling down to get to that boat operator and the amount of time they spend boating.”

Capt. Evans said it’s too soon to say whether these results will influence Coast Guard policy. “Eventually it will influence policy but only after we discuss it. We want to validate the data with our partners in boating and find out how to best use the information to move our programs forward. I consider this a starting point."