Boaters Pay High Price for Being Unprepared

Last summer an elderly couple headed to Anacapa Island in a 17-foot open boat, propelled by an outboard motor. They had no radio, no compass, and the batteries on their cell phone were low--basically, an accident waiting to happen. They didn’t have to wait long. On their way back, the winds picked up, blowing in dense fog and whipping the sea into 6-foot swells. Then they ran low on fuel.

“They managed to get one call out” before their phone died, said Lt. J.J. Jones of the Coast Guard Station in Oxnard. “They are lucky a helicopter saw them through a hole in the fog.”

The couple survived, but not everyone who goes to sea unprepared does.

In the past month, five people have died in cold, winter seas off Southern California, according to Lt. Dan Deptula of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Group in Long Beach. Four died in the Ventura-Santa Barbara area, including two canoeists whose outrigger was swamped on the way back from an excursion to an oil platform two weeks ago.

None of the adventurers who died was wearing a life jacket. It’s something Coast Guard officials say they see all the time. Never has more safety gear--and more sophisticated equipment--been available to the men and women who challenge the sea. Yet boaters--commercial and recreational--continue to venture into the water without taking precautions.

The ocean can be particularly dangerous in winter, when the water plunges to bone-chilling temperatures and waves swell to ship-flipping heights.

The events over the past month illustrate how quickly a peaceful day on the water can change. On Dec. 16, a 50-year-old fisherman out of Port San Luis called the Coast Guard when his 28-foot fishing vessel grounded itself on the rocks eight miles north of Point Arguello and started sinking. Jerry Schilds radioed the Coast Guard that he was going for his life jacket and preparing to climb into his 14-foot skiff.

That was his last communication. The Coast Guard found his boat washed up on the beach with the skiff still attached. His body was found two weeks ago.

Five days before Christmas, 33-year-old dory fisherman Timothy Meek of Newport Beach sailed into choppy, nearly unnavigable waters in an effort to earn enough money to buy his 2-year-old son a Christmas present. A plug dislodged from the bottom of the boat and caused the vessel to sink, leaving Meek and a companion paddling in jeans and T-shirts while three miles out at sea. The other man, Russell Jensen Jr., stayed afloat by clutching an empty gas tank and managed to swim to another boat. Meek’s body has not been found.

On Christmas Eve, 67-year-old Steve Felkins of San Francisco fell off his 40-foot yacht into roiling, 53-degree water 17 miles off Morro Bay. His partner threw a life raft into the inky blackness and called the Coast Guard. Felkins’ body has not been found.

Most recently, Scott Sullenger, 35, and John Deblin, 50, of Oxnard died when waves swamped their 40-foot outrigger near Channel Islands Harbor. Deblin died of hypothermia. Sullenger’s body still has not been found.

Anyone who has spent time in those waters knows the sea cannot be made completely safe. But what frustrates the Coast Guard is that so many continue to forgo the most basic safety equipment. Deptula said even seasoned fishermen will push the limits, heading out to sea to make their living without a life jacket.

Recreational boaters can be even worse.

“Today you see so much fantastic flotation equipment that doesn’t impact anything you do but can save your life,” Deptula said.

Sophisticated safety equipment can be expensive. Inflatable life rafts cost from $1,689 to $2,800, flare kits cost from $49.99 to $146.99 and need to be replaced every three years. EPIRBS--electric position-indicating radio beacons--that transmit a boat’s name and location by satellite after an accident cost up to $1,339.

The Coast Guard says boaters should have life jackets, flares and EPIRBS. But even basic precautions can save lives. That means checking the weather before going out and taking thermal protection for the worst-case scenario. And carrying a working radio.

Instead, Deptula said, “What we’re seeing is a lack of safety. Especially during this time of year when it is most important.”

Deptula said that during December, January and February the chill factor in the water adds to the danger.

“Given the same circumstances, in winter, the time window for survival is very diminished,” he said.

Humans can typically survive only five to six hours in 50-degree water. But officials say safety equipment can increase that time, and therefore the length of the search. The Coast Guard stopped looking for Sullenger after 24 hours.

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Officials also factor in such data as the person’s body weight and swimming ability.

Deptula said a female triathlete from Orange County disappeared in the water last year. The Coast Guard searched 24 hours past the time an average person would have succumbed to the water temperature because she was a strong swimmer.

Deptula emphasized that even in cases where life jackets do not save a life, they help the Coast Guard find the body, which offers families resolution.

“Unfortunately, because the temperature of the water is so cold, the ones we do not find are not wearing flotation devices, so they go under quickly,” he said.

Jones, of the Oxnard Coast Guard Station, was involved in 100 searches last year in the area stretching from Point Dume in Malibu to San Luis Obispo County.

“There aren’t too many accidents on the water that, if we didn’t stop and look at it, you couldn’t predict,” he said, adding that not wearing a life jacket is much like riding a motorcycle without a helmet--”It’s kind of begging for a problem.”

Jones said the situation is frustrating because safety information, classes and equipment are available. But unlike someone who buys a car, who must prove competency at the wheel, a recreational boat owner doesn’t have to do anything more than register the boat.

“Some of those boats have hundreds and hundreds of horsepower in them,” he said. “And we just turn them loose. We would never think of turning loose a teenager in a brand new Corvette without a license. But we do the equivalent on the water.”

Unlike recreational boaters, commercial operators are required to pass a test and obtain a license. They are also required by law to have safety equipment on board.

Also, commercial fishermen are usually more familiar with the ocean and more respectful of its power and unpredictability.

But Bev Noll, who teaches marine safety courses to commercial fishermen, says the macho spirit of the fishing industry and its resentment of government rules and regulations can cause fishermen to take unnecessary risks.

After commercial fishermen in Alaska were required to complete a safety course, she said, accidents there dropped dramatically.

Noll said the fatality rate among fishermen in Alaska was 24.45% in 1991; in 1994 it was 1.1%. Accident rates have also declined in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

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The exception is Southern California, where fatalities remain high, she said. According to Noll, California led the nation in deaths of commercial fishermen the past two years.

“There are a huge number of resisters through that whole Southern California area,” she said, adding that most of the accidents involve smaller boats--between 26 and 49 feet long.

“The small-boat owner is very complacent,” she said. “He only goes out a little way. He doesn’t do this, he doesn’t do that. Maybe he doesn’t stay out overnight, just a quick couple of hours to pull in a couple of trout. He feels invincible, which all fishermen do anyway.”

Noll says deaths alone will not cause others to change behavior. Change, she said, will come only when fishermen know the Coast Guard will check to see that monthly safety drills are conducted on each boat, and that a drill conductor is on board who is capable of walking the crew through possible crises, as is done in Alaska.