Fisher Maritime
Consulting Group

Boating Casualties

We have analyzed a number of recreational boating incidents including collisions, fires, falls, and injuries. We have also analyzed casualties involving larger vessels.

Fisher Maritime personnel have analyzed dozens of boating casualties in the past years, providing technical advice and expert witness services. Usually those matters are settled or resolved before going to trial.

We have analyzed, reported on, been deposed and/or testified in many courts on matters from houseboat fires to bow-rider spinal injuries, as well as other topics related to mis-design, manufacturing errors, and failures to warn. We continue to see irrational aspects of recreational boat design and manufacturing which have led to severe personal injuries. In the next few paragraphs we offer some insights gained from our analyses of boating casualties.

General Observations

One fundamental cause of injuries to users of boats has been found to be a lack of boat construction in full accordance with the engineering and plans. The failure to secure seats in full accordance (not partial accordance) with the engineering instructions indicates incomplete quality assurance on the manufacturing floor. The inadvertent use of the wrong type of hose for engine exhaust lines also stems from insufficient manufacturing quality control. The wiring of smoke and CO2 alarms to an ignition circuit instead of directly to the battery can result in inoperable safety features just when they are needed most.

Design for Discomfort

In one of our newsletters we published the idea about designing for discomfort, so boat passengers would not sit or lie down at inappropriate places. Firm (but not hard) foam-filled shapes or buzzer sounds are some of the possibilities to dissuade passengers from occupying inappropriate positions. (See our Fall 1997 edition of Upright and Afloat).

Risks of Speed

Based on our analyses of a number of boating accidents, we see that the risk associated with boat speed is a concern. The sale of offshore racing type boats to amateurs with little more qualifications than sufficient buying power is also a recipe for casualties. In response to our expert reports and/or the outcome in several law suits, some boat manufacturers are beginning to provide training courses to purchasers of such boats; but we are concerned if that will be sufficient. A more fundamental question applicable to the recreational boating industry is this: Just because a faster boat can be built for a market that wants it and can afford it, is that sufficient justification to create the risks of use of such boats by amateurs?

Seats vs. Capacity

The available underway seating in a boat and the rated occupancy of those same recreational boats are often inconsistent. Per USCG regulations, the boat occupancy rating is determined from a reserve buoyancy perspective. But manufacturers (and their designers) often fail to provide seating for that rated number of persons. It is permissible for boat manufacturers to down-rate the maximum capacity to match the number of available seats. Otherwise, the manufacturer is implying that it is permissible to have more persons aboard the boat than the number of seats. This, too, promotes the likelihood of casualties.

Bow Riders

The type of boat euphemistically called "a bow rider" has been the cause of many severe spinal injuries or overboard injuries. Simply, persons who ride in the bow while the boat is operating at high speed over wakes and waves may incur spinal injury or be tossed over the side. The presence of seats at the bow encourages such use at high speeds because it is fun to be there if the water is mirror-smooth. But amateur boat operators (that is, nearly all of them) do not appreciate that such fun carries with it high risk of injury when crossing wakes or waves.

Improved Designs

These concepts expressed above may suggest to some that we are not friendly to boat manufacturers. Not true. Rather, we are trying to use our professional analyses to point out to boat manufacturers that it is possible to identify "weak" aspects of design and manufacturing, and to then improve their products for safety as a response to those analyses.

Sample Cases:

• Some of our work has included:

  • Collision between 60' yacht and 21' motorboat with three lives lost
  • Carbon monoxide poisoning aboard recreational boat with two lives lost
  • Collision between 33' powerboat and windsurfer
  • Collision between personal watercraft and powerboat
  • Sinking of clam-dredge vessel with all hands lost
  • Barge sinking in Chesapeake and Delaware Canal
  • Gasoline barge explosion

• Additional information available upon request.

• See more cases.

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