" In My Opinion"
Once again the news is full of big brother protecting us from ourselves.

he Coast Guard has approved inflatable life jackets for recreational boats. These life jackets can be worn as flat collars and inflate upon immersion in water. (You may have seen various styles of these resembling suspenders) ..... Oh but wait, although the Coast Guard published the standards for the new life jackets in March, some red tape regulation won't let it go into effect until almost October.

In New York, the legislators are amending their children's life jacket law. Apparently in the past children under 12 have had to wear a Type I or II life jacket while aboard a moving boat. Kids participating in supervised activities, like sailing lessons, had to choose whether to be "legal" or "safe". Wearing an oversized, ill-fitting type I or II PFD in a small sailboat, is like dancing in ski boots. Now give NY it's credit, they recognized this problem and are remedying it........ except kids under 12 who want to water-ski must still wear a Type I or II jacket. The problem is these jackets are not impact resistant.

In Washington the "damn the consequences, balance the budget, congress" cut the budget for the Coast Guards small boat stations by $6 million dollars, while the "if you can do it , i can do it better, president" issued a presidential directive to reduce Coast Guard staffing by 4,000 positions and save $400 million over the next four years. (that works out to an average yearly salary of $25,000......) When the Coast Guard proposed closing 23 search and rescue stations last year, the "damn the consequences, balance the budget, congress" reacted to concerns about safety, prohibited any closures until October 1996.

Now lets put this into perspective.

Our children are going to be either safer or legal wearing their Type III PFD's while participating in an adult supervised sailing program in New York State, just not water skiing. The Coast Guard will close down 23 small boat search and rescue stations in October, but that's OK by then I can go out and buy an inflatable PFD. Yes I feel safer now.. don't you?

Mark Gardner, Editor HARBOR WATCH