What is most likely to cause someone to fall overboard are situations every boat operator and passenger should be cautious of.
Having a boat ride is always filled with fun until something bad happens.
One of the worst things that can happen during boating is when someone falls overboard.
Falling Overboard a boat is caused by high alcohol intake, slippery boat edges, slippery boat floor or turbulent water current.
It can happen to a passenger and can also happen to the boat operator.
How well kitted with a life jacket or your experience in swimming will determine your survival probability in worse cases.
That is why you should always maintain the best safety standards when boarding a boat or sea vessel.
What Is Most Likely To Cause Someone To Fall Overboard
1) High Alcohol Intake
Alcohol can really be bad in most of the cases when taken in excess volume.
This is because when you take any substance with a high alcoholic content, it affects your mental stability.
It could result in cases like having a shaking hand or a shaking leg.
Also your visibility will be bad.
When this happens to someone in a boat, it will cause the person to fall overboard easily.
This is always a very bad experience especially if the person did not wear a life jacket.
It even gets worse if the person cannot swim.
In such a case, it could lead to drowning which is a boat emergency that causes most fatalities.
This leads to a loss of life.
That is why it is very important to keep substances with a high alcohol content away when boating.
2) Slippery Boat Edges
If you have a boat edge that is slippery you should try and make it more slip resistant.
This is to avoid someone falling overboard.
In most of the cases when people make use of a boat, they may sit close to the edge of the boat.
Due to the activities going on in the boat, someone might accidentally push a person that is sitting close to the boat edge.
Boating as you know is a time that is filled with a lot of fun catching moments.
This involves dancing, and other activities.
In the process of dancing, someone might accidentally push someone who is seated by the edge of the boat.
Due to the accidental push, the person may fall overboard.
This is most of the times worse when the edge of the boat is slippery.
But when the edge of the boat has some traction, the chances of someone falling out of the boat will be reduced.
That is why it is very important to use boating sheets with good traction on the edges of your boat.
This include products like seadek sheets.
This will help in increasing the traction on the edge of your boat.
When that is done, the chances of someone falling overboard the boat will be reduced.
3) Slippery Boat Floor.
Another thing that is most likely to cause someone to fall overboard when in a boat is when the floor of a boat is slippery.
When it comes to the floor of some boats, it is always slippery in some.
It gets slippery when water is present on the boat floor.
The slippery nature of the boat floor gets worse if a liquid like oil or grease is poured on the boat floor.
This is very dangerous and can make someone fall easily when on the boat.
In a worse case, the person may fall overboard which can lead to a loss of life.
To avoid this and give some traction to the floor of the boat, boat owners do this by making use of products like seadek flooring.
This will help give a better traction to the floor of your boat.
4) Turbulent Water Current
Every type of boat differs in functionality when encountering turbulent water current.
Some boats can withstand the bad water currents without capsizing.
But this is different when it comes to small boats.
Small boats are not that stable.
When they come in contact with water current that is very turbulent, they easily capsize.
This is another scenario that is most likely to cause someone to fall overboard.
When the water is too turbulent and the boat cannot remain stable, it capsizes.
This leads to people falling overboard the boat.
In such bad scenario, people lose their lives and properties when the water current is extremely terrible.
That is why you should always make sure that you use a life jacket anytime you are in a boat.
5) Lack Of Experience From Boat Operator
A boat operator that lacks experience should not be allowed to drive a boat in situations above their level of experience.
When it comes to driving a boat, experience is built due to the nature of the water you operate in.
Some boat operators are very good in water that has less turbulent current.
But when it comes to water current that is very turbulent, they lack experience on how to keep the boat stable.
When they are faced with water current that is more turbulent than what they are used to, it becomes hard for them to keep the boat stable.
Due to this, it causes people to fall overboard.
6) Standing On a Moving Boat
When a boat is in motion, it is always advisable for the passengers to be seated.
This is to make sure that they maintain a stable posture and position as a top priority.
A boat that is in motion always faces some level of unbalanced movement.
It is even worse when the speed is very high as in the case of driving a speed boat at a high speed level.
In this case, it is not good for someone to be standing on the boat.
This could lead to someone falling from the boat at any slight water turbulence in the water.
7) Fishing From a Boat
When someone is fishing, it is very common for people to stand.
In such a time you are at a high risk of falling from the boat if you do not maintain a stable posture.
It is even worse if the boat you are using is a small one or a canoe.
If you succeed in hooking a big fish, the fish will struggle to free itself from the hook.
This will create a pull effect as the fish tries to break free from the hook.
At such a point, the pull force from the fish will easily cause the fisherman in the boat to fall into the water if the fish is a big and powerful one.
That is why it is very important to use a boat that has good stability when you are fishing.
This will give you more balance when you are fishing and reduce the chances of you falling overboard when you are fishing from the boat.
8) Carelessness Of Boat Operator
A careful boat operator will easily identify situations that are most likely to cause someone to fall overboard.
It could be the case of terrible water current in front that the stability of the boat cannot survive.
In such a case, a careful boat operator will find an alternative route to avoid rendering casualties to the boat and the passengers onboard.
But this is not the same when it has to do with a boat operator that is careless.
A boat driver that is careless will still be entering the turbulent water current.
Due to this, an havoc to the boat and passengers is very close.
Before proceeding on a boat journey, it is always very important to satisfactorily complete the pre-departure checklist.
That is one of the benefits of a pre-departure checklist as it gives you great information on time to avoid any casualty from ocuring.
This contains check on weather forecast to show if it will be safe for the boat to proceed on the journey.
But when the boat operator is careless and does not check things like this, it could lead to casualties that could have been easily avoided.
9) Boat Attack
Just like how thieves are present on the highway.
There are also thieves on the water that attack boats.
Some of them just come to rob the passengers of their properties and then leave without hurting anybody..
At worse cases, some come to displace everyone on the boat and steal the boat.
At such point, people are thrown into the water by the boat pirates.
This is one of the worse experiences any boat operator and passengers onboard face when travelling by water.
10) Poor Weight Distribution On Boat
Another thing that causes people to fall overboard a boat is how weight is distributed on a boat.
Weight distribution on a boat is very important and must be paid attention to.
This is one of the things that will determine if your boat journey will be a success or not.
Also, you should make sure that you know of the weight capacity of your boat.
You can see this information on the deck of your boat.
If it is not there, you can easily calculate weight capacity of a boat with the length and width of your boat when there is no capacity plate.
One thing you should know is that even if the boat is not overloaded, there are still chances that the boat may face casualties due to load.
This is due to poor weight distribution of load on the boat.
Always make sure that the luggage on a boat is not concentrated at one side.
Spread out the load on the boat evenly.
This will make the boat to be more safe due to the stability it gains from good weight distribution.
11) Boat Build Quality
The build quality of a boat is very important.
This determines the type of water the boat operates on.
In a lot of countries, there are limitations to where boats can enter depending on the build and capacity of a boat.
A boat with a 10hp engine cannot enter most of the water body that a boat with 150hp engine can enter.
If the boat operator tries to enter, the risk of having casualties is very high.
That is why it is very important to obey regulations and only enter the water that is allowed due to your boat build and capacity.
Entering a more turbulent water with a boat with a lower build and capacity will cause passengers to fall overboard.
12) A Faulty Boat On Fire
One of the worst things you can experience when boating is when a boat catches fire.
It could be a case where boat outboard motor catches fire.
It could be a more serious case in which the whole boat is on fire.
In such a case, people will be forces to jump out of the boat to avoid being consumed by the fire.
What To Do When You Discover Situations That Cause Someone To Fall Overboard
It is better to prevent falling overboard situations before they occur.
This will eliminate the casualties that occurs when someone falls overboard.
- If you discover signs of someone falling overboard, make sure that you take the right steps to stop it.
- For example if you discover that the water current is too turbulent for your boat to handle, you should avoid entering such a turbulent water body.
- If you conduct your pre-departure checklist and the weather forecast shows turbulent water currents in the period your boat will be in the water, abort the journey.
- If your boat floor is slippery, make sure that you install a good traction product like seadek flooring.
- If the edge of your boat is slippery, make sure that you protect the edges of your boat from slip by using anti slip products like seadek sheet.
This will eliminate situations that are most likely to cause someone to fall overboard when using a boat.
Also it will reduces the casualties that occur when someone falls overboard.
Further Reading
Boating Emergencies With Bad Fatalities
What To Do When Someone Falls Out Of The Boat
Seadek Texture Types For Boat Floor