![\"\"](\"https:\/\/horizonpres.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-361-169x300.png\")
<\/p>\nDid you know that the major cause of fatalities in small boats is from drowning after a fall overboard or a capsizing? And according to the U.S. Coast Guard, eighty-five percent of people who drown while boating are not wearing a lifejacket<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So the number one way you can be prepared for these potentially deadly emergencies is to always wear your lifejacket.<\/p>\n
What else can you do to be prepared?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start by learning more about these emergencies and their causes.<\/p>\n
A capsizing is when a boat overturns or is swamped with water. Capsizing occurs most often with small boats like canoes and sailboats. One of the good things is that these small boats usually stay afloat, giving the boaters who are now in the water something to hold onto for support.<\/p>\n
Common causes of falls overboard and boat capsizing include: being caught off guard by a wave or sharp turn when moving around in the boat, carrying too much weight in the boat or unevenly distributing weight in the boat; and bad weather conditions.<\/p>\n
Knowing this, there are a few things we can do to prevent these emergencies.<\/p>\n
If you must boat in bad weather, make sure to slow down.<\/p>\n
A final tip is to never tie the rode line of the anchor to the stern of your boat. This places more weight at the back of the boat, increasing chances of capsizing, or swamping, your boat.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/horizonpres.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Whisk_cd310380fb3478fbb7148d8e07170c34dr-300x300.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re operating a boat and a passenger falls overboard, here\u2019s what to do:<\/p>\n
Step 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Immediately slow down and stop the boat.<\/p>\n Step 2:<\/strong>\u00a0Quickly throw something buoyant, like a life buoy or a lifejacket, to the person overboard. This will help them stay afloat and mark their location in the water if they go under.<\/p>\n Step 3:<\/strong>\u00a0Assign someone in your boat to keep the overboard person in sight at all times. Have them continually point to the person\u2019s location in the water.<\/p>\n Step 4:<\/strong>\u00a0Carefully position the boat close enough to make contact with the overboard person. Keep them on the operator side of the boat.<\/p>\n Step 5:<\/strong>\u00a0Throw a buoyant heaving line, or a life buoy attached to your boat, to the person overboard.<\/p>\n Step 6:<\/strong>\u00a0Pull the overboard person to your boat and get them back on board using the boat\u2019s boarding ladder. If your boat doesn\u2019t have a ladder, you can drape a heavy rope or chain across the stern to use as a makeshift step.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to consider that in most instances, the overboard person will climb back into the boat from the stern. To avoid a second emergency, turn off your engine.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a capacity plate on your boat\u2014which may be the case if you\u2019re operating a small, flat-bottomed boat\u2014you can calculate the largest safe engine size in the following way.<\/p>\n Falls overboard and capsizing show how important it is to wear a lifejacket. If you end up in the water, your lifejacket will help you conserve energy, stay warm and keep afloat while you wait for rescue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did you know that the major cause of fatalities in small boats is from drowning after a fall overboard or a capsizing? And according to the U.S. Coast Guard, eighty-five percent of people who drown while boating are not wearing a lifejacket So the number one way you can be prepared for these potentially deadly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":699,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralitynews25.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to Survive If Your Boat Capsized or You Fall Overboard<\/h2>\n
\n