To me you are taking the risk of committing suicide Ken but that's my opinion and no one else has to agree with it.
You might make the argument that allowing people to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, to not wear a seatbelt, or to take pictures of a hurricane while sitting on the dock, will encourage others to do likewise, but I don't think we should be mandated to set a good example either.
Weird but the absolute best boaters are those men and women who are in the coast guard and they rarely ever come up out of their floatation devices when they are afloat. If they do it, there must be some justification for it. The all too macho scene whereby someone feels as though others will call them a pansy if they protect themselves from harm are too dangerous and narcissistic for me to travel around. Being too much of a man is a sure ticket for an accident looking for a place to happen. I'm no longer 18 and invincible nor am I a young idiot. I learned by watching and by experience so if someone wishes to hammer away at me for protecting my wife and myself, my message to them is to feel free to be the first in line. A few people are dead and I am alive not because I am a coward, but because I am aware of my surroundings and do what is called for to stay reasonably safe.
I've been in two motorcycle accidents, one with no helmet and another wearing a full-face helmet. The one without, it was getting dusk and I was wearing sunglasses. Didn't see the curve coming up, flipped over it and my body slid on the street, just barely missing the edge of the sidewalk. Luckily all I got was a few scratches and a cracked collarbone. The other, wearing a full-face helmet, I was on a curve and hit some loose gravel, Bike went into the ditch, I came off, and wound up on my back. Actually seen the bike go right over the top of me and land behind me. Wound up with a broken ankle that required surgery with screws. One bike was a 550 Suzuki and the other was a 650 Kawasaki. Sold the Kawasaki in So Calif., before we moved to Colorado. Won't buy another.
I think it would make a lot of people think about doing those same things...but in the end we all our responsible for making our own choices...even if we are influenced by others.
No Cody, the simple answer is no one is required by law to wear a life jacket or any type of buoyancy aid here when boating... although most people do... However water skiers et al ( including wake-boarding, jumping, slalom, tubes, bananas) legally are obliged to do so and must adhere to that law, and equally the towing boat must carry life jackets and buoyancy aids as well as Fire extinguishers. Also the law for British waters is that any towing boat must have 2 people in the boat which is towing the skier !
Well, Bobby, at our Dry Storage, only the kids are wearing life vests when a boat takes off. Have not seen one adult with one on. While on the water, don't see any adults with them on either. Now, when we first looked at the boat we now own, the Navy Lt. Commander who was selling it, wasn't wearing a life vest when we pulled away from the dock, as we weren't either. The two people who did wear a vest was my wife's sister and her brother. Neither of them have any boating experience at all. It was the same way when we lived and boated in Colorado...………..none of the adults wore life vests, only the kids.
I limped for about a year after sliding across a newly surfaced street on my leg after my bike went down. I didn't see a doctor for it, though. I just picked gravel and tar out of my leg for a while and suffered with a sore knee until it finally got better. I probably should have gone to the hospital, as the city (Anaheim) had closed the street at both ends but had put no warning signs on the side streets. Since I didn't have a stop sign, I didn't see that the street had been newly paved until I was almost on top of it. When I tried to stop, it went down and I slid across.
Many, many here, inside a boat, don't, except for kids, and if someone was to look at YouTube boaters, they would see that. Here, when water skiing, the boat has to have a Observer and obviously the driver. Thing is, in the second movie of Jaws, it shows a mother driving a boat with her daughter skiing behind...…..no Observer.
I think that flotation devices are required in Maine, but am not sure whether they are required to be worn or simply be in the boat. If so, I think most people take them off once they leave shore. I was particularly amused by Michigan's first helmet law. Helmets were required to be available, but not worn. At that time, people commonly put sissy bars on their Harleys, and a lot of people welded their helmets on the top of the sissy bar, while others wore World War II German helmets.
Here and in Colorado, adults don't even put them on at the dock. Vests are in the boat, as required by law. I remember, in 2007, after having rotator cuff surgery and still going thru PT, I asked my Ortho Surgeon if I'd be able to take our boat out on the lake. He said "yes, as long as you have a life vest on in case something happens. Your shoulder isn't totally healed and strong yet." So, the next weekend, we hooked up the boat and headed to the lake. Wife and I had ski vests and she wore hers also. We put them on at the dock and, as we were leaving the No Wake Area, people in boats kept giving us this strange look...….because we had the vests on and nobody else did, except for kids.
As the OP is attempting to ask, should it be mandatory? Obviously you feel as though it should not as I also feel that it shouldn't be but some things should be common sense. I was airborne in the Army and followed it up in civilian life because I love to skydive. Now, is there a law about wearing a reserve chute? Nope. But it sure does make sense to put one on does it not? Matter of fact, it was for obvious reasons that the fine state of California was the first state to make it a law that skydivers had to wear parachutes when they disembarked from a plane! Yup, guys were blasting without chutes in hopes that their partner would eventually show up with one. Uh, I might add that some very EXPERIENCED divers died whilst trying that trick one too many times. Ya just cannot fix the type of stupid that comes with being macho. Now, so far as your life preservers are concerned, you are a free man and husband so whatever you do or do not do is your choice. And, so far as the example of a coast guard officer setting some example of not wearing one, it's the exception, not the rule. One of my satellite restaurants was at the Coast Guard main gate in the 9th Ward just outside the French Quarter in New Orleans. Can you believe the absolute spectacle of Coast Guardsmen coming in a restaurant with their life preservers still on? They get so used to them they even go to eat after their boat docks. But I do go astray most dismally, so do forgive. Bottom line; as the example in the OP, people can do whatever they wish, however they wish and whenever they wish. Whether it's seat belts, helmets or life preservers it should be based on common sense rather than mandatory but let us not forget, that common sense is very common and people get killed for the want of it.
Julie was driving on the wrong side of the road, too. Anyway, I believe the driver has the right to impose any rules they wish on the passengers, for the driver is responsible for their safety, and the passengers have the right not to ride in the driver's car if they don't wish to comply with the conditions set by the driver.
As far as seat belts and PFDs are concerned, they shouldn't be mandatory for adults, BUT every responsible adult, especially parents and grandparents, should set an example for the children by wearing them. Our children were always in car seats and seat belts when in a vehicle and would usually notify us in a panic if we started the car when they weren't buckled in. As far as PFDs go, they are mandatory to be worn here for children 13 years and younger, but they must be in the boat for everyone. Many adults who have lived here long wear them anyway, and the "automatic" ones are becoming very popular, as they are not restrictive to motion. The water here is so cold that even if you were an Olympic swimmer, you would have about 5 minutes before your muscles become unusable. The fish here love 40 F. (4.5 C.) water, but human muscles don't. Many, if not most of the rivers here are fed by glaciers and actually rise when the weather get warm. The lakes are a little warmer. Beer, however, is kept nicely cold when submerged.