I just don’t understand why anyone would be in a small vessel and not wear a life jacket. Same goes for the two missing from the 14-foot dismasted sailboat. Why such aversion to a PFD?
Workboots and jeans are not good for swimming either, not even for a good swimmer. Very sad. My heart goes out to the family.
The water in the Sound is still cold, honestly even with a PFD they may have succumbed to hypothermia before anyone came across them. But a PFD would have given more time.
As to aversion to PFD’s, it can be terribly strong and I doubt it’ll get better unless states get off their butts to change the law that says no PFD is OK late spring to early fall. I have a family member that refuses to wear one where I rent on the ocean, even in the face of requests by the owners that everyone wear one as an example for the kids that come. There are often young children or grandchildren around, and the owners feel that they are more likely to use a PFD if they see adults doing so.
Local formed groups can insist on it as part of joining them, a local paddle group near home has. But people like my family member, who are so intractable that they are willing to blow off the requests of the owners where they rent, are a lot of the paddlers out there.
Also, recreational sailboaters typically do not wear a PFD. Yes for racers and for students in sailboat programs, but I have crewed on a 30 odd foot long boat and I was the only one actually wearing a PFD. Everyone else was sitting on a cushion or expected to make it to the forward stowage area if there was a problem.
Largely depends upon budget and judgement .
Cheap PFDs are uncomfortable.
Anyone who goes out in one of my boats must wear a PFD and if they don’t I do the same thing I do when someone in my car refuses to wear a seat belt. I don’t go. And I don’t lose any sleep over it.
As I learned to kayak there and paddled for 20 years on LIS I’ve heard of many such disappearances
You can get hypothermia in Bahamas water so it’s not important that LIS warms rapidly this time of the year. By July 4 it feels like warm bath water
What probably did the paddler in is the tidal currents and wind
With wind from the North and an outgoing tide and little experience it is nigh impossible to return
Add wind from offshore that is not apparent and it’s a bad bad scene for the inexperienced
Too bad he did not join ConnYak
Sometimes clubs are regarded as elitist but I learned a lot