Skip while I appreciate your data the numbers really are not a fair comparison. Let me explain why. We are breaking down the total number of accidents based on the size of boats involved. However that does not take under consideration how many of each size are actaully owned and on the water. I would venture to say that the number of accidents involving smaller boats would be high overall because there's far more of them out there than the bigger boats. OK let me put it another way, just about any average Joe pretty much could afford a boat or 20' or less, but a very small number of Joes can afford to drop 100K+ on a recreational toy. Most performance boats cost at least that much which greatly reduces the total number of them out there in use compared to a family runabout type.
That is like saying that driving an economy car versus driving a luxury car makes you more likely to get into an accident. Well no- it just means that there are more economy cars on the road therefore the odds are in favor of more accidents involving economy cars.
What should be used to report these numbers would be to compare the number of accidents in percentage based on the classification. IE what percentage of that class were involved in accidents.
To your stated statics:
Of those 750 deaths, nearly half (331) died in accidents involving boats of less than 16 feet in length
I bet you that most in that class were jetskis. I conclude this by making a simple observation. It'd be pretty tough to kill yourself in a boat this small unless it was a jetski. Common, what else falls in this category, a canoe, kayak, blow up boat, skiff, sunfish?
I'm not bashing neither jetskis nor off shore racers here, just trying to state a neutral point based on your data regardless of my own personal feelings on the matter.
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