The Sportsman's Forum One of the primary goals of the BoatU.S. Foundation was to gather knowledgeable sportsmen from well-known sporting groups and get their help in reaching sportsmen. Additional groups, such as Responsive Management , Stearns Manufacturing , and Sporting Lives , are also helping to develop appropriate methods of reaching sportsmen with boating safety information. The Forum has met two to three times per year over the last three years to develop appropriate boating safety messages, and ways to disseminate those messages. The first order of business for the Forum was to review the trends in boating, and to find a way to address any problems relating to the way sportsmen use their boats. As the initial goal of the grant called for the examination of boating accident and fatality reports from 1995 through 1999 to see what the trends were.
Deaths occur primarily from capsized boats and falls-overboard.
Saturday and Sunday are the deadliest days, with Tuesday and Wednesday being the safest days. Sportsmen who die on the water almost never wear a life jacket . Weather conditions are usually calm, clear, and warm. Average water conditions however, are considered to be hazardous, primarily due to cold water temperature. Most Sportsmen who die on the water are between 30 and 50 years-old.