In 2011, we at France's National Marine Rescue Society asked a polling organization to conduct a survey on lifejacket wear. Half of the boaters answered that they systematically wore a lifejacket. Main reasons brought up for not wearing one included "it's not comfortable", "out of habit", "don't see the use". Such answers struck us as rather optimistic... Were these people telling us the truth? We therefore decided to clear up the matter by carrying out a one-day manual count along the entire coast every year, segmenting adults/children, by boat type and size.

Our doubts unfortunately proved to be right. In July 2013, along the entire French coast where the weather was particularly fine, our count showed that 11.5% of adults were wearing a lifejacket, and only 54% of children. In 2014, we ordered a new survey: 39% of the boaters answered that they systematically wore a lifejacket, and 22% that they did so often. Shortly afterwards, when we carried out our count on a day on which the weather was bad, lifejacket-wear percentages were respectively 18% and 60%. In July 2015, it was 12% and 49%. Also, the further one sails in the South of France, on the Mediterranean, the less lifejackets are worn, and the further north one sails, the more they are worn. It's a far cry from what we had been told... In view of these observations, the SNSM decided to launch several initiatives.

1) We signed on to the Lifejacket Wear Principles Agreement*, as a founding member. We invite you to sign on as well, at www.lifejacketwear.com.

2) We initiated the lifejacket-wear campaign "Without it, I wouldn't be here today."  This campaign was awarded First Prize among the 2013 solidarity campaigns (i.e. boating safety campaigns carried out by associations and NGOs), and has been passed on by most organizations having to do with the sea and safety at sea.

3) Based on the model used by the UK's RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), we created a lifejacket workshop whereby we invite boaters to come and see us with their own lifejacket to become acquainted with it. In fact, we had observed that boaters would buy lifejackets without knowing what's inside them or how to maintain them. We explain the principles of buoyancy, the types of lifejackets, how to maintain them, and then we get the boaters to activate their inflatable lifejackets so that they can realize what will happen should they fall into the water one day. This saves them additional stress, at a time they don't need any more stress.

Everything we are seeing reinforces our objective of educating boaters on the necessity of wearing a lifejacket, of maintaining it adequately, and of getting children to systematically wear one.

*Editor's note: The SNSM and the RNLI, along with the Australian Recreational Boating Safety Committee, the CSBC and Maritime New Zealand, were founding signatories to the 2013 International Lifejacket Wear Principles Agreement, aimed at international collaboration in promoting lifejacket wear. Find out more at www.csbc.ca, and go to www.lifejacketwear.com to sign up your organization!