Over 1,000 leisure craft accidents were recorded in a two-month window last year, according to a report by the MAIB. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch compiled a register between 8 August and 10 October 2005, and identified 1,162 incidents in total. By the end of 2005, 24 people had been killed in boating tragedies.

The government agency described the high number of accidents as ‘astonishing,’ particularly as it is not mandatory to report them, leading the report’s author, Chief Inspector Stephen Meyer, to again recommend the introduction of legislation to limit the amount of alcohol consumed by skippers.

As we reported in May’s PBO, the Department for Transport has been consulting for two years on proposed regulations to set alcohol limits for boaters at 80mg per 100ml of blood, the same as on the roads. The issue was highlighted in March after an MAIB report linked alcohol to a fatal crash on Loch Fyne that killed two men and a woman.

Photo: the motorboat Sea Snake, which crashed into rocks in Loch Fyne in July 2005.