By CATHERINE MASTERS
Kirsty Robinson's message is given quietly.
She doesn't like to talk about it much, but she knows that wearing a lifejacket can save your life.
If her dad and two friends had been wearing them when the boat they were on with her flipped, she might not have had to helplessly watch as they tired and slipped away to their deaths off the Bay of Plenty.
Yesterday, as she attended the launch of the Maritime Safety Authority's Summer Safety Campaign in Auckland, the Te Puke teenager did not want to talk about the accident that took the lives of her father, Ross, family friend John Lim and her second cousin Tim Cantwell.
When the boat capsized in April the group scrambled onto the upturned hull and huddled together. When it sank a single lifejacket floated out and the others insisted that Kirsty put it on. She was the only survivor.
Kirsty, now 17, yesterday pleaded for boaties always to have sufficient lifejackets on board and to be ready to use them.
"Never, ever get on a boat without one. No matter what kind of boat, no matter what the weather conditions, because you never know what happens ...
"Even if you're just sitting there fishing, you never know when something might go wrong. You never know, it can happen to you."
The lifejacket message is getting a special push this summer, with skippers being told that they must carry enough lifejackets for everyone and they must know enough about boating to keep safe.
The safety authority's director, Russell Kilvington, said that on average 18 people died each year in New Zealand in recreational boating tragedies.
"Tackling this issue does not involve rocket science or taking draconian measures. All that's needed is for NZ boaties to be a bit less laid back and relaxed about heading out on the water."
He said 90 per cent of fatal accidents and 88 per cent of non-fatal recreational boating accidents were caused not by recklessness but by skipper ignorance or inexperience.
Common factors leading to boating tragedies were sudden changes in weather or water conditions, someone falling overboard, or the boat being swamped by a wave.
Mr Kilvington recommended that people take simple precautions, such as carrying enough fuel and safety devices, checking the weather forecast, telling someone on land where they are going and when they will be back, and keeping off the alcohol until the trip is over.
Participants at yesterday's launch were treated to a demonstration of the latest designs - including lifejackets made for dogs.
Ferkin the dachshund has already proved that they work. He fell overboard about a year ago while wearing one, and survived.
Living proof of lifejackets' worth
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