Sailing Injuries
My winter is being spent investigating topics for new articles. One that is often overlooked is what are the main medical emergencies that sailors face. Being prepared means knowing what you might have to deal with. I had written before about the different medical emergencies faced by racers and cruisers. In that case I was concerned with coastal cruisers more than distance and blue water sailors. A new survey has documented the types of injuries faced by extreme sailors. Although it mostly covers distance racing, the results can be extrapolated to distance cruising. The excellent summary presentation by Dr. Andrew Nathanson of Brown University concludes that sailing is one of the safest sports with far fewer injuries than five major sports including baseball. And the number of deaths is less than the number in football. Shouldn't these statistics be propagated among the non-sailing critics? Contusions and lacerations are the most common injuries. (I would love to k...