This is great Ken,
So we might turn this into a more accurate sound bite:
'Kayaks are involved in 1% of the accidents, 5% of the fatalities; 88% by drowning.'

I downloaded the 2008 Coast Guard "Boating Statistics 2008 pdf" (a lot of motors, booze, speed and inattention)
• If you're not wearing a life jacket you're 10x more likely to drown.
• 70% of the accidents are in vessels less than 21' --That's us!
• Only 10% of fatalities were in boats where the operators received safety instructions.
---So read "Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble" Matt Boze and George Gronseth then
practice rolling and re-entries with your most experienced friends.

Will (this might be interesting, but it's definitely proof that I'm procrastinating stripping the deck of my Mystery project....)

: Hard to come up with those numbers. Looking at the 2008 USCG
: statistics, the most recent that is on their site ...
: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi/page/1/md/form/id/194773

: There were 6347 vessels of all types involved in accidents ... 73
: were kayaks. Therefore 1.15% of the vessels involved in
: accidents were kayaks.

: There were 709 deaths of which 34 were kayakers. Therefore 4.8% of
: the deaths were kayakers. Eighty eight percent drowned.

: Ken Blanton