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Saving lives 1 design
at a time

I believe it was the 19th century author Ralph Waldo Emerson who originally said, "If you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door."

Well, I don't know if that's the case anymore, but according to a recent press release from BoatUS, our nation's largest boat owners' association, there is a $5,000 award being offered to the person who designs a better life jacket.

As the press release notes, current models of life jackets save lives everyday and yet a 2004 BoatUS Foundation study found that many boaters often don't wear them because they are too uncomfortable.

So now boaters and inventors everywhere are being asked to consider what a life jacket would look and feel like if there were no government guidelines.

To encourage innovative ideas and new technology in the design a life jacket, the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water and the Personal Flotation Device Manufacturers Association are sponsoring an "Innovation in Life Jacket Design Competition."

"We believe that out-of-the-box thinking may lead to the next generation of life saving devices," said BoatU.S. Foundation President Ruth Wood, whose organization operates more than a dozen programs including the only accredited, free, online general boating safety course.

"By opening the competition to the widest audience of professional and amateur tinkerers, we anticipate designs that will be creative and unconventional," she noted.

PFDMA Executive Director Bernice McArdle added that today's life jackets are well designed, but they follow a defined and somewhat controlled set of guidelines, and she hoped the competition would encourage entries that will ultimately influence greater use of life jackets among boaters.

The competition will be judged on four criteria: wearability, reliability, cost and innovation.

Wearability will assess the jacket's level of comfort, while reliability will judge its chances for potential failure.

Cost will look at the affordability of the design and innovation will consider the jacket's originality and the employment of new technologies.

There are no requirements for the types of materials that may be used and the jacket's design needn't meet any current U.S. Coast Guard or Underwriters Laboratory standards.

For more information, including an entry form and full contest rules, visit http://www.BoatUS.com/Foundation/lifejacketdesign.

Entries will be accepted from now until December 15, 2005, and the winner will be announced at the Miami International Boat Show in February 2006.

Just imagine being the one to invent the first really new life jacket in years.

There's no guarantee the world will beat a path to your door, but along with the $5,000 prize, knowing you designed a life jacket that will save lives because boaters actually wear it might be the best reward of all.