While sailing isn’t considered to be a contact sport, head injuries have become a very real concern as boats become faster and sometimes harder to control. At a regatta such as Buzzards Bay famous for its heavy breeze it won’t be uncommon to hear of a head injury over the radio. Some college teams such as MIT and Bowdoin have begun wearing helmets with others beginning to follow suite.

Interestingly enough there has not been too much chatter in junior sailing about mandating helmets, which probably sounds a bit strange. College sailing takes place in venues which usually present very shifty conditions, this makes for more tacks and also as anyone who has sailed on the Charles River would say, a lot of auto-tacks. It’s no coincidence that MIT who has arguably she shiftiest venue in college sailing was the first team to enforce helmets. Another risk in college sailing is that boats are sailing on short courses which makes for congestion at marks with boats performing quick tacks or jibes with others only a foot or two away.

Junior sailing has very different types of risk factors than college sailing. In junior sailing its more common for wind to become an issue, with regattas taking place in open water venues rather than the smaller rivers or lakes, which are more protected from heavy winds. So with heavier wind there comes an increased risk of head injury in that sense because the boom will swing across faster. The course is also a factor in understanding reasoning behind the risk of head injury. Junior sailing has longer courses with sailors doing between 4-8 tacks on a leg with 2-3 jibes. In open water venues this also means fewer shifts. With fewer shifts and less tacking the skipper and crew have less risk and aren’t forced to constantly watch where the boom is on the boat.

Vendors have seen a definite increase in team orders as professional teams are sailing foiling boats, which cruise at high speeds and capsizes being a common occurrence. Meanwhile, individual orders have remained relatively stagnant.

As Dr. Rick Sullivan says in his article (link below) there has been conclusive data done on college sailing meanwhile junior sailing data has yet to be collected. It will be interesting to see how this data adds up comparatively considering these different risk factors.

For article by Dr. Sullivan click here