Have you ever wondered . . .

So, . . . I was looking at a 2016, 20' Nautique the other day. It again got me to wondering why seats, seat backs, maybe even side bolsters couldn't be made for use as approved flotation. Look at the number of PFDs this thing could provide. Do you think boat designers have ever given this some thought? I bet they have. Maybe the USCG bureaucracy stands in the way. Just thinkin'.

Of course my boating experience has nothing to do with the question.
(I had my first power boat in 1945, at the end of WWII. I rowed, paddled and/or sailed my previous boats. See letter from a few years later.)
Nevertheless, when stopped by the water patrol next summer, I'd like for them to count my seat cushions as "throwables" - - - and even tho I'm including that design feature as a safety feature of my current boat, I'll still have to haul around an ugly "approved" device.

8122pbrainard wrote: Grant, Evidently you haven't been boating very long. There was a time when PFD cushions where all that was needed and on some boats used as the seat bottoms. .

Yep Pete and those old kapok cushions were oh so comfortable. .the new foam ones are hard a rock...yuck.

Grant,
Evidently you haven't been boating very long. There was a time when PFD cushions where all that was needed and on some boats used as the seat bottoms. .