Ok. It has been well over a year since a protest in a Junior event in California over a CE-approved PFD resulted in a sternly-worded warning to a sailor in lieu of disqualification. For those of you who mightn't have heard, there was a US qualifying event for the ISAF Youth Worlds at ABYC. At the beginning of the event, one little girl said to another that if she was going to wear her CE-approved PFD, she would be protested - the US prescription regarding USCG-approved PFDs was in effect and the wording had been added to the SIs as well. The little girl replied that if there were a protest filed, half the fleet would get tossed - CE vests are everywhere. In the end, the little girl in the CE vest won, the other girl (in second place) protested (only the winner), and the Protest Committee was involved... they issued a warning to the winner. She went on to the ISAF event... where her CE vest is legal.

There was a lot of speculation following this protest that the CE vests were doomed - several companies make them and sell them in the US, where retailers are enjoying brisk sales. But the usage didn't stop... in fact, it seems to have continued to grow. Browse through the photos of just about any regatta and you'll see them... in most of the dinghy and high-performance fleets, they are nearly the standard. Comfortable, low profile, cool...

I have one, too. I got it mid-season last year. Because the NAF-18 Championship is an international event, I suggested to the protest committee (which included some of the same judges as the Youth event described above) that the event be conducted under a US Prescription that allows for the use of non-USCG PFDs. So for the lead-up to the Championship, I wore a CE vest. I love it. It rocks. I used to strip my PFD off when I hit the beach... now I forget it is on.

But not every event is eligible to have the Prescription on PFDs applied... in fact, nearly all events are local or regional or national... few events qualify as "international." And few Organizers are prepared or willing to change the SIs to accommodate CE vests. Yet there are a ton of them out there - many more in the Moth, Laser, 29er and other fleets than our own, so it is not just a multihull problem.

I now carry both my USCG and my CE... I walk around the beach and look to see what others are using. If I see a bunch of CEs, I slip mine on and don't talk about it. For something like the Alter Cup, I'm not even packing the CE... to get tossed over a PFD infraction at that level would be awful. But I'll get to compete on the same boat at the Worlds later this year and my CE vest is not only legal, but over half the fleet will probably have the same style and color. Still, this whole thing has been bugging me a lot - those within US SAILING say there is no way in hell that the Prescription requiring USCG-approved PFDs will ever be dropped... efforts to even coordinate with Canadian standards have been a disaster. The US is the only place a CE vest isn't legal... is it a safety issue? Is it a governmental issue? Is it a liability issue? For certain, it is a rule issue. One that I too am now guilty of ignoring. But I was raised that using the excuse of "everyone's doing it" doesn't cut it. And not everyone's doing it, I know... but a lot of us are.

Seriously - what do you guys think?