How important are high gunnels for little kids in a boat?

[BassyiusMaximus]

There is a recent thread on THT where a guy wonders whether or not he should buy now and finance, or wait a year and pay cash.

Someone gets on and makes the best point as far as I can see;


" . . . I don't know how old you are but lets say you have 20 years of boating left. You wait 1-year, that is 5%-gone forever."


Oh yeah, low gunwales, no problem. You gotta see the craft in other countries/3rd world countries where they are just on rafts. Teach the kids, protect the kids and it should not be a problem.

In all my years, I've not read any instances where kids have fallen out of boats and gotten into trouble because of low gunwales. I think that because parents are more vigilant with their young-ones, the number of times it happens is very low.

I'll have my 1 year old out with me and I'm glad I have both a full transom and high gunwales but would not hesitate to take him out in anything so long as he is in a PFD and I or someone is keeping an eye on him.