Hey Larry,

http://www.dockwalk.com/essentials/docktalk.aspx?g=posts&t=30998

It would be interesting, to be sure, to see some hard numbers on this stuff, but of course such a statistical database involving such a small subset of maritime mishaps seems pretty hard to come by... John Harries cites a study done in Norway that shows groundings on the increase with the advent of GPS and e-charting, but I've never seen it... From the article above, however, one quote does jump out at me...

According to Geir Skoglund, vice president of loss prevention for the Norwegian Hull Club, “Despite having far more sophisticated equipment, [boats] are currently twice as likely to have an accident due to navigational error than they were five or six years ago."

I suspect Mr Skoglund just might have a pretty good idea what he's talking about...

http://www.norclub.no/

best regards,

Jon