The Pleasure Boat Safety Forum says half the fatalities on the open water last year might have been avoided if everyone had worn lifejackets.
The forum is launching a campaign this summer aimed at skippers of small vessels who don't consider themselves to be actually boating.
A 68-year-old man who drowned in Coromandel on New Year's Eve when his six-metre boat was swamped by heavy seas was not wearing a lifejacket, even though his vessel carried them.
The forum says nine of the drowning deaths last year could have been avoided if the victims had been wearing lifejackets.
The safety awareness campaign focuses on encouraging boaties to use the lifejackets most vessels carry.
Bruce Reid of Coastguard New Zealand, one of the members of the forum, says the campaign is aimed at skippers of small vessels who don't consider themselves to be actually boating but just going for a bit of a fish.
Such boaties, he says, often don't hear safety messages.
