So the secret is to remain calm and keep hope (both of which are helped by drunkness) besides the obvious "be last to get into the water" and "put on more layers of clothing" (though I didn't know that more clothes help even when wet).
One famous strategy is the pile and pertex combination. Where you have a thin basically windproof but not waterproof shell made typically from Pertex, and then fake fur from polyster on the inside.
These jackets are used to (might still be) be worn by law enforcement to old school rock climbers for it's ability to keep you warm and damp for hours.
There are videos of people submerging in ice cold water and "walking it off" until they are damp but warm again.
Another saying is "cotton kills", because it does not provide warmth when wet and also sucks up insane amounts of water for its weight, so it bascially never dries out.
Alcohol really is a miraculous substance
“You have a defence if you can convince the court that you drank the alcohol in question after you had driven and that you were not over the limit whilst you were driving.”[1]
With that said, your BAC can be estimated from whatever you prove you drank after the accident, which would reveal a discrepancy. Not a reliable way to get away with a terrible crime.
[1] https://www.pattersonlaw.co.uk/faqs/drink-driving-leaving-sc...
I've been doing some cold plunges recently and the difference between still and moving water is staggering, as you quickly get a thermal layer around you. Surely clothes would help with that.
Statistically on a sinking ship a sailor who couldn’t swim had better chance of surviving than a sailor who was a good swimmer. In a cold Atlantic water the former had been expending less energy then the later, so he would last longer until being rescued.
I don't know about the statistics, but I'm descended from a small Scottish fishing village and remember being told that sailors didn't lean to swim. The logic was if you went overboard you were dead, the non swimmer would suffer less as they'd drown sooner.
I'm not sure how much truth is in that, and I doubt it applies these days as it was probably from the days of sail when a ship couldn't just stop & turn around.