Buoyancy Aid Jacket of Life Jacket?

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

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Both Buoyancy Aid jackets and Life jackets have their places. I often prefer to wear the Buoyancy jacket (the waistcoat modern type) when I use the tender and even of the boat. When we go out in the open sea and when we do night sailing, I wear the life jacket; What do you do?
 
That is a sensible and common course of action.

I always used a buoyancy aid in the dinghy when I kept my boat on a mooring and on one occasion it probably saved my life. However now as I rarely use the dinghy, and then only from boat to shore wear the LJ as don't keep an aid on board. Still aware of the potential downsides or an LJ in a dinghy, but not a real problem.
 
Tranona said:
That is a sensible and common course of action.

I always used a buoyancy aid in the dinghy when I kept my boat on a mooring and on one occasion it probably saved my life. However now as I rarely use the dinghy, and then only from boat to shore wear the LJ as don't keep an aid on board. Still aware of the potential downsides or an LJ in a dinghy, but not a real problem.
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Is it just me, or does any of this make sense?
 
Tranona said:
That is a sensible and common course of action.

I always used a buoyancy aid in the dinghy when I kept my boat on a mooring and on one occasion it probably saved my life. However now as I rarely use the dinghy, and then only from boat to shore wear the LJ as don't keep an aid on board. Still aware of the potential downsides or an LJ in a dinghy, but not a real problem.
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:encouragement:
 
Mataji said:
Is it just me, or does any of this make sense?
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I think it's just you, makes perfect sense to me.

For what it's worth, I use buoyancy aids in the dinghy. Mostly because they're scruffy old ones I can leave in it without too much fear of them being nicked, I don't really want to stroll around town with an auto jacket under my arm. I'm happy that a buoyancy aid is quite sufficient if we were to fall in crossing a harbour. I'll also admit that for a short trip in good conditions they do sometimes get left behind.

Wouldn't occur to me to wear a buoyancy aid while sailing the yacht, though. Either 150N auto jacket or nothing, depending on the situation.

Pete
 
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I wear a life jacket in the dingy as well as at sea; falling out of the dingy on the mooring in a spring ebb sees me drifting past Exmouth RNLI station at about 5 knots.
 
KellysEye said:
The choice is a buoyancy aid that doesn't keep you head above water or a lifejacket that does.
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That is not a big issue when using a dinghy. The downside to using a lifejacket is it severely limits your ability to swim which (from direct experience) is what you need most if you fall out of a dinghy close to shore. A buoyancy aid has more than enough flotation to stop you from drowning while still allowing for freedom of movement. Same reasoning as to why they are almost universally used for dinghy sailing rather than LJs.

It is a matter of assessing the risks and choosing the most appropriate gear for dealing with them.
 
Tranona said:
That is not a big issue when using a dinghy. The downside to using a lifejacket is it severely limits your ability to swim which (from direct experience) is what you need most if you fall out of a dinghy close to shore. A buoyancy aid has more than enough flotation to stop you from drowning while still allowing for freedom of movement. Same reasoning as to why they are almost universally used for dinghy sailing rather than LJs.

It is a matter of assessing the risks and choosing the most appropriate gear for dealing with them.
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How were you swimming?
 
Sandy said:
How were you swimming?
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In the normal way. Dinghy capsized (with me still in it) when got caught round my mooring strop due to my inattention. Gusty day after weeks of bad weather so anxious to get out to boat on a swinging mooring on the edge of North Channel, Poole. Dinghy was clinker ply so floated upside down. Managed to hold onto it and sort of swim downwind towards the shore until I got into shallower water then squelched through the mud. There was nobody around despite it being a sunday afternoon, so I walked ashore, put the dinghy back in the rack got in the car and drove home.

A full lifejacket would have been more of a hindrance whereas the buoyancy aid was a help with flotation. Of course you cannot choose what sort of dunking you have and an LJ would still have kept me afloat long enough to be blown ashore, but I think on balance in the "tender to shore" situation a buoyancy aid is sufficient and probably better, particularly if there is no help at hand.

Of course you can't
 
Sandy said:
Life jackets are designed so that you swim on your back, I can only assume that you were attempting to swim on your front and thus found it very difficult.
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Not particularly difficult as I was pushing the upturned dinghy. The aim was to make progress and control it while being able to see where I was going. The buoyancy aid was a waistcoat type with buoyancy all the way round rather than the type with buoyancy on the front and round the neck, which as you say is intended to keep you on your back with head above water.

To me the important difference is that a LJ is a survival piece of kit and does limit your ability to move in the water whereas a waistcoat type primarily provides sufficient buoyancy to stop you sinking while permitting movement - therefore more appropriate in the tender to shore situation.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
Both Buoyancy Aid jackets and Life jackets have their places. I often prefer to wear the Buoyancy jacket (the waistcoat modern type) when I use the tender and even of the boat. When we go out in the open sea and when we do night sailing, I wear the life jacket; What do you do?
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Pretty much what I do.
My inflatable LJ is for sailing on my boat. My primary reason for wearing one is the harness.
I have PFD's for dingy. I think much more suitable. I also use PFD in a kayak, canoe, and on a windsurfer. I haven't tried a paddle board yet.
I do have an inflatable PFD style buoyancy aid for diving. Much better than the old club horse collar I used back in the days of yore with BSAC.
I have PFDs for kids. They were required at all times on deck when mine were young. also for playing around in the dingy.
(might have been the times, I used to mess about the bay in boats as a kid without anything more than a pair of shorts and a bailer, nobody thought anything of it)
I quite often wear a floater coat. Why? its warm.
 
Quiddle said:
Not quite. Also the option to wear neither and not fall out the boat. A hell of a responsibility, I know but some people take it on.
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Always an option, and I've done it, but so have a lot of others and enough of them found their next appointment was with the undertakers to suggest it isn't a smart one.

When I lived in London, I used to joke that the most dangerous part of my weekend's sailing was getting round the M25, but the dinghy trip to the mooring and back is probably worse, especially in winter. As for whether a buoyancy aid or LJ is better, I guess it depends on whether you're likely to be able to rescue yourself or not. A BA probably gives a better chance of a DIY solution, but an LJ will probably keep you alive longer.
 
Stemar said:
Always an option, and I've done it, but so have a lot of others and enough of them found their next appointment was with the undertakers to suggest it isn't a smart one.

When I lived in London, I used to joke that the most dangerous part of my weekend's sailing was getting round the M25, but the dinghy trip to the mooring and back is probably worse, especially in winter. As for whether a buoyancy aid or LJ is better, I guess it depends on whether you're likely to be able to rescue yourself or not. A BA probably gives a better chance of a DIY solution, but an LJ will probably keep you alive longer.
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Quite.. Used BAs when we mucked about way back. But when actually faced with swimming around 500 mtrs to shore with a dodgy LJ, I would have prefered the BA. The LJ made one swim on ones back and I had to use one hand to hold the air in via the inflation tube, as the valve had popped out. So very slow progress.
I now always use gas LJs, but manual, as I prefere the choice to inflate or not, if trying to right a small boat.
 
Manual LJ or automatic - another great opportunity for a punch-up. Almost as good as which anchor! :)

I prefer the choice to inflate or not, if trying to right a small boat.

That makes complete sense. Being of pensionable age and having a dodgy ticker, my reasoning for having an automatic is that, if I do go in, it's likely to be, at best, a wee while before I'm able to do much to help myself. Also, my dinghy is an inflatable so, while it might tip me out, the likelihood of it inverting and trapping me is pretty small
 
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