Can you swim in a lifejacket?

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Sidedrum

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My tender is a Tinker Funsail. When I sail it, I wear a buoyancy aid. I managed to capsize it last year and the buoyancy aid kept me floating but able to swim and tow the dinghy until someone came to help (I found out I need to rig some lines if I've any hope of righting it once capsized!).

I mostly sail singlehanded and wear a harness rather than a lifejacket - contrary to all those people who complain about pictures in YM of people not wearing lifejackets, I find a harness more comfortable than my state of the art lifejacket and my main concern is staying on the boat. But being singlehanded, if I did find myself overboard wearing a lifejacket I'd want to know I could swim. So can you swim in a lifejacket designed to carry an unconscious wearer face up?
 
no

Sidedrum said:
My tender is a Tinker Funsail. When I sail it, I wear a buoyancy aid. I managed to capsize it last year and the buoyancy aid kept me floating but able to swim and tow the dinghy until someone came to help (I found out I need to rig some lines if I've any hope of righting it once capsized!).

I mostly sail singlehanded and wear a harness rather than a lifejacket - contrary to all those people who complain about pictures in YM of people not wearing lifejackets, I find a harness more comfortable than my state of the art lifejacket and my main concern is staying on the boat. But being singlehanded, if I did find myself overboard wearing a lifejacket I'd want to know I could swim. So can you swim in a lifejacket designed to carry an unconscious wearer face up?
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I can swim backwards a bit - but I can't

your logic is interesting

perhaps the solo sailor would be better off with a bouyancy aide then a life jacket

I would be intersted to hear what others think
 
Nope - not easily.
For that reason I wear a buoyancy aid in the dinghy, and an autogas lifejacket when aboard the yacht. I've got a PLB in the waistband of my lifejacket.

EDIT:
Lifejacket has a built in harness.
 
No, its nearly impossible to swim in a life-jacket once its inflated, If I'm in a small boat I normally wear either my buoyancy aid, or a manual life-jacket, if I'm on a bigger boat where I'm unlikely to go overboard, then i wear my auto life-jacket
 
We did a course at the RNLI centre at Poole, part of which involved jumping into the pool with a lifejacket on, swimming to the side and getting out. Swimming on your front is virtually impossible. You have to use backstroke and even then it wasn't easy. Getting yourself out of the water while still wearing the lifejacket was extremely difficult and you used up a huge amount of energy in doing so. It was an eye opening course !
Chris
 
The LJ is designed to put you on your back with your face out of the water in case you are unconscious.
If your not unconscious and need to 'swim' (after a fashion), you should partially deflate the LJ to a point where you can roll onto your front and move your arms.
If you need to rest you can roll onto your back and mouth inflate the LJ.

Note: this doesn't allow for the effects of cold water or waves, in which best advice is to lay still on your back to minimise any movement of any warmed water from under your clothes and away from your body, maximising the time till hypothermia sets in.
 
Sidedrum said:
Will the PLB get you rescued before hypothermia sets in? I think I read once that in a lifejacket you should curl up into the foetal position to preserve warmth but sailing in Northern waters I wonder if that's where the phrase 'curl up and die' comes from.
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Not if I'm unconscious it won't! It is one that transmits its GPS position, said to improve rescue times compared with those that don't. Since I always wear my lifejacket, clip on when appropriate and sail largely single handed, it is a comfort to have it.
 
Before you make minds up about survival in the water, avalook at coldwaterbootcamp.com. Some surprises there and it really is as good as its ever going to get regarding advice.
 
capnsensible said:
Before you make minds up about survival in the water, avalook at coldwaterbootcamp.com. Some surprises there and it really is as good as its ever going to get regarding advice.
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Very informative, and most surprising.
If ever I thought not wearing any form of bouyancy/preserver was a risk worth taking I have changed my mind.

I remember watching a TV programme about the effects of cold water on breathing, and water inhalation. On immersion into cold water the body involuntarily gasps. This (if face in/near water) takes water into the lungs.
The amount of liquid required to "drown" the lungs is frighteningly little, certainly around the volume of onedeep gasp.

Better to stay clipped-on whenever possible.
(Saw the video of crew member undo his lifeline to go below and a big wave rocked the boat - straight over the side from the companionway. Think it was Volvo round-world race).
And of course, even good sailors get tired and lose concentration.
Scary stuff, this sailing lark.
 
dylanwinter said:
I can swim backwards a bit - but I can't

your logic is interesting

perhaps the solo sailor would be better off with a bouyancy aide then a life jacket

I would be intersted to hear what others think
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I agree with you :cool: Have tried swimming in an inflated lifejacket, almost impossible to make any headway, certainly none at all in any current :eek:
 
planteater said:
The RYA Sea Survival course I attended taught swimming in a lifejacket. Basically, it's sculling backwards with your arms. You won't be able to cross miles of water but it would get you to a nearby liferaft.
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Yes I remember doing that. OK for making slow progress towards something like a raft or danbuoy that is stopped in the water by its drogue.
But swimming after anything that is moving is a non-starter, even in a wetsuit and slim buoyancy aid. That is why many dinghies are designed to invert, so that they will stop after a capsize, rather than be blown away from you.
 
LadyInBed said:
The LJ is designed to put you on your back with your face out of the water in case you are unconscious.
If your not unconscious and need to 'swim' (after a fashion), you should partially deflate the LJ to a point where you can roll onto your front and move your arms.
If you need to rest you can roll onto your back and mouth inflate the LJ.

Note: this doesn't allow for the effects of cold water or waves, in which best advice is to lay still on your back to minimise any movement of any warmed water from under your clothes and away from your body, maximising the time till hypothermia sets in.
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Exactly.

There always appears a lot of confusion about what a lifejacket is designed to do - and people often forget you can deflate / inflate it at will when conscious and active.

To that end, I really don't see the point in manual jackets - they won't work at the time you most need them, which is when you've just had a whack to the head which has sent you in in the first place! (or when your head hit the pontoon as you slipped in).

When you're likely to (intentionally) need to swim, then a bouyancy aid is correct - which is why dinghy sailors (and water rescue teams) use them.

An unintentional fall by definition is unexpected - so you cant guarantee being conscious - so it's an auto jacket and preferably sprayhood.

And 150N isn't any good for a hefty bloke in full gear either!
 
Sidedrum said:
....... So can you swim in a lifejacket designed to carry an unconscious wearer face up?
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I think this possibly varies. I can swim on my back and also do a little breast-stroke (on one of those sea survival courses in a sort of swimming pool). What is more difficult is getting into a life raft, or climbing some sort of boarding ladder, which I just managed but I suspect some people would find impossible. Perhaps not the easiest time to be deflating a life jacket even if you think of this, it takes a little while anyway.

I suspect (does anyone know?) that with one of those 275 N jobs one might be able only to await rescue, fine if a fully equipped and crewed rescue launch happens to be around ... although the only person I know who uses one is a BIG STRONG lad who could probably manage.
 
Does any one know of a buoyancy aid with usable pockets for knife/plb/sweets/shackels, etc?
I have seen ones with fiddly little pockets that will take a VHF or a PLB, but I need one for all the bits I might need, rather like the DIY belt with all the pouches for the screws and tools.
 
in a sea survival course we worked on the 1 10 1 rule for highish latitude waters (ie not tropical). survive the first minute (lifejacket iflates, no cold water shock and gasp causing drowning); then 10 minutes of meaningful actoivity (swimming to a liferaft, swimming to others in the water to huddle), then into the HELP position (Heat escape lessening posture - the curled up one) for 1 hour to await rescue. if rescue in over 1 hour then chances of survival diminish significantly
 
chanelyacht said:
To that end, I really don't see the point in manual jackets - they won't work at the time you most need them.
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Not disagreeing with any of your post but my answer is if I had an automatic, it would probably of gone of before I had wanted. Leaving me worse of...

I am the one who ends up on a wet fore-deck changing headsails, etc etc

For better or worse it is the risk I take, all the others onboard are automatics.

It has often crossed my mind if occasional sea swimming etc helps to acclimatize your body to cold water.

I used to sail dinghy's in the winter with no wet-suit (braking the on the edge of fresh water lake etc), capsize was often on the menu :o..
Today I have cold water shock just thinking about it :eek:

Swimming in LJ as others have said skull backwards as taught in courses or even forward feet up as wave breaks.

I always found that quite fun as a kid... The trick in my mind is not to fight your LJ/ buoyancy aid but work with it...

As most dinghy sailors will tell you if you DO NOT LET GO of the boat you will not need to swim ;) easier said than done :eek:
 
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