Fenders out underway...

JerryC said:
It seems the Fred Drift has already started, so I won't apologise this time. Sorry but I just don't get this no-lifejackets-on-deck thing. Modern LJs are rolled up so tight you hardly know they're there.

Many years ago on the Swale, there was a Shout. The lifeboat duly came out and they recovered the bodies of 3 sailors who had capsized their dinghy going back to their boat moored just off the Ferry House Inn. Lifeboat man told me later that when he boarded the boat to check for anyone else, there were 3 lifejackets on the table. Madness.
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I don't get it either in the circumstances you describe.

however, in 24-28C water, probably 30+C air temp, on a 40ft mobo doing 4-5kn in the port retrieving fenders it would be plain madness wearing one.
Mind haven't seen anyone even brits on sailing boats wearing lj down here...

V.
 
Portofino said:
Too hot ,nobody wears em in the Med mobo scene , or seemingly in the sailboat community
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I have noticed that.

I just returned from a week in the ionian.
We did hire two life jackets as the supplied with the boat were bright orange buoyancy aids and completely unsuitable except for use for abandoning ship.
We did wear the hired life jackets when on deck.
 
I realised after I posted the thread what has changed. Aside from we've now actually started to go out on the water with a toddler (rather than just mess about onboard alongside), I've changed home port.

Whereas I used to bring fenders in on the Hamble River, near Port Hamble, where there was plenty of space for the boat to drift and it was flat, I now keep the boat in Yarmouth, and I'm leaving the fenders dangling until out of the harbour entrance where its a bit choppier, and I now have a canopy up, which make the side deck a little more perilous.

Also, after 40 years of boating and rarely wearing a lifejacket, (as in usually not wearing one for an entire season), as we now have 3 of us onboard, we're all in LJ's. I put mine on last weekend for our first trip venturing out and Mrs BB asked if she should take a photo! Blimmin cheeky at times these Scottish types!
 
Leaving your fenders out inconveniences or harms no-one else. So I would say it's entirely up to you.

I pick mine up and drop them on the deck. Stops them banging around when planing. In the situation you describe I think I would do exactly what you did.
 
burgundyben said:
I now keep the boat in Yarmouth, and I'm leaving the fenders dangling until out of the harbour entrance where its a bit choppier, and I now have a canopy up, which make the side deck a little more perilous.
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Just outside of Yarmouth, choppy, perilous, what ??? This is a windup, right?
 
It is worth leaving your fenders out simply because it annoys people who actually believe it is important
 
Life jackets on a fairey?......even on a sinking swordsman mid channel it's blazer and tie.....standards BB......standards :)
 
burgundyben said:
yesterday we crossed to Lymington with the fenders out.
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Sounds like a good start for a self-help group.
This summer I entered Slovenian waters while on my way to Croatia, for 10 minutes or so, and I didn't fly a courtesy flag.
Is my soul forever lost...? :rolleyes: :p
 
MapisM said:
Wazzat?
You mean those things which only make sense wearing while boating in places/conditions where it's not worth boating for pleasure, to start with? :cool:
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You can drown in any water in any cruising area, although some believe they can walk on water others can’t. Your choice if you wear LJ or not but don’t condemn those that do consider safety as a priority.
 
Some of the fenders we inherited had a small caribiner (?) attached t the bottom eye of the fender, which enables us to clip them to the wire below the safety rail when under way, so even is we get caught in some chop, they will stay out of the way.

However I must say on a short trip to the local anchorage we, we rarely bring them on board...
 
I don,t think he’s mocking safety at all .
Just odd when posted a pic of fender storage in arguably one of the most lowest safety if you like fordecks ever made ,we ( my crew actually) to the effort to store them away and retrieve ,resulted in a row over lJ,s usage .

Each to there own .

But I think to understand where we Med boaters are coming from you need to experience what we experience.

We do the fender thing in the shelter of mainas btw .

You can drown and indeed more do in baths in the U.K. than boats , so why not where a LJ in the bath or shower for that matter ?

As pointed out by VAS the climate in the Med is just not conducive in the summer in daylight to wearing garments inc LJ ,s even those self petite smart , self inflating ones .

You hardly hear of any drownings , sure plenty of accidents ,plenty of sinkings and there’s huge amounts of tender movements day and night .Buy nothing in the way of tides / currents etc .

Last week there was one day a cool E wind / breeze say 23 degrees air temp .It was warmer in the sea !
You chilled more in the breeze sat on the boat .Oct time ,
Of course you could bang your head and end up face down in the water , but that risk is there equally to the 1000, s on the beach’s or sea fronts , marinas etc .

I think cold shock weakening your muscles inc breathing is the major cause of deaths with U.K. folk that end up ( for what ever reason ) in the water hence a divice like a lJ which keeps you face up is good idea .
Of course we cold open Pandora’s box on wearing dry suites, to retrieve fender on the foredeck ( with or without guard rails ) buts let’s not go there .:)

In the Med like the pic I posed you would just causally swim to the side and climb out , and carry on .
 
Boating in the 70’s and 80’s when lifejackets were huge and bulky we sailed many thousands of miles without. It was my Mum’s rule though if the wind increased to above 40knots she would go down into the cabin and retrieve lj’s for us kids although not for her and my Dad...but then we were the ones working on deck.
 
Boat2016 said:
You can drown in any water in any cruising area, although some believe they can walk on water others can’t.
Your choice if you wear LJ or not but don’t condemn those that do consider safety as a priority.
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Far from that. I perfectly understand the choice of wearing LJs in places where they are very likely to save souls.
My choice of boating in places and conditions where (as others already explained) they are much less likely to be relevant is not driven by the wish of not wearing them - it's just a nice by product, so to speak.

Btw, I did fall in the water accidentally: it happened while making a short jump from the passerelle to the dock, because I was wearing a loose T-shirt which grabbed a stanchion and pulled me back.
Luckily, I didn't hit anything hard in the process, and after asking if I was ok, swmbo had a good laugh at my stunt.
But if I would have hit the swim platform or anything else, getting unconscious, and nobody would have been around to see me, I would have quietly drown in the marina, right behind my docked boat.
If it's your fate, it's your fate, I reckon...
 
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Nothing to do with etiquette but instead practical considerations

1. We only have three fenders on mooring side so not much to take up
2. Short displacement speed trips <3m occasionally leave them out - relunctantly
3. Planing speed always bring them in - no flailing around
4. Settled sea state we just pull them on deck or to top of rails
5. Long passages with potentially larger seas we remove them to aft stowage

There is nothing so ridiculous looking as a fast planing vessel powering along with fenders flailing around banging off the boat sides or worse smashing a window, at least marking the bell coat, or loosing a fender.
 
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Boat2016 said:
You can drown in any water in any cruising area, although some believe they can walk on water others can’t. Your choice if you wear LJ or not but don’t condemn those that do consider safety as a priority.
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I think people who wear LJs in benign conditions look silly but I don't condemn them, just am concerned about their ability to make any sort of sensible assessment of risk.
 
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