How often do you wear your life jacket?

[JumbleDuck]

To be serious, I wear my lifejacket / harness every time I go to and from my boat in the dinghy to and from the mooring.

However the most useful bit by far is having a harness point.

I wear a buoyancy aid in the dinghy, because if I fall in then I want to be able to swim. On the boat I clip on whenever the boat's under way and I'm on deck. By a convenient coincidence, by harness has a lifejacket attached.

 

[JumbleDuck]

To be serious, I wear my lifejacket / harness every time I go to and from my boat in the dinghy to and from the mooring.

However the most useful bit by far is having a harness point.

I wear a buoyancy aid in the dinghy, because if I fall in then I want to be able to swim. On the boat I clip on whenever the boat's under way and I'm on deck. By a convenient coincidence, my harness has a lifejacket attached.

 

[jimi]

I wear a buoyancy aid in the dinghy, because if I fall in then I want to be able to swim. On the boat I clip on whenever the boat's under way and I'm on deck. By a convenient coincidence, my harness has a lifejacket attached.

Sorry did'nt quite catch that, could you repeat it ;-)

 

[Victoria Sponge]

Latterly we've sailed in Turkey and we don't wear life jackets as we've turned into fair weather sailors.

 

[Robin]

Latterly we've sailed in Turkey and we don't wear life jackets as we've turned into fair weather sailors.

Where we are they keep you afloat for the 'gator's to have fresh for breakfast

 

[Elessar]

Hah. I'd only have worn them on the pontoons, not the boat. A bucket of seawater across the deck sorts that out straight away - if that freezes then things are pretty serious!

Pete

yeah in the river I can't rely on that, maybe OK on the flood, not worth the risk.

 

[JumbleDuck]

To dignify it with an answer it doesn't really deserve, no of course I don't. But then the risk of falling down the stairs (even with my dodgy knees) is extremely low and the consequences of doing so low to moderate - the risk of serious injury is not high, the riskk of fatality is low. Therefore, the risk / benefit analysis is that wearing a crash helmet to walk downstairs would be a significant inconvenience whilst conferring very little benefit to my safety!

Compulsory wearing of crash helmets in cars would cause a huge reduction in injuries.

 

[sailorman]

Compulsory wearing of crash helmets in cars would cause a huge reduction in injuries.

Not to mention pedestrians with earphones, i almost ran a chap down in Aldi to day wearing them too

 

[awol]

Not to mention pedestrians with earphones, i almost ran a chap down in Aldi to day wearing them too

You really should take more care - I hope you took them off and apologised.

 

[sailorman]

You really should take more care - I hope you took them off and apologised.

He received a "Serious Stare"

 

[SimonFa]

Compulsory wearing of crash helmets in cars would cause a huge reduction in injuries.

Not by as much as putting a 12 inch spike on the centre of the steering wheel and removing the seat belts air bags.

 

[JumbleDuck]

There's a lot of truth in the safety brief quoted on here a few months ago, "This is your lifeline. It'll keep you on board. This is your lifejacket. It'll help the RNLI recover your body if you do go over the side."

That's mine!

 

[fireball]

I also have a habit of ditching my foulie jacket and LJ as I come into a harbour so I can see and move properly, but no doubt some people don't like that either!

I guess the difference is that some of us are used to unstable floating things and the keel boat isn't - so our perception of the risk and probably the actual risk is significantly lower than those who are not used to it.

I would hate to see wearing lifejackets become compulsory - either all the time or above specified wind strength/wave height - if a skipper isn't capable of determining when to wear a lifejacket for him/herself then I'd question their ability to command a boat at all.

 

[Elessar]

Cos it is

And I also enjoy playing devil's advocate

good answer

 

[awol]

I guess the difference is that some of us are used to unstable floating things and the keel boat isn't - so our perception of the risk and probably the actual risk is significantly lower than those who are not used to it.

I am much more likely to wear my life jacket on someone else's boat than my own. Hadn't actually realised this but I assume it is because my perception of risk is greater where I have to look for the next hand/foot hold and trip hazards have to be identified.

On another of the topics - letting some of the gas out of a life jacket makes swimming much easier and changes it to a buoyancy aid. Replacing the gas by blowing in the tube quickly returns front-up floatation.

 

[dancrane]

If no-one has mentioned it so far, the buoyancy aid deserves a mention as something most dinghy sailors wear without thinking, without exception, and without feeling any need to justify avoiding doing so.

The horror in that video was the panic engendered by sudden proximity to total oblivion which going overboard may spell...

...however unpleasant it might be to drift afloat and eventually die from hypothermia, that prospect must be one which anyone who's in imminent danger of drowning, would cling to.

I can't think why anybody bothers to ask themself if they need personal buoyancy. Most people who drown must have done just that, and judged wrongly. As soon as wearing personal buoyancy is an automatic default setting, there's no necessity to think about it. It seems to have been deciding not to, which accounts for most drownings.

 

[fireball]

If no-one has mentioned it so far, the buoyancy aid deserves a mention as something most dinghy sailors wear without thinking, without exception, and without feeling any need to justify avoiding doing so.

Most sailors, without exception - seems to be mutually exclusive - either Most or All, without exception .... I know some dinghy sailors don't wear buoyancy aids - I'll accept that most do though - the reason is quite simple - dinghies are more likely to capsize - leading to a probable swim by the occupants...

I can't think why anybody bothers to ask themself if they need personal buoyancy. Most people who drown must have done just that, and judged wrongly. As soon as wearing personal buoyancy is an automatic default setting, there's no necessity to think about it. It seems to have been deciding not to, which accounts for most drownings.

There's the danger - if you don't think about the danger then wearing a lifejacket makes you safe. It doesn't - it's already been discussed numerous times and alluded to above that it's safer if you stay onboard - using the lifejacket should be the last resort.
So clipping on with a short tether should be the automatic default setting ... but of course, that is more dangerous in a dinghy or any vessel liable to capsize - as you don't want to be trapped under water ...

Although, if you look at accidents with boats - whats the proportion of drownings compared to other incidents? Very small ... in a sailing boat you're more likely to hit your head - or rather the boom hits your head for you - even more so in a dinghy - in the right place that could knock you out which is extremely dangerous if you're singlehanded and not much better if you have crew - yet very few people wear helmets. Why is that?

 

[wookey]

Hello

I am currently a 3rd year student at the university of Plymouth and am currently conducting a study into the yachtsman's attitude towards the lifejacket. for my on going study I would appreciate anyone who could take a short amount of time to complete my very short survey , please just click on the following link:

https://qtrial2015az1.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bJdAvO7SfixhoR7

Thank You !!

 

[dancrane]

Fireball, I meant MOST dinghy sailors do so without exception - ie, always. It wasn't very ambiguous, was it?

As to the idea that ALWAYS wearing a buoyancy aid makes one less safe because one FEELS safe, I'm sure that is nonsense. The fact of ALWAYS wearing buoyancy, particularly a slim-fitting buoyancy aid, becomes so ubiquitous that it doesn't weigh one way or the other on one's regard for safety...I'm always deeply reluctant to take risks...I surely don't need to take any additional, potentially deadly short-cuts in order to stay alert.

We could (and probably will) argue interminably about this. I agree that staying aboard is a primary precaution...but I'm certain that lifelines are at least as irksome to wear as LJs...so I can't easily imagine the people who reject wearing buoyancy as their standard operating practice (which doesn't require juggling whether they're likely to need it), happily strapping themselves to the boat instead...

...presumably they'll do the same thing they do with life-jackets - weigh up the likelihood of necessity and decide. And, as with LJs, the day they go o/b not strapped on and not wearing buoyancy, they'll have a few ghastly minutes to review their choice of judging each day's risks, rather than pre-emptively wearing buoyancy as a 'no-brainer'.

Sorry for the number of words I've taken to make a very little point, here...I'm much less succinct, typing on the phone.

 

[pyrojames]

Surely in that case, you must clip on. The consequences of falling of the deck while on the hard are certainly breakages and could easily be fatal. Elfins say that working at height is over 2m. I suspect that almost everyone here is more than 2m off the hard when on deck.

I normally wear a life jacket when conditions dictate. That might be the dinghy (but not normally) and is usually at night (but not always).

Do your risk assessments and let others do theirs. Prescribed solutions are rarely good ones.