It is horrible in a liferaft!

iangrant

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Well, did it at the weekend, the sea safety course and very good it was too.

It is really quite odd jumping into a swimming pool with oilies on.

It also seems to take ages to find the toggle to inflate your lifejacket, what a relief when it goes off though!

One lesson learned - fit a spray hood to the lifejacket!

Then after a struggle to get into the liferaft we all sit there like stunned mullets, soaked. It is very unpleasant even in a heated swimming pool, let alone the English Channel

Ian
 

BrianJ

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Ian,
Agree...did you have to right it by yourself in the wave pool.... difficult.
Some of our class had the old fashioned " Mae West" jackets... impossible for them to get in the raft.
Bloody good course though. Compulsory now for Ocean Racing in OZ
BrianJ
 

iangrant

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Yes we all has to right it (apart from my 11 year old daughter who was helped by the instructor). Pulling it on top of you seemed an odd thing to do but works a treat.

Thankfully we weren't in a wave pool!

We saw the film of the Sydney Hobart - which on it's own is enough to put anyone off sailing!!

Ian
 

iangrant

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Hamble Sports centre with KY yachts. I stayed on the extra day to do the ISAF bit as well..updated the first aid at the same time and learnt a lot..

Ian
 

Rowana

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[ QUOTE ]
.

Thankfully we weren't in a wave pool!



[/ QUOTE ]

You should try it sometime! I've done it a few times on the offshore survival course. We all had to jump into the water from about 12 feet up, swim to the raft and get in. Not only did we have the waves, we also had bloody great fans blowing as well. The lights were turned down to a very low level, and the effing instructors were shouting at us and spraying us with fire hoses! Speak about reallity!

Certainly makes you think /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 

tome

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I cannot understand why lifejacket hoods are an 'extra'. All ours are fitted with hoods, but you have to take them out of a pouch to deploy them - just what you don't need in the initial moments of cold shock when a hood is most useful.

I did the survival at warsash and have done the offshore 4 or 5 times which also includes first aid, fire-fighting and helicopter escape. Learn something new every time and highly recommend the basic course to all.
 

iangrant

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The crewsaver jackets we have didn't have the spray hoods as standard when we bought ours so we will have the pouch version fit with cold wet hands - we did practice that and it isn't easy to get in on the right way round (you know when it is back to front when you can't see!)

A really good course - two more things that stick in my mind:

Clipping harnesses together with one gib hook to drag your mate to safety off the foredeck, he is on his back you on all fours.(another plus for lifejackets with harnesses)

Using a lifejacket as an inflatable splint, brilliant.

Both so simple. oh and folding a newspaper wrap it in a rolled triangular bandage to make a neck brace..

Ian
 

Becky

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Well done.
But scaree..... HWMBO and I are doing something like this in a couple of weekends at Poole with the RNLI. Don't much fancy being shoved into a swimming pool, 'cause I think their one isn't heated! But still the N Atlanitc isn't either, so haven't much choice to get any sense of reality.
 

muminator

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See you there, Becky!

I'll be the one crying off all the wet stuff due to recent surgery on my wrist - very disappointed actually, it was one of the main reasons to go. I didn't want the first time in a liferaft to be in a real situation.

Let's hope that never happens anyway.

Are you staying at the RNLI?

Sue
 

Mirelle

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Spray hoods

I have wittered on about the poor design of spray hoods for ages; they should be integral with the lifejacket so you need only reach over your head and pull down, rather than fiddle with a pouch.
 

BlueChip

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Re: Spray hoods

Suprised no one mentioned how crutch straps on lifejackets are essential - its something you just don't appreciate until youve been in the pool wearing a lifejacket
 

tome

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Re: Spray hoods

Also agree with this, but it's less of an issue as you can buy crotch straps and succesfully retrofit them. As far as I know, there isn't a suitable lifejacket with an integral hood, and yet this is essential as far as I'm concerned.

The point being that the cold shock of going into the water makes you hyper ventilate during the first couple of minutes leading to water inhalation, and this is where the spray hood can save you. I don't believe I'd be able to undo the pouch and calmly fit a sprayhood over my head under these circumstances.
 

iangrant

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Re: Spray hoods

Agree with the spray hood issue, really quite fiddly. and am wondering about a new life jacket!

Another issue was the crotch straps giving out. The racing boys on the ocean boats are replacing theirs with stainless buckles..

I also wondered about a 275n lifejacket, but seeing a guy completely wrapped up in his I'll stick with my 150. There is so much of it you can't see out at all!


Ian
 

RivalRedwing

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Re: Spray hoods

The new lifejacket that Spinlock are pushing seems to offer all that is required in a single package but at £200+ each it is not a small outlay to kit out a full crew. Has anyone tried this one out?
 

BlueSkyNick

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Re: Spray hoods

Interested in your 275N comment, Ian. I bought myself one on the assumtion that my own bouyancy would be the same everybody else's, but the XXL oilies and size12 boots might take a bit more holding up.

We are booked on the same course in APril, and looking forward to it with eager anticipation.
 

iangrant

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Re: Spray hoods

Brian

I found that once in the water and starting to realise that you were in the water, then inflated my life jacket, life settled down. Then the basta**s on the other team started splashing us a lot less than a waves would have done. You need a sprayhood.

Agree with you - don't fall in..

ian
 
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