It is horrible in a liferaft!

Re: What are the benefits of sprayhoods?

There has been quite a lot of work done by the shipping and offshore industries on survival in the water, and the sprayhood is one result of this - the lifejacket holds you low in the water, of course, and waves are constantly washing over your face. Post mortem analyses or non-survivors and interviews with survivors showed that many people had drowned slowly, by repeatedly ingesting small amounts of water whilst trying to breathe. The sprayhood should reduce the risk of this.
 
Re: What are the benefits of sprayhoods?

It does tend to depend on the waters you are in or whether you are wearing a full survival suit, ie if the waters ar warm enough for you to survive some hours floating on your back, or you are wearing a suit then the idea of the sprayhood also protects you from wave slap, which if persistant enough can actually either drive you insane or demoralize you. If demoralized then you are likely to give up on the idea of survival.
(At least that's what they told me when I did a commercial survival course in Rotterdam harbour)
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Re: Spray hoods

The lifejackets in use on North Sea Helicopters DO have an integral sprayhood. Built into the collar, you reach behind your head and pull it bown over your face and tuck under the front bladders.

Have a read here -
http://www.flight-logistics.com/Ditching.html then go to the bit on 'avaition lifejackets'

I don't have a sprayhood on mine, but I'm much more concerned with staying on board in the first place.
 
Re: Spray hoods

It's virtually impossible to get in a liferaft with a 275N lifejacket fully inflated. I remember on our course nobody wearing a 275N could do it. They had to partially deflate them first. Nick - Where are you doing your course in April?
 
Re: Spray hoods

Well, in a survival course with the German Navy most achieved getting into the liferaft with a 275 N jacket, if with help of mates.
It also showed that, if your are in the water, you will invariably turn with your face towards the faces and that you'll drown without a sprayhood. So I can heartily recommend a sprayhood!
 
Re: What are the benefits of sprayhoods?

It is believed that most people found drowned with their life jackets on, actually drowned from inhaling the spray.

When you go overboard in anything of a blow, your body will act as a drogue:
- your feet sink as the boots/shoes fill with water
- your wet weather gear traps air
- your life jacket keeps your head out of the water.

So you float on your back, which is what the life jacket will force you to do, and you will float with your feet towards the oncoming waves, wind and spray.

Try your jacket/an old one on the beach in the surf, and see how long you can hold out.
 
At last, I will meet a Forumite.
Yes Sue, we are staying there at the RNLI. Plan to leave home very early on Sat morning, and drive down. Staying overnight. Not looking forward to the dunking, noticed that Richard hasn't booked himself in for it; he has done this course, or something similar before.
See you there, regards Becky
 
Re: What are the benefits of sprayhoods?

I tend to agree with you Brian.

The following is not to take the piss either! But to me the direction many are going is bordering on the irrational - I would not be surprised that the vast fright many are showing with respect to going overboard will result in increasing legislation to "protect" a bunch of worry mongering yachtsmen from what is a very low risk. They will bring it upon themselves and, unfortunately, everyone else.

Here in New Zealand, where there is a very high participation rate in recreational boating, there was only less than one person/year average lost off keel yachts of all sizes over the 20 years 1984 - 2003. In nearly half the years there were none and in any year there were never more than two. That should also be kept in the perspective of that sailing conditions here can be very hard (in our own cruising area the average wind speed is around 25 knots and in our own case we find once outside the harbour we encounter 30 knot plus winds probably around half of the time even though we usually wait for a 25knot or less forecast). Also, for much of the coastline good refuges that a keelboat can enter are several hundred miles apart.

Of such drownings here that I have had good knowledge of, all have been off keelboats racing in sheltered waters (the ones I am familiar with equate to around 30% of all drownings off keelboats in the 20 year period so clearly the main risk is when racing, not cruising).

One hardly ever sees lifejackets being worn on keel yachts here so in comparison to many forumites' practices we are severe risk takers in the falling off our boats department. In reality the risk is very, very small, especially on larger "non-tippy" keelboats (say around 28 foot upwards) and especially so if not racing. I have to say that it surprising to me the state of concern some forumites keep themselves in to ensure their survival.

I think those who tend to keep things in perspective more are those who have raced dinghies extensively in heavy conditions (common for keelboat sailors here - the golden rule of "Stay with the boat, stay with the boat, whatever you do stay with the boat" is tatooed in my brain forever) or have cruised/raced keelboats in a wide variety of conditions. That seems to hold true of the people I talk to and also seems to apply to the few forumites who have previously kindly shared their views with me by PM/email.

John
 
It's an excellent course. Did ours at the SWAC a couple of weeks ago, and it is an excellent learning experience. Even my teenaged daughter loved it. Big things for me were sprayhoods, confirmation that crotch straps were crucial - I was borrowing a vest without one, and it was dire!!
 
Ian
I'm glad you did the course as it is a bit of an eye opener!!
Did you have to inflate the raft yourself?
What did you think about the length of the painter?
Lets hope you only have to store the knowledge and never use it!!!!

Peter.
 
Peter
I took my 11 year old along as well, she loved it.
The raft was thrown in by a couple of other guys on the course. Pretty heavy bit of kit that, the 10 man! Something to consider when trying to launch it over the rail! The painter seemed a little short thinking about it.

As an aside I'm surprised by the varying "quality" of liferafts. I took mine along to the place in Westbourne Nr. Emsworth to see it blown up and what it looked like. Then looked at a couple of others there that looked more like plastic paddling pools with a roof.

I think the moral there is don't buy a cheap one!

Ian
 
Re: Spray hoods

I have not done an RNLI or similar course but over the years I did the airline crew course a few times. I agree with all that has been said and would add one thing..... We donned the lifejacket in the approved manner but when it inflated it almost squeezed the life out of us and we could not breath properly until we let some air out. The problem was that the tape around the body had to be reasonably tight to stop the lifejacket riding up when you went into the water so when it inflated there was just no room for your chest.... it was even worse for the girls!

Most of the lifejackets in use on our yachts are of a different design but can anyone tell me if this is still a problem? Do you need to let some air out of the lifejacket in order to be able to breath comfortably?

Paul.
 
Re: Spray hoods

Mine is a crewsaver with harnes, manual gas, daughters is crewsaver auto. Both went off OK, and we had room to breath, the only thing that surprised me was how thich you need the crotch straps.

Ian
 
Re: What are the benefits of sprayhoods?

Ships Cat
No one says you have to wear anything and I for one agree with staying firmly on the deck. (hooked on with double gib strop in rough weather or at night alone on watch).

I can only speak from experience of a few splashes in a swimming pool, it is very unpleasant there, in real life you would drown without the hood.

Thankfully everyone still has the choice to wear as little or as much as they like. I'll take the hood option Ta

Ian
 
Ian
When I did mine it was with P&O and we used one of the rafts from a ferry, the painter was 70 mtrs long and it was a 40 man raft. It was in Folkestone swimming pool and seem to take for ever to get the painter pulled<s> and righting the raft was hellish hard work for one person (me). One thing I did learn was that jumping from a ferry with a Perry L/jacket on isn't really an option as it would probably tear your head off when you hit the water from that height.
 
Having done it in Plymouth Sound - middle of March ...... you can now start to imagine how bad it was. At sea - I always reckoned I would go for the life-raft, after the course changed my mind and decided that Life-boat would be better !!
 
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