Life jacket crotch straps - where, who, what?

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Shearwater

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Thought w eought upgrade our lifejackets to include proper crotch straps. Have found them at £9.99 each which seems a lot for a piece of webbing, but accept retailers have to make a turn. Any points to look out for? Any suggestions? Presume this is a sensible thing to spend hard earned money on!
 
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Presume this is a sensible thing to spend hard earned money on!

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For sensible - read essential.

an additional add-on is the face shield, and a light is pretty useful as well if you sail at night!
 
Essential I agree. I have just started using on (a simple webbing clip). Make sure that it is tight otherwise a it catches on stuff and b it is not going to do its job.
 
I made eight sets of them from material bought from Point North;
a lot less that £10 each; probably more like £20 the lot (plus labour /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif)
 
I bought XM manual inflate LJ's ... which had no thigh straps ... I bought a pack for each later and found them to be absolutely ridiculous ...

The method appears ok - slip over each part of the waist strap and then slip round legs - clip and tighten .... BUT when ever you lean fwd - the straps slipped down the legs and caught - meaning you had to keep easing them back up again by hand.

So enter the mind over matter !! I thought about how to cure this and improve the straps. Voila ! I decided to make them proper front to back under crotch jobs ... see photos of before and after .....

Before ... the single loop over the waist strap ... and you can see the large loop to go round the leg ...

XM-TS002.jpg


After ... the strap has been separated and each half stitched to the waist strap so that it forms a fixed comfortable loop under the crutch. Being to the side - it does not interefere with having a pee etc. and is easily unclipped for major ops. !

XM-TS003.jpg


You can now bend ... sit ... move about without the strap falling down the leg etc. IMHO a 500% improvement ... even the wife will wear her straps now - the "original thigh straps - she hated !!"

To buy webbing and clips to do the job would probably approach price of the thigh straps from the chandler ... and anyway if you get the proper ones and adapt as I did - they don't look DIY or out of place.

Why have them ? It is known fact that jumping into water with a LJ on - causes the LJ to rise up and can in fact hold a face below water ... struggling to get the jacket back down again is extremely difficult. The LJ ridden up can increase risk of drowning. All Ships crew etc. are taught to jump in with arms folded across the chest hard to try and prevent LJ from riding up ... simple fitting of straps as I have done would prevent this ...
 
Like you, I found the crotch straps totally useless unless you tightened them around the upper leg and cut off the circulation.
I am going to try your method - sounds good to me.
Thanks.
Ken
If you are not convinced about these straps - look at the sad photo in John Roussmaniere's (sp ?) book on the Fastnet - lifejacket in the open sea - you can just see the body of a man floating - several feet down.
 
Stitching ... look at a Car safety belt for the style of stitching ... I made mine as a square and then diagonals to create an X. This is really strong. Make sure the stitching is not in one length ... knot at intervals to prevent fraying becoming a joint that comes apart.

I am actually going to change mine slightkly ... I will stitch mine TO the loops that come from the jacket at front .... not as I first did - made loops to slip over waist strap. This way the waist strap can move as it needs and thigh straps are permanent.

In fact the advantage is also that you don't need them so tight with my set-up - more comfortable ... as long as they prevent ride-up - thats enough ...

Still don't understand why LJ manufacturers persist with the design ?
 
We bought Seago straps that have 50mm wide webbing and under crotch padding - secure and comfortable. Can't remember the cost but ca £10 I think.
 
But my problem was not the width / padding etc. - it was the way they fitted ... and the tendency to fall down the leg and catch when you stood up again. I altered the fitting to provide a true strap round the nether regions and stop that problem.
 
We decided to fit crotch straps to our LJs in the light if the Ouzo tragedy report earlier this year. Initially bought XM ones to match the LJ manufacturer but found them so uncomfortabl;e that i took them back to the chandlers for refund. Have now fitted Seago ones, just one strap rather than the two on the XM. They're great, hardly know you've got them on. I can quite happily recommend them.
 
Another vote for Seago. When we bought our XM auto jackets they came with the thigh straps, but as others have commented, they slide down yer thighs and have to be hauled up repeatedly, so I have recently invested in Seago items. The only negative for me was the padded bit which is supposed to add comfort, but chafed me something rotten. Once dispensed with, the strap works very well and is comfortable in use.
 
Thigh or crotch straps are meant to hold the lifejacket down when in the water. For that reason you need to be able to tighten the straps when in the water. It's not until you pull the lifejacket down that it will provide the buoyancy you need to increase the height of your mouth and nose above the water especially when you fall unconscious.

Is that possible with your design?

When in waves the lifejacket will turn you to face the waves so also agree that spray hoods are essential to help prevent drowning from waves splashing into face.
 
If you look closely at the after photos ... you will see that the clip is at front ... not side as with before useless design.

They lay just below the LJ itself .. and easy to tighten / unclip / whatever.

I disagree with your "tighten when in the water ..." - that is too late judging by my experience of jumping into Plymouth Sound on Survival Training (Merch Navy). They need to be tight BEFORE you jump in ... It's the jumping in that drives the jacket UP ... once in the water the force driving it up is less and you also tend to float not vertical.

My straps basically now pass from front round the inner thigh and back to jacket at back ... the straps are pulled to side so leaving operatioins down there relatively free !!

I've seen other straps and yet to see any that better my efforts .. not saying mine are best or brilliant - but they work without question. The best way to decsribe - is they basically copy professional safety harnesses in this method.
 
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