Life-jacket under waterproofs - dangerous

For safety reasons I would recommend that you film a large breasted lady with a tight wet T shirt on and simulate the experience with cold air. A fat gut man carries his bulge too low, hence this would still qualify as fair under gender equality legislation.
 
When I sailed dinghies, I used to wear a bouyancy aid (not a LJ) under a spraytop. It was pointed out to me that having the buoyancy aid on the outside gives a rescue crew something to grab hold of.

With an LJ, it seems to me that wearing anything over it would restrict movement, and the point about inability to breathe confirms to me that my LJ will remain on top of everything.
 
I know someone who had to cut his jacket because he could not breathe when the LJ went off. Personally, I test inflate my LJ regularly, as I work in it and it is prone to wear and tear: I have done this with the jacket on to make sure there is enough room.
 
I have been racking my brain thinking about where I read this (not the internet!), I think in a Sir Peter Blake book, about an offshore racer rolling about on the foredeck stabbing himself in the chest with his knife.

He had put his jacket on over his life jacket and it had inflated accidently, the effects of this were extreme!

Dylan, I shouldn't worry too much, you are far more likely to come to grief with the mobo comments................................ although I happen to agree (mostly with them)!
 
If you wear a gas inflated lifejacket under outer clothing you're in for a nasty shock if it inflates, either 'cos you fell into the water or due to a malfunction. Unless you were wearing some sort of strechy outer garment, the lifejacket 'lung' would be compressed onto your chest and would prevent you from being able to breathe. I wouldn't bank on buttons coming undone or anything else, just wear the thing in the manner recommended by the manufacturer...... Even if it is to cause some sort of reaction from the thought police who think you need protection.
 
If you think that's bad, there have been several instances of fighter pilots having the inflatable dinghy they're sitting on inflate while flying, jamming them hard up against the canopy !

One of many reasons pilots wear knives in easily reachable places, arm or thigh...

So that's the obvious answer then, don't wear the thing as designed, but get one of those good-for-a-pose diving knives in a scabbard on your thigh; that'll cut a dash in the pub.
 
For winter sailing I wear a buoyancy aid over a lightweight waterproof top. This works when I am exerting myself. Then as I cool off I put my "proper" oily over the lot. Wish I had done this years before.

Yes Dylan - break with convention at every opportunity if I can - only because all the sailors I really admire - Slocum, Acton, Charles Stock, Hasler,etc - never seemed bothered by it.
 
dylanwinter said:
For many years I have been wearing my self inflating life-jacket under my top layer of clothing - the reason is that with a small cabin I often have to remove the outer layer to get anything from the cabin and when the sun comes out or it starts raining it saves me time. I am more likely to keep it on that way.

I am now told this is really dangerous and that it says on the instructions that one should never do this

is it really that dangerous?

Do other people live dangerous things just for the pure devilment of it?

and

when we get a lifejacket law - as in ireland - how will the authorities tell if I am, or am not wearing one. Here are two films - one with life-jacket on and one with it off. V tough for the harbourmaster to know I reckon







yours

Dangerous Dyl
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As well as all the other things mentioned, are you absolutely certain, that you could reach the manual release if you were wearing a coat/jacket on top of your LJ?

Mine is fully auto, but the last time I used it for real, it seemed ages waiting for it to activate (as I plummeted to the seabed) - still don't know if it did, or me pulling on the manual release that saved my life!
 
Seajet said:
If you think that's bad, there have been several instances of fighter pilots having the inflatable dinghy they're sitting on inflate while flying, jamming them hard up against the canopy !
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Odd that, I did 28 years in Crab Air and in all that time we had exactly none - and no such accident reports* from the WAFUs either. Given the jobs I was doing, I think I might just have heard about these several instances.

*They'd have been accident reports, not incident reports - you can't fly a FJ if you share the cockpit with an inflated dinghy.
 
The neck of the deflated PFD lies flat. Until it expands, to "suppport" your neck when inflated. So in addition to tightening against your chest underneath an outer layer, if that layer has a reasonably tight neck, like a zipper or a large button that doesn't pop off...

One interesting thing I haven't seen discussed is the reason to wear something outside. What does one do with an auto-inflator when it's raining hard?
 
andygc,

strange I heard about them - historical anecdotes and also in reading aircaft history - I don't mean Biggles - while in the trials teams on Hawk and Harrier...and what's this 'would be an accident report', as clearly not...in fact I never heard of such a thing actually causing a real accident, maybe it happened more on development aircraft with higher - tuned Test Pilots. Sheesh..I'm not bothering to go and find books, feel free to read it up.
 
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Wearing clothing over an inflatable PFD is rather like wearing clothing over a parachute pack - rather pointless, much like a broken pencil. But I like your dark sense of humour. ;)
 
Life Jackets

Well I will be radical and say that I am yet to be convinced of the value of inflatable LJs. In fact the thought of having one inflate really worries me. All that pneumatic bladder around the ears and on the chest seems to me that it would reduce you to a bobbing michelin man who has to be hoisted out of the water. The picture of the LJ in the bath confirms my fears.
I like to wear a buoyancy vest that has foam buoyancy just around the torso. It is comfortable to wear indeed warm protection against spray and when in the water I can float or swim and gives very little restriction when climbing unaided back onto the boat.
Yes I know the idea of buoyancy behind the head and on the chest means you float face up even if unconscious. I have not heard of any cases around here of being knocked unconscious compared to a large number of people who have fallen of a boat.
So I reckon I am better off being able to swim and work in buoyancy rather than be made immobile just for the sake of keeping head up at all times.
I actually made my newest buoyancy vest from a sail bag of red dacron. It has 2 layers with strips of high density foam (actually a camping type sleeping mat. It has reflective tape and a whistle. it is warm and comfortable and in the water works well. So yes I carry fixed buoyancy approved type to make the boat legal in the ocean. But all of the crew wear ordinary dinghy sailing type vests except in really calm hot weather. Just an opinion olewill
 
Seajet said:
I'm surprised I don't think anyone's mentioned yet that wearing something over the top precludes clipping on a harness line - yup, dangerous.
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Based on Dylan's known tendencies to dangerous practises it wouldn't surprize me to find out that he doesn't regulary clip on when the wind exceeds F2
 
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