Halo
Well-Known Member
Has anyone found a way to comfortably wear life jacket leg straps (as opposed to a crutch strap ) whilst wearing oiles ? I always seem to be hitching the things over my oily trousers and round the jacket.
Life Jackets and leg straps
- Thread starter Halo
- Start date
PetiteFleur
Well-Known Member
I've found the twin leg strops to be uncomfortable so only have a single crotch strap now on all my life jackets.
ex-Gladys
Well-Known Member
Very definitely depends on "which side sir dresses".... I can't deal with single straps, twin only for me...
Tam Lin
Well-Known Member
Terrible things, single straps. You have to undo them to sit on the loo, as you sit the strap gently lowers into the pan!
bbg
Well-Known Member
Not really. They do get in the way. I put up with it, knowing that is a small price to pay in case they are needed.
lw395
Well-Known Member
Get a properly designed LJ which works without after-thought add-ons?
Strangely, dinghy sailors, who fall in a lot more, never have any need for crutch straps.
There is an exception to that, very small kids BA's use them.
We've mostly accepted a rubbish design which seems to have come about due to shortening the shoulder straps, raising the belt of the harness onto the wearer's chest.
I guess this saves a few pence worth of webbing?
Strangely, dinghy sailors, who fall in a lot more, never have any need for crutch straps.
There is an exception to that, very small kids BA's use them.
We've mostly accepted a rubbish design which seems to have come about due to shortening the shoulder straps, raising the belt of the harness onto the wearer's chest.
I guess this saves a few pence worth of webbing?
prv
Well-Known Member
Surely the higher the belt, the less you can slip down before your arms stop you and hence the lesser the need for crotch-straps? My jacket is a snug fit around my chest; I must admit I haven't tested it in the water (keep meaning to) but it really doesn't feel like I could slip down in it and so I haven't attached the optional strap.
I can think of two possible reasons, though they're just guesses.
One is that a short jacket is more comfortable when slumped on a cockpit seat (or even the rail of a racer). Your legs (and for some people, their pot-belly!) don't push up on the bottom of the jacket like they would if the "waist" belt were actually at waist level.
The other is that the harness part is now regulated by some kind of official standard, and it may be that this calls for straps to bear on the bony parts of the body rather than the soft abdomen, in the same way that car seatbelts are meant to bear on the pelvis and rib cage, not crush the stomach. That would lead to the lifejacket belt being placed higher up, against the chest rather than the waist.
Pete
lw395
Well-Known Member
May be some truth in that.
I have fallen in wearing my old Baltic LJ over oilies, with no leg straps, it felt totally secure, no hint that I could fall out of it.
It is a harness type, never really put the harness to serious test falling though.
Waistcoast type dinghy BA just seems to work, but to be fair they ae worn over less, tighter clothing.
Skinny people with umpteen jumpers on under oilies may be more of a challenge for LJ designers?
But I'm sure they just copy existing and try to engineer the cost out. Most LJ's are very cheap in real terms compared with 20 years ago?
rgarside
Well-Known Member
I've found the configuration of the Deckvest to be very good. The ones with one or two straps between the legs I have not found to be so good.