Life jackets

[robertj]

Thumbing through a few old copies of YM I've found quite a few attacks of YM testers not wearing life jackets and showing a bad example to us sheeple.
Can't we all just live our own lives without some jobs worth pointing out the folly of not wearing a LJ?
I for one rarely wear one even on dinghy transfers, even in rough weather I seldom remember to don the damn thing!

 

[PetiteFleur]

I usually wear my life jacket when going to my mooring, it's a good 15 min run which can get rough. If it's calm I do sometimes forget. When sailing I only wear it when singlehanding, night sailing and when rough.
At least if I did fall overboard I would have a better survival chance. All my lifejackets are automatic harness type.

 

[Tam Lin]

I have heard recently about several people falling out of their tenders on their way to their mooring. With the possibility of being swept out to sea, wearing your life jacket seems a good idea.

 

[Tranona]

I have heard recently about several people falling out of their tenders on their way to their mooring. With the possibility of being swept out to sea, wearing your life jacket seems a good idea.

And if you have tested out that proposition and lived to tell the tale, it has a massive impact on your future behaviour - mainly because you have a future rather than only a past.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Thumbing through a few old copies of YM I've found quite a few attacks of YM testers not wearing life jackets and showing a bad example to us sheeple.
Can't we all just live our own lives without some jobs worth pointing out the folly of not wearing a LJ?
I for one rarely wear one even on dinghy transfers, even in rough weather I seldom remember to don the damn thing!

Every other issue of every magazine has some pompous old buffer (or possibly a pompous young buffer) writing in to harumph about this. I'm all in favour of everyone making their own decision, and in taking responsibility for it. I wear my lifejacket whenever the boat is under way, but in the dinghy trip to my mooring, which is about 100m, I wear a buoyancy aid because if i do go in I'd like to be able to swim back to shore.

 

[Resolution]

Different horses for different courses.
When I was young and fit and sailing in warm waters there seemed little point in wearing a lifejacket - on the two occasions when we lost crew overboard they simply swam around for ten minutes until we sailed back and dragged them back onboard. We did harness up and clip on at night though.
Nowadays a careful risk analysis says that if any of us old f*rts were to fall overboard there is minimal likelihood that the remaining crew would be able to recover a cold, heavy and weakened body up our higher freeboard. So Rule 1 has to be to stay on board. This means harness and clip on much more. As our harnesses are all built into lifejackets it also means we will consequently be wearing l/js more often.
And the comments about risks while in tenders are so true. Easily the highest risk activity in ports with tidal streams etc. Yet how many of us walk into the pub carrying our lifejackets?

One gripe about harnesses: the clips at the ends of the strops are SO difficult to attach or detach one handed. I know that they were re-designed following the 79 Fastnet, but surely someone can come up with something better?

 

[Old IC]

As said it's down to personal choice. I'm not young and my personal risk assessment is that should I fall in the cold Solent I need a lifejacket, should I fall in the warm Ionian I can swim.
Lifejackets are now very light, neat and comfortable to wear. When I sailed as a child and teenage all there was were the old big kopok jobs which we would have worn if the boat was sinking.
Easy to wear lifejackets and safety harnesses are newish innovations that we should embrace.
Remember that your crew's relatives may sue you (another new idea) if you had not provided and encouraged the use of the correct safety equipment.
Perhaps we should get our crew to sign disclaimers? Perhaps though, duty of care by (more experienced) skipper might over ride a disclaimer.
Modern society…………
By the way if worn lifejackets should be correctly fitted with tight belts with crutch straps, many i see are not. A badly fitted lifejacket could in some case be worse than none at all.

 

[JumbleDuck]

One gripe about harnesses: the clips at the ends of the strops are SO difficult to attach or detach one handed. I know that they were re-designed following the 79 Fastnet, but surely someone can come up with something better?

What sort are you using? All my tethers have these

and I find them very easy to work single handed. Pull the safety catch back with the forefinger and then snap on to connect or push in the latch with the thumb to disconnect. The small person I sail with as crews finds them easy too.

 

[Resolution]

What sort are you using? All my tethers have these

and I find them very easy to work single handed. Pull the safety catch back with the forefinger and then snap on to connect or push in the latch with the thumb to disconnect. The small person I sail with as crews finds them easy too.

Yes , that is the thing. We have webbing strap jacklines from bow to stern and I really do find them very difficult to hook on and off. Maybe your fingers are different??

 

[JumbleDuck]

Yes , that is the thing. We have webbing strap jacklines from bow to stern and I really do find them very difficult to hook on and off. Maybe your fingers are different??

I have wire jacklines - maybe that makes a difference by giving more push to the latch?

 

[Sandy]

Thumbing through a few old copies of YM I've found quite a few attacks of YM testers not wearing life jackets and showing a bad example to us sheeple.
Can't we all just live our own lives without some jobs worth pointing out the folly of not wearing a LJ?
I for one rarely wear one even on dinghy transfers, even in rough weather I seldom remember to don the damn thing!

The choice is yours.

Should I fall out of the dingy I either bob past Exmouth, passing the Lifeboat Station, at 5 knots or up the river to Topsham at 3 knots. For me it is no brainer; on the water on goes the LJ.

 

[lustyd]

With the possibility of being swept out to sea, wearing your life jacket seems a good idea.

Without wishing to get into the argument about wearing or not of life jackets, I feel it necessary to point out that they in no way prevent a person being swept out to sea. If anything they would make sweeping out to sea more likely due to preventing a good swimming stroke to the shoreline which would likely be cross current if in a river or estuary.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Without wishing to get into the argument about wearing or not of life jackets, I feel it necessary to point out that they in no way prevent a person being swept out to sea. If anything they would make sweeping out to sea more likely due to preventing a good swimming stroke to the shoreline which would likely be cross current if in a river or estuary.

Is the point not that being swept out to sea is a good situation to have extra buoyancy? I agree with you about swimming - that is why, as noted above, I wear a buoyancy aid when rowing out to my mooring and not a life jacket. However, if I couldn't fairly easily reach the shore by swimming I think I'd trade manoeuvrability for floatation any day.

 

[ianfr]

I wear a buoyancy aid because if i do go in I'd like to be able to swim back to shore.

+1 for dinghy transfers. You cannot swim with a LJ.

Ian

 

[prv]

Different horses for different courses.
When I was young and fit and sailing in warm waters there seemed little point in wearing a lifejacket - on the two occasions when we lost crew overboard they simply swam around for ten minutes until we sailed back and dragged them back onboard. We did harness up and clip on at night though.
Nowadays a careful risk analysis says that if any of us old f*rts were to fall overboard there is minimal likelihood that the remaining crew would be able to recover a cold, heavy and weakened body up our higher freeboard. So Rule 1 has to be to stay on board. This means harness and clip on much more. As our harnesses are all built into lifejackets it also means we will consequently be wearing l/js more often.

And this is all very sensible. But I do wish the magazines would stop printing letters from pompous old buffers (as JumbleDuck puts it) complaining that they saw someone unlifejacketed in a photo.

(I'm sure the bores will keep writing, which is why I lay the onus on the magazine not to keep printing them.)

And the comments about risks while in tenders are so true. Easily the highest risk activity in ports with tidal streams etc. Yet how many of us walk into the pub carrying our lifejackets?

We used to. I was quite adept at flicking the legs of my oily trousers into the waist part to form a bag, then putting the lifejacket in the bag and slinging it over my shoulder by the braces.

Nowadays, I have a set of old-but-sound buoyancy aids which can be left in the dinghy - and I'm trying to find a dinghy which doesn't require rubber trousers in calm conditions

Pete

 

[Downsman]

And if you have tested out that proposition and lived to tell the tale, it has a massive impact on your future behaviour - mainly because you have a future rather than only a past.

" it has a massive impact on your future behaviour "

A few years ago when it was permitted to anchor off, but clear of Gibraltar Airport runway, I attempted to row ashore in a hard dinghy in a choppy sea. One rowlock broke and rowing became almost impossible and suddenly I found myself bound for Morocco in a stiff offshore breeze. 'T' shirt and shorts, no lifejacket, nothing..bloody scarey! as the Rock got smaller. Got towed back from a couple of miles out by a German yacht.
You don't have to nearly drown to wish you had a lifejacket in a dinghy. Never again for me, always a lifejacket even for a short trip.

 

[Alan ashore]

Yes , that is the thing. We have webbing strap jacklines from bow to stern and I really do find them very difficult to hook on and off. Maybe your fingers are different??

I'd add that I have never had a problem using those Gibb hooks one handed with either webbing or wire lifelines. But you might consider the Wichard variants at:
http://www.wichard.com/rubrique-Tethers-0203010000000000-ME.html
I have a few of the "Double Action Safety hooks" and these are very easy to use one handed.