Lifejackets, when did you last fall in and would wearing one have made a difference ?

Early 1980s, dinghy sailing off a hotel beach in Antigua, no lifejacket. The warm water was a welcome relief from the scorching air.
 
A couple of years ago SWMBO fell in while grabbing for the boat from the dinghy. She was wearing her LJ which inflated immediately. She's a strong swimmer and held onto the dinghy but was glad of the buoyancy which kept her afloat whilst I secured to the boat and dragged her round to the boarding ladder. There was no danger in the situation but if she'd bumped her head and fallen in, that would have been different. We always wear our LJs in the dinghy and usually when we're sailing - why not? - they're not uncomfortable.
 
How do I admit that I've never fallen in the water off a yacht. I've capsized a few dinghies and hobie cats in my time.

I've been in incidents where people have fallen over board twice but managed to get them back very quickly. The one was semi-suspended from his harness and his lifejacket didn't go off. The other was last summer when a lady fell off a boat as it was docking and I pulled her out of the water within a minute or two. She wasn't wearing a lifejacket.
 
I fell off a yacht a couple of years ago during a rather chaotic attempt at docking in strong winds. I'm a reasonably strong swimmer, but got pretty battered hitting the pontoon and could easily have been in danger without a lifejacket.
 
Twice. Once a Tom & Jerry moment getting from the dinghy on to the bording ladder as the dinghy moved smartly astern, once stepping off a dark pontoon, when I mistook a spring for the edge of the pontoon. No lifejacket in either case. (not pissed, either, strange as it may seem!)

Not sure if a jacket would have helped as I'm a good swimmer and I wasn't in the water more than a minute or two. In both cases, though, it was somewhere where the tide flows a fair bit faster than I could swim, especially in oilies and boots, so I might have regretted not having my LJ if it hadn't been slack water.

I reckon the main benefit of my LJ is that it is also a harness and has my safety line permanently attached, so it helps keep me on board. Flotation is incidental to that except when going to and from the boat.
 
Once, a long time ago, when mooring a friend's mobo after a very boozy cruise and in the dark. We were in the marina and I just missed the post with the line and fell in the cut. I'm a strong swimmer but was disorientated (drunk) so I grabbed a mooring post while I worked out where I was and proceeded to get my legs cut up on the barnacles.

It seemed funny at the time and, indeed, raises a chuckle or two whenever the story comes up but it could easily have worked out differently.
 
I have fallen off, or been knocked off, a couple of racing dayboats and a pontoon.
Wearing a lifejacket means you are £20 poorer as well as looking stupid.
A dinghy buoyancy aid would have been better all round in those incidents.
I'm happy to wear a proper LJ when I feel there is risk there, often mostly for the harness as others have said.
 
Once fell off a tender in Thailand, one of the tubes wasn't fully inflated (the one I sat on). Assume nothing. No LJ but only going shore to boat, computer & mobile phone got wet...

To add - singlehanded I'm not convinced that I'd be better off clipping on as well as wearing LJ. As long as I have my PLB I think I'd probably be better off not clipping on....
 
Last edited:
V1701 said:
Once fell off a tender in Thailand, one of the tubes wasn't fully inflated (the one I sat on). Assume nothing. No LJ but only going shore to boat, computer & mobile phone got wet...

To add - singlehanded I'm not convinced that I'd be better off clipping on as well as wearing LJ. As long as I have my PLB I think I'd probably be better off not clipping on....
Click to expand...

There are certainly documented cases of people drowning as a result of being clipped on - we have lifeline cutters on the lifejackets to give the ability to escape if necessary.
 
Never fallen off a yacht, or been onboard when anybody else has.

EDIT: On second thoughts, not 100% true. A young REME Craftsman, arriving to join us on one of the JSASTC boats at Kiel, fell down between the jetty and the stern boarding platform, wetting himself to the waist but catching on with his elbows. Later that day he fell down the companionway, for the rest of the trip he banged his head on the forepeak lintel at least once per day, and he lost both his oilskins and his towel overboard in (different) Danish fishing harbours (the oilies were recovered, the towel wasn't). So we just lumped that all together as general numptiness and didn't think anything special of the partial falling in.

Pete
 
Last edited:
I've known a careless crew be washed off a Scorpion sailing dinghy in surf, naturally he was the only one of 3 of us not wearing a wetsuit in winter.

A couple of years ago I had just taken up the habit of always wearing a lifejacket in the tender when I was exhausted after a cold sleepless night and managed to go over the side rolling the dinghy on top of me, which could have been traumatic to a non dinghy sailor.

I was very impressed by, and grateful for, my Kru auto lifejacket ( no connection ).

When the gratitude wore off I was less impressed by the £20 + price of recharging and resetting the thing, standard for all modern lifejackets, but at least I'm still here to get the P taken out of me.

I can really recommend wearing a lifejacket in tenders, please do - I am one of 4 experienced sailors who've done the same prat fall between cruiser and dinghy at my club alone, one chum who always wears a LJ was only saved by having the bottom of the upturned dinghy painted yellow and being spotted as he bobbed around, well out his swimming range.
 
Fallen quite a few times but off smaller yachts on lakes; not counting dinghies. Once swimmed off a seaboat (at least it was supposed such...) that capsized, but never fell from deck at sea.
Never wore lifejackets as they make swimming impossible, though I'm not good swimmer. Prefer harness; now will equip the boat with combined harness/lifejackets, one is not getting younger...
Personally I'm going for flotation built in stormwear, I also use rubberfoam boots (for their warmth) which float so should not pose a problem.
 
Havn't fallen in and don't wear one in Chi Harbour on a calmish warm sunny day - well I don't want tan lines do I sweety :cool:. Out to sea it's different and always wear one on a cold day wherever I am, with all the clobber on, you need all the help you get with thick jumper/coats dragging you down... Oh and I don't wear one on a pontoon in a marina!

A school friend of mine was a fisherman out of school and he died as the weight of his oily pulled him down apparently, wasn't wearing a lifejacket. He was only 16 but fit! I am now 47 and realise I'm not as fit as I used to be... even with the aid of a natural lifebelt around my gut!

Use the loops to fix to your jacket and you always have it on - no probs...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top