Now I can see the value in a life jacket

Sans Bateau

Well-known member
Joined
19 Jan 2004
Messages
18,956
Visit site
After finding my foul weather gear a bit pongy on the inside last weekend I decided to take them home and wash them. I did this in the bath with some hand wash liquid stuff.

Then came the suprise! The weight was incredible, as I lifted the jacket by the collar to take it out of the bath! I know the weight was water so if you were in the water with them on it would be neutral, but wearing foul weather gear, wet, must increase the weight of someone by 20 - 25%. That weight is the weight one might have to lift back on deck. Either someone else or yourself up a ladder!
 

Aeolus_IV

New member
Joined
24 Apr 2002
Messages
909
Location
East Sussex
Visit site
Yes .. did a Sea survival course with Doug down in Shamrock Quay last Saturday. Even without all the other gear you wear under your wet weather gear, getting into a life raft was very difficult. Now I realise that I am not as fit as I was /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif but this was so much harder than expected.

Great course though .. I consider my eyes well and truely open. Hope I never have to do it for real.

Regards, Jeff.
 

ghost

New member
Joined
20 Mar 2005
Messages
380
Visit site
I refer you back to the man overboard post last week, This is exactly the point I was making, I wish some other guys would do as you have, maybe then they would review their recovery method to suit and practise more
 

jerryat

Active member
Joined
20 Mar 2004
Messages
3,569
Location
Nr Plymouth
Visit site
Yep, trying to get into a liferaft is a damned sight harder than I expected. My local sailing club hired a local swimming pool for the evening a few years ago, and got a training outfit to put us through a 'real lfe' liferaft scenario. Ok, it was in a swimming pool, but the raft had ropes tied to each 'corner', and to simulate a rough sea, four husky blokes yanked it every which way as we tried to board it.

They insisted we did it in full wet weather gear (no boots though, at the request of the swimming pool administrators) and it was a serious shock to many people. As has been mentioned, with full gear the difference, not only in weight, but in the high degree of restriction in movement, resulted in close to a third of those taking part being unable to board, EVEN when others were already aboard to help them!!

If you were wearing an inflated life jacket, it was almost impossible. And a final thought, the idea of spending more than an hour or two in the unbelievably cramped four man raft, in ANY conditions, is totally horrendous to me!

Altogether a very sobering experience.

Cheers Jerry
 

Miker

New member
Joined
30 Jun 2001
Messages
890
Location
NW England
Visit site
I agree. Last autumn I slipped on some algae and slid off the marina pontoon into the water. I was just wearing old clothes, not having put on my wet gear, and I couldn't even get a leg up onto the pontoon and didn't have the strength to haul myself up and out. It made me think and I am now about to purchase a boarding ladder.
 

Sans Bateau

Well-known member
Joined
19 Jan 2004
Messages
18,956
Visit site
We do not carry a life raft and have no intention to either. With a boat that remains afloat even when fully flooded, collision damage will not sink the boat. The only problem that may give cause to abandod the boat would of course be fire. But, how many, yes I know it can happen, boats catch fire? On longer sails, channel, summer cruise etc, we carry the dinghy straped to the back, unattractive yes, but it could be put to sea in seconds.

On the subject of MOB, I am being far more aware of the potential danger here, with only myself and Anne on the boat most of the time, I make every effort to stay on the boat! the simplest of tasks on the fore deck, I clip on. As all lines lead back to the cockpit, the only reason to go on deck is to launch the cruising chute. So I am unlikley to be up there in poor conditions, we also clip on in the cockpit if its a bit rough.

I have never heard of anyone getting killed with too much safety. But what is enough?
 

LadyInBed

Well-known member
Joined
2 Sep 2001
Messages
15,224
Location
Me - Zumerzet Boat - Wareham
montymariner.co.uk
The lifejacket will just add to the weight and encumbrance imo.
When I wash my flotation suit in the bath, it also weighs a ton, but it floats with me in it!!
The point being that just because it weighs a lot when waterlogged, it does not mean that it will drag you to the bottom.
A suit without inbuilt buoyancy will still trap a significant amount of air (and hold it) when you fall in.
The problem, as you note, arises when you try to get yourself out, you have to lift yourself and a suit that now weighs a ton up from the water. This is the same for buoyant and non-buoyant suits, the only way to achieve it is to be lifted or lift yourself slowly so the bulk of the water drains or better still, get a dry suit or immersion suit. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Top