ok for some ?

nemodreams

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I see the featured image fo the Volvo Ocean race( current main YBW News feed ) shows a crew member at the winch - with boat on a racing heel - wearing no lifejacket, tether or even protective sailing gear ( t shirt ) ?

Not a great advert for sailing safety is it ?
 
I see the featured image fo the Volvo Ocean race( current main YBW News feed ) shows a crew member at the winch - with boat on a racing heel - wearing no lifejacket, tether or even protective sailing gear ( t shirt ) ?

Not a great advert for sailing safety is it ?

Was the boat sinking or what? Looks pretty normal to me, daylight sailing,not rough, in the cockpit, not being washed by heavy seas? What is the problem aside from to a HSE fanatic making a point. I would be more concerned if he was walking down the dock with a beer in hand after the race.

Skipper's choice to call, not Monday morning quarter back's.


Sorry to disagree.
 
should stick him in a high vis jacket, in the HSE world that protects from everything,

In fact wheres his hardhat and safety shoes? and the waves are quite loud perhaps ear defenders too. and a shed load of stickers around the boat warning of pinch points / trip hazards

osha_cowboy.jpg
 
I see the featured image fo the Volvo Ocean race( current main YBW News feed ) shows a crew member at the winch - with boat on a racing heel - wearing no lifejacket, tether or even protective sailing gear ( t shirt ) ?

Not a great advert for sailing safety is it ?

Agree completely (NOT)

How is the Volvo video different from the one of you sailing with your harness on but with no tether???

(1min 20 secs)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdaUwkxpIWE&feature=youtu.be

Is it a case of "do as I say" rather than "do as I do"?? Or have you both made a judgement on the prevailing conditions and risks????
 
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I'm becoming terminally bored with this debate in the UK regarding lifejackets etc.
In Ireland, in the wake of a sinking involving multiple deaths, a law was enacted, requiring the wearing of lifejackets while on deck on vessels below a specified size.
Similar to the "Smoking In The Workplace" prohibition, there were initial misgivings, but it almost immediately gained universal acceptance. Now it's "Clunk-Click Every Trip" and one never sees people sailing/boating without lifejackets.
If you don't want a "dreaded law" to compel you to take the minimum measures to preserve your own lives, I would suggest that you just "buckle down" and do the right thing, voluntarily.
 
I'm becoming terminally bored with this debate in the UK regarding lifejackets etc.
In Ireland, in the wake of a sinking involving multiple deaths, a law was enacted, requiring the wearing of lifejackets while on deck on vessels below a specified size.
Similar to the "Smoking In The Workplace" prohibition, there were initial misgivings, but it almost immediately gained universal acceptance. Now it's "Clunk-Click Every Trip" and one never sees people sailing/boating without lifejackets.
If you don't want a "dreaded law" to compel you to take the minimum measures to preserve your own lives, I would suggest that you just "buckle down" and do the right thing, voluntarily.

Leisure sailors should be capable of taking their own decisions regarding risk. Being forced to wear a lifejacket when drifting gently with the tide in a virtual calm is ridiculous. And where does the bureaucratic madness end? Compulsory harnesses at all times next? Compulsory electronic MOB tags next? Sailing banned when there's a F3 forecast?
 
The bbc seem to use a simiar rule nowadays. You often see tv presenters and the like wearing life jackets on canal boats or on fishing vessels with four foot gunwhales in calm weather. They'll be wearing them on cross channel ferries next.
 
The bbc seem to use a simiar rule nowadays. You often see tv presenters and the like wearing life jackets on canal boats or on fishing vessels with four foot gunwhales in calm weather. They'll be wearing them on cross channel ferries next.

Even more bizarre is wearing them when walking in 6" of water along a stream bed (and wearing a hard hat at the same time).
 
How very sad.

No, not so. Like I said it becomes automatic to put on the L J, just as one would automatically belt up when in a car. I would feel odd not wearing it now, but the thing is, that the major portion of the sailing I did for many years was in the context of either taking or teaching courses in a sailing school.
I've been overboard once, as has my wife. In both incidents we were in sheltered waters, doing something routine, when something went wrong unexpectedly; in my case, picking up training marker buoys in the club punt (within Baltimore Harbour), when I overbalanced and went in; in my wifes case, helming on a spinnaker run up the Ilen River, when the halyard jammed, and too many crew rushed forward to help, unbalancing the boat and causing a broach which pitched her overboard.
In both incidents the L J was instrumental in saving a comedy from becoming a tragedy; when mine inflated I surfaced so quickly that I was able to get an arm and a leg over the gunwale and be pulled back on board; the crew on my wife's boat didn't even know she was gone, and continued to struggle with the Spinnaker Halyard while shouting "Watch your course, Dolores". She was picked up by one of the following boats, luckily in a very quick time, as she had been pulled down by her waterlogged clothing to the point where her chin was awash, because the L Js at that time did not have crotch straps. (Don't get me going on crotch straps and their proper adjustment:) )
 
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