Open Flies Death

[Gargleblaster]

I used to sail on Lake Superior out of Duluth and sailed with a local copper. I don't know the RNLI statistic for open flies, but on the Great Lakes 50% of floaters were what they called OFD [open flies death] usually with a high blood alcohol content as well.
I sail single handed 99% of the time now and use the bucket in the cockpit when I am in busy waters as I can kneel down and urinate and keep one eye on the bucket, one eye on the traffic and one hand on the tiller.
Like Tradewinds I rarely do up my flies when I am sailing alone as particularly in the ocean it takes two hands to zip and unzip. It can be a bit embarrassing after a few months at sea to find yourself walking around a busy town or port with your flies undone as you have got into the habit of not doing them up. Walking down the main street of say Falmouth with crowded footpaths I am never quite sure whether to stop and do them up or leave them undone and hope no one notices. I now try to make it a habit a couple of days out to start doing my flies up hoping that I will remember to do so when I arrive

 

[Tradewinds]

I wear a long jumper

 

[Koeketiene]

I don't know the RNLI statistic for open flies, but on the Great Lakes 50% of floaters were what they called OFD [open flies death] usually with a high blood alcohol content as well.

I would argue that the excessive intake of alcohol rather than the practice of peeing over the side was the principal cause of these deaths.

 

[sarabande]

in the deeper parts of the Great Lakes, the water temperature and pressure* is so low that bodies do not experience the biological activity that causes them to float to the surface. Many bodies are never seen again, but remain in the Lakes' depths.

*Pressure is important since the lungs' air spaces are compressed so that a body achieves negative buoyancy almost at once.

 

[pvb]

in the deeper parts of the Great Lakes, the water temperature and pressure* is so low that bodies do not experience the biological activity that causes them to float to the surface. Many bodies are never seen again, but remain in the Lakes' depths.

*Pressure is important since the lungs' air spaces are compressed so that a body achieves negative buoyancy almost at once.

The pressure at sea level is of course close to atmospheric, so the lungs wouldn't be compressed. In normal circumstances, bodies sink but then re-surface a few days later as biological decomposition takes place, producing gas in the body and making it buoyant. In some of the Great Lakes, the deep water is so cold that the biological decomposition doesn't happen, and the body stays submerged.

 

[johnalison]

I am accustomed to reading about magnetic anomalies but for a local suspension of physical laws, that must be rare indeed.

 

[sarabande]

as a drowned body sinks there is little air left in the lungs. This air, and other gas in the digestive tract, is compressed at depth, thus increasing the normal negative buoyancy of the body even more. As I stated earlier, cold water inhibits decompositional production of gas.

Source: Course notes on recovery and identification of bodies after a marine disaster. Easingwold EP College, late 1990s.

 

[sailorman]

Hence no body after the Bluebird accident i assume

 

[dombuckley]

The preponderance of sailors found with their flies undone may not be wholly due to the obvious reason.

During my previous career, one of my middle watches was somewhat enlivened by a "jumper" at 2am. Luckily, he was seen going over, and we got back to him quickly. When we fished him out, he had his flies undone - turned out he had been trying to take off his trousers, so that he could swim more easily.

 

[pvb]

The preponderance of sailors found with their flies undone may not be wholly due to the obvious reason.

During my previous career, one of my middle watches was somewhat enlivened by a "jumper" at 2am. Luckily, he was seen going over, and we got back to him quickly. When we fished him out, he had his flies undone - turned out he had been trying to take off his trousers, so that he could swim more easily.

Good point!

 

[rudolph_hart]

I heard an apocryphal story that the marine rescue people have a term for these casualties: LIFO - Lifejacket Inflated, Flies Open.

 

[Cantata]

Hence no body after the Bluebird accident i assume

Bodies usually pop up again after 6-9 days though gases created during decomposition. There was a chap dived off his boat one hot day off here, and never surfaced after the dive. He came up again after a week or so - cold shock had stopped his heart. As I recall Campbell's body wasn't found for many years, though.

 

[stevebrassett]

I would argue that the excessive intake of alcohol rather than the practice of peeing over the side was the principal cause of these deaths.

I suggest that the first causes the second and the combination of the two causes the fall.

 

[Leighb]

I suggest that the first causes the second and the combination of the two causes the fall.

Undoubtedly was the cause of the sad demise of 2 yachtsmen at SYH a year or two back.

 

[NUTMEG]

This is a cheerful thread :-(