Personal inflatable danbuoy

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neil1967

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I am just kitting out our 40' yacht with safety/rescue equipment. We will normally sail with just the 2 of us onboard, so in the event of a MOB situation the person remaining on board will have a lot to do. I know the best idea is to avoid falling in, but it is best to be prepared. Rather than having a traditional danbuoy, I am considering fitting both our lifejackets with a inflatable personal danbuoy - the MOB simply pulls a toggle and a CO2 canister inflates the danbuoy. Has anyone used these, either for practice or in anger? Are they a bit of an encumberance on the LJ belt, and would they fit a modern 'fitted' LJ rather than a traditional one with a webbing belt? Any info much appreciated.

Neil
 
Interested in this idea so do you have an example ? If the MOB has to pull this assumes a degree of competence in situation but otherwise what downsides might arise? I guess ultimately it depends on where and when you do you sailing ?
 
Many thanks might not be much use for you but they look like the sort of device featured at SBS or suchlike events .will await personal views with interest though particular from those who have used in practice
 
I always wear a lightweight high-viz orange jacket in the dinghy. It serves well for cycling too. Whenever I'm sailing on busy days, the only way SWMBO, ashore, can distinguish my boat from others out there, is the jacket...

...so it strikes me that some kind of high-viz flag would be almost as important a part of MOB gear, as a flotation chamber...

...which makes me wonder why the danbuoy pictured, doesn't feature a high-viz flag. :confused: It wouldn't be so hard to make one.

plastimo-personal-danbuoy-with-light-biggest.jpg
 
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My thoughts, and I maybe wide of the mark, is that any MOB apparatus attached to the wearer will need to be in addition to a standard danbuoy fitted to the boat and not “instead of”. In the event of a MOB situation where the MOB has been swept over, rather then merely fallen over, the casualty may well be unconscious so unable to activate the nflatation device. I think they look like an excellent bit of safety kit, but in addition to and not instead of the conventional danbouy. Just my opinion.
 
I had not heard of these before but seems to be an excellent idea. Certainly better than a danbuoy which must be launched by a remaining crew. However I wonder if it will always stay standing and up if so how? Also just how inconvenience it is having the pouch on your LJ webbing. It seems to me that it might be not so difficult to incorporate one of these into an LJ bladder by the LJ manufacturer. olewill
 
We have one of these located at the helm.

http://www.danbuoy.com/

It has the advantage you can throw it at the MOB, the danger is if you hit them it could be nasty. I've tried ours they do work - but if you are slow - the yacht has moved too far. But they are quicker to deploy than a conventional danbuoy and you can throw them very effectively and with more accuracy than you can deploy a pole.

Too many MOBs seem to sustain injury going overboard and depending on the MOB to activate something manually lacks reliability - well and good if they can - but don't rely on it.


If you are short handed and you do go over the side - the chances of you being recovered are not high. There are too many well documented cases where MOBs have been recovered dead or not recovered at all. Think in terms of - if you go over the side you are dead. Double up your tethers, attach tethers to strong points as well as jackstays. Better inconvenient tethers than convenience - and chance to go over the side - stay on the boat!

Jonathan
 
Agree about the need to avoid going over the side and realistically if the MOB is incapacitated I think the chance of a single crew being able to recover them in anything other than flat calm is approaching zero. Still, if not incapacitated then the inflatable danbuoy seems to offer a better chance of being able to regain sight of the MOB, given that the single crew will be furling the genoa, starting the engine, possibly making a Mayday call, etc. Take the point about the encumbrance of the belt fitting, which is why hopefully someone can give us practical insight.....
 
I think the more novelty gadgets you strap to your lifejacket, the more likely it is you won't be wearing it.
How does that inflateable sausage stand up in a F6?
 
Presumably the sausage will remain as well inflated as a lifejacket....... same technology. I think I'd prefer to use one of these so that the yacht can return to me, rather than have it return to wherever a hastily thrown danbuoy is, or worse, there being no danbuoy deployed and my crew being unable to spot me at all..........
 
Pretty sure there was a PBO review of various Danbuoys including the personal inflatable ones a few years back?
 
dancrane said:
I always wear a lightweight high-viz orange jacket in the dinghy. It serves well for cycling too. Whenever I'm sailing on busy days, the only way SWMBO, ashore, can distinguish my boat from others out there, is the jacket...

...so it strikes me that some kind of high-viz flag would be almost as important a part of MOB gear, as a flotation chamber...

...which makes me wonder why the danbuoy pictured, doesn't feature a high-viz flag. :confused: It wouldn't be so hard to make one.

plastimo-personal-danbuoy-with-light-biggest.jpg
Click to expand...

It actually surprises me that these are not offered as integral to life jackets.
 
penberth3 said:
I'd call the red and yellow thing at the top a high-vis flag. Could be a bit bigger, but it's there.
Click to expand...

Could be bigger? It could hardly be smaller. Granted, the whole assembly needs to fold down as petite as possible, hopefully for all of the years it is owned and worn...but in severe weather when MOB is most probable, would you want to be waving a dim-coloured handkerchief in hopes of being spotted by the yacht's crew?

The day-glow orange that is so widely available for road and site-safety purposes (and which is said to be more visible in extremis than the yellow) is impressively eye-catching at sea. As big a flag as possible, made from as thin and lightweight a fabric, seems to me a basic essential to the MOB's chance of being spotted fast, and re-spotted if lost from sight, which itself is likely in waves.
 
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A big flag simply lays the pole over on its side, so it cannot be seen over the waves.
The flag is code flag 'o', which means 'man overboard'.

Some scuba divers carry a flag on a telescopic stick to attract their boat after a dive.

Dinghy racing on the sea, we often find the most visible marks are in fact black, particularly when you are looking upwind in a choppy sea.
 
Doubtless, the smallness of the flag is because of an inflatable pole's inability to carry a bigger one in a breeze.

The benefit of a stiff telescopic pole was in my mind, except that it won't fold down so snugly.

Old, old problem...can the wearer who certainly intends never to need the aid, tolerate the inconvenience of carrying it?

I remember somebody here years ago saying that even at night, black could be the most visible colour because in anything except pitch darkness, the non-reflection of ambient light meant that a black object stood out.

Not sure any manufacturers would have the courage to market a MOB product on that theory. For visibility against strong light, isn't it most important that the flag is opaque? Which needn't preclude its surface being day-glow orange.
 
Pretty standard kit for divers in the UK. I have carried one under water since the early 90s when one of the lads came back from Spain with an inflatable lilo. Overnight 5 of us had delayed surface marker buoys with the addition of 9m of paracord and a small fishing weight. The bright green luminous colour looked a bit odd, but it really stood out on grey overcast days, in fact better than red or orange, it just caught the eye for those following the divers on the surface. Later we moved to manufactured ones which were a bit more robust.

The Danboy version looks a little pricey but a search for "delayed SMB" reveals a variety of different ideas including CO2 inflation, or oral inflation if you feel confident in cold water. They provide useful additional buoyancy to hang on to whilst waiting to be picked up.
 
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