Safety of automatic life vest

[pandos]

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/wife-destroyed-after-seeing-husband-drown-26440705.html

that was a new jacket.

this is a link to me testing one that had a best before date of 2007.

that jacket had very little use, and had been in storeage for at least 6 years, i deliberately just tested it without checking anything.

the bottle was loose, no idea when if ever it was tested/checked or serviced in the past.
https://youtu.be/klkk6ecYIwM

I think the moral of the story is that when your time is up it is up but I'd never sail without a jacket.. bought two new ones this year... I have been saved at least once by wearing one so I am convinced, but learning just how careful one needs to be.

https://youtu.be/klkk6ecYIwM

another of my old ones was punctured by folding and was useless,

I now believe that they should be stored semi inflated (or at least inflated and left deflate in a dark room) so that there is no stress on the material where the folds are.

 

[TLouth7]

Sorry, I am still learning english. By solid I mean good or proper (180N one).

Ah I understand, I think that is a good decision. I have been involved in the design of lifejackets and I would say that the regulations are very thorough and require lots of tests to ensure reliability.

 

[ghostlymoron]

We always wear lifejackets when on the water (except in the med when it's too hot). The one occasion when one was needed was when swmbo foolishly over reached from the dinghy when approaching the 'mothership' (sic). Dinghy capsized, swmbo in water, LJ instantly inflated.

 

[maby]

Stood on a tender on Davits once to reach the belly straps. It twisted leaving me 8’ in the air looking at the bathing platform below, needless to say I did not stay 8’ up for very long.
Hit bathing platform, it was originally head first but turned head away, bounced and twisted, hit the water, life jacket went off and pinned me under the bathing platform with just a 3” air gap and slight waves continuously closing that gap.
It takes a bit of effort to push under to get out from the the bathing platform when the life jacket is holding you up

Interesting that you have experienced that! My concern about automatic lifejackets has never been that they would not inflate - as others have noted, they always have a manual override and, ultimately, you have the option of blowing them up via the mouth tube - so no less safe than a manual. There are circumstances where the fact that is has inflated is dangerous - I had not considered getting trapped under something like the swim platform, but it has always seemed to me that if the boat capsizes while you are inside it with an auto LJ on, you could be in trouble. That said, the number of circumstances under which you might find yourself trapped under water by an automatic LJ seems to be significantly less than the number of circumstances under which you might find yourself in open water, either unconscious or too seriously injured to inflate your manual LJ.