Sinking life buoy

[olliecook]

I have recently aquired a new sail boet (my first ) And the Life buoy doesn't float properly at all! Is there a certain specification they must pass or is this alright? Should I get a new one and if so what shall I look for? - Apart from one that is actually buoyant!

 

[franky]

Buy a new one and a dan buoy

 

[Anonymous]

If you buy one from a reputable chandler it should be fine. If you use dan buoy make sure that you and your crew can easily throw the buoys overboard easily without all the cordage getting snagged. Have a wander along marina pontoons and see just how many lifebuoys attached to dan buoys would take ages to untangle!

 

[MarkGrubb]

Consider adding a drogue to the life bouy, it will reduce the chances of it being blown out of reach of the MOB.

 

[orizaba]

totally agree about the drogue,i have one fitted to my danbuoy,its amazing how fast they can travel,i made it out of a bit of spare canvas

 

[William_H]

I think much depends on the size of boat and your personal needs.

The standard for ocean racing boats (at least in Oz) is for a life buoy to be available to throw to a man over board. The lifebuoy is then attached to a danbuoy which is a pole about 4 metres long with a weight on the bottom a float in the middle and a flag (and or light) on top. The purpose of the pole is make it easy to find the person who hopefully is in the lifebuoy when you finally get the boat turned around to pick him up. (losing sight of a MOB is a real problem.

However clearly this gear will be just to big for a tiny sailing boat (ie 20 fter) It is probably safer for all on a small boat to wear a life vest and to use a safety harness attached to strong point if conditions are rough. In the mildest of conditions you can have a lifebuoy available to throw to a MOB or you can just have an old lifejacket in the cockpit ready for such an occasion. Or as I do just hope they can swim.
Sorry that sounds terrible but you simply have to make a safety assessment for your self of what is appropriate. You consider where you are sailing what the weather is like and who your crew are.

I have had 2 MOB both not wearing lifejacket and no lifebouy. Because it was in sheltered warm waters there was no real harm done. But we do tend to wear lifejackets now. We use the buoyancy vest/ water ski jacket type as being comfortable to wear and easy to work /swim in.

I am not trying to tell you what safety gear you should have but just point out it has to be appropriate to the boat and type of sailing.

Good luck (and fill in your details on bio) olewill

 

[William_H]

I have had a few worries over night about my statements above. Safety equipment is there in case you need it and we could well say the more the better. And you would certainly be glad if you needed it and had it.

As in many things in life we can not be totally safe in what we provide and how we do things. Stay home and no boat is the safest.

What we need to do is to meet a duty of care in providing safety gear. One measure of duty of care is meet the same standards as any reasonable person in the same situation would do.

So if all the similar boats to yours in your area have life buoys and you don't then you may well be criticised. Likewise if you don't have guard wires, all wear life jackets and all wear safety harnesses.

My experience is that if a person is going MOB then you may be too slow to react to throw the thing to them. A fitted lifejacket is much better.

Anyway my previous statements were on what I do which is based on what everyone else does in our 35 strong racing fleet at east Fremantle Yacht Club. Because connditions in the enclosed waters are fairly calm and the water not killing cold only 2 boats have a lifebuoy attached when racing and only perhaps 6 crew of the entire fleet wear lifejackets and none wear a harness when working on foredeck. I would say everyone of the crews are confident swimmers. (that is an Australian thing)

However that doesn't mean that you should not carry and use this kind of MOB safety gear. Certainly cold water can incapacitate a person quickly as does heavy water proofs. So you must decide for your self. good luck olewill