SLAS - Aloof yachties?

[Pye_End]

I would have thought that the longer you just float there in your life jacket doing nothing the more body heat you would dissipate into the water.
Another no brainer.

Swimming in cold water means cold gets pumped to your vital organs that much quicker.

Last thing I wanted was to fall overboard on my alone watch with a lifejacket on watching the boat sail away. I'd rather go straight down.

Wearing a lifejacket, unsuccessfully, does have the benefit of a much better chance of your body being found, and the legalities of your estate can then be processed.

 

[penberth3]

...Wearing a lifejacket, unsuccessfully, does have the benefit of a much better chance of your body being found, and the legalities of your estate can then be processed.

If it comes that a LJ won't stay inflated long enough to make any difference. Also likely to slip off a body.

 

[ylop]

If it comes that a LJ won't stay inflated long enough to make any difference. Also likely to slip off a body.

?? A correctly fitted lifejacket will not slip off a body. Its possible that a poorly fitted one will not be effective enough to keep your airway above the water once unconscious but it would need to be attrocoiously fitted for you to actually fall completely out of it.

Survival times in water are estimated at 2-7 h for UK sea water temps. A lifejacket should be tested to remain inflated for at least 24h, and realistically they don't spontaneously fail at 24h, so if professional SAR assets are searching for you in the right area and you have an inflated lifejacket they should find your body.

 

[Juan Twothree]

If it comes that a LJ won't stay inflated long enough to make any difference. Also likely to slip off a body.

Sounds like you need a new lifejacket.
And tuition on how to wear it

 

[Stemar]

Someone here several years ago quoted his safety briefing:

"This is a lifeline. Clipped on correctly, it will save you from going overboard. This is a lifejacket. It will help the authorities recover your body if you do go overboard."

A bit of an exaggeration, but... Even on our cat, Madame won't let me out of the cockpit without being clipped on, and she's right. I've never needed the lifejacket, so far, but once is once too many.

Incidentally, I've just replaced our 20-year-old LJs, not because they needed it, just because they're 20 years old. Every winter, they got checked and test inflated. A few years ago, I had one that was a bit soft after 24 hrs. It was cut up so it couldn't be reused, and binned. The others stayed up perfectly, and there's no way they'd come off.

 

[johnalison]

I have to admit that we weren’t very good about safety when we were younger, and I was probably quite happy messing around on the foredeck handling the spinnaker on our 26’ without clips or lifejacket. In later years, when we cruised further, our usual routine was to clip on in the cockpit when we took a reef, and in my last years a LJ at all times.

 

[Stemar]

I have to admit that we weren’t very good about safety when we were younger, and I was probably quite happy messing around on the foredeck handling the spinnaker on our 26’ without clips or lifejacket. In later years, when we cruised further, our usual routine was to clip on in the cockpit when we took a reef, and in my last years a LJ at all times.

Nor me, but we're trying, not always successfully, to get into the habit of putting our LJs on just the same as we put seat belts on in the car.

Of course, the LJs live on the boat, so I don't have one when I'm most likely to need it, getting from the dinghy to the boat, and that's also the time I'm on my own, as Madame is waiting on the pontoon to take my lines Maybe I need to revisit that...

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Nor me, but we're trying, not always successfully, to get into the habit of putting our LJs on just the same as we put seat belts on in the car.

Of course, the LJs live on the boat, so I don't have one when I'm most likely to need it, getting from the dinghy to the boat, and that's also the time I'm on my own, as Madame is waiting on the pontoon to take my lines Maybe I need to revisit that...

We wear buoyancy aids in the tender in harbour. That makes us take them with us to wear paddleboarding.

 

[shanemax]

The advice from the experts is it is generally best to float and conserve energy rather than swim! Now every situation is different 100m from shore at dusk with minimal wind and waves, and nobody knowing where you are swimming might be your best bet but 500m from shore in an gentle offshore breeze and I wouldn’t bank on many forumites swimming long enough to get rescued/self rescue.

Best do nothing, Then you can have your lifeless body recovered from the water at first light the following day.

 

[Juan Twothree]

Best do nothing, Then you can have your lifeless body recovered from the water at first light the following day.

If you have a PLB on your lifejacket, then not only will it alert the CG that you need assistance, but the lifeboat and/or helicopter will be able to find you more quickly, hopefully while you're still alive

 

[Aardee]

But where are you swimming TO ? You won't catch the boat. Shore? Obviously depending how close it is, how easy to get out, etc. Assuming you survive the cold shock and are a good enough swimmer, you might make it ashore, but its always seemed a no brainer to me that having the option to hang around in my lifejacket and get rescued, or deflate it and swim and reinflate if tired, might be a better option. I'm not a particularly great swimmer, though and my local waters might be less hospitable than yours - certainly shorts and t-shirt are far from common. I'm not telling you that you are wrong; I just find it odd that you would view anyone wearing a lifejacket as overprepared. I am sure more sailors drown close to shore than in the middle of the ocean...

At work I have to wear a lifejacket when out on the pontoons, them's the rules. We all do regular cold water survival training which includes swimming/ paddling to the nearest point of egress and hauling yourself out using a lanyard. I agree if you go overboard miles from shore swimming may be pretty pointless, but there's definitely value in learning to move around and recover yourself if you fall in a marina or harbour.

 

[Stemar]

there's definitely value in learning to move around and recover yourself if you fall in a marina or harbour.

Which, for most sailors, is the most likely place to find ourselves taking an unscheduled swim, and for boats on a mooring, it's getting on and off our tenders. Which happen to be the times we're least likely to be wearing our LJ.

 

[awol]

Wearing a lifejacket, unsuccessfully, does have the benefit of a much better chance of your body being found, and the legalities of your estate can then be processed.

AIUI it takes 7 years from disappearance to death being declared. For all the old farts on here that is 7 years full pension for your partner before it gets reduced to survivor status. Enduring Power of Attorney, access to bank accounts both require a degree of trust (both ways!) but make the minutiae of life easy to follow,
This advice is not to be relied on!

 

[ylop]

At work I have to wear a lifejacket when out on the pontoons, them's the rules. We all do regular cold water survival training which includes swimming/ paddling to the nearest point of egress and hauling yourself out using a lanyard. I agree if you go overboard miles from shore swimming may be pretty pointless, but there's definitely value in learning to move around and recover yourself if you fall in a marina or harbour.

Certainly not in dispute. Having gone for such an unplanned swim with a life jacket on it is a mixed blesssing. Hard to manoeuvre in but gives you time to compose yourself and work out a plan without focussing on immediate survival. You can let air out, and can reinflate if you decide that didn’t work.