Survival suits - popular amongst yachtmen?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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So, that's been a century's worth of Titanic adaptations, all shown within the same 36 hours...

...I still can't help thinking (as I have since I first saw A Night to Remember), that whenever I go any distance aboard any ship in any weather, I'll make certain my wetsuit is in my luggage. I reckon the prospect of being frozen, is at least as bad as drowning.

Sailing a yacht offshore (or anywhere in cold seasons), one would want to have a liferaft or tender, if the worst happened...

...but if just getting as far as the tender may mean a dunking in debilitating single-figure temperature water, isn't a 'survival suit' a reassuring bit of kit? Isn't it actually rather basic equipment?

I know yachts rarely sink - but whether one falls o/b, escapes as one's boat is flattened by shipping, or collides unsurvivably with a mid-Atlantic submerged container - my impression is that in these lifejacketed days, hypothermia kills more mariners than drowning.

On the internet, I found lots of very expensive oil-rig workers' suits, mostly over £600. Are there any in use, by forumites?
 
I use a two piece suit for winter racing - its better insulated than anything else I have tried. But if I were as concerned about safety / survival as you seem to be, I would not go sailing anyway.
 
Hmm...I thought so too and got a surplus neoprene one off Ebay for £35 ages ago. It has integral mitts and boots with a tight fitting hood. To be honest, it takes a bit of getting into but if I was contemplating using it in anger I suspect that motivation levels would be high.

I also have a Mullion X4 suit for working in 'orrible weather on commercial vessels/rigs. I have never used it sailing but it would be very warm and dry in the winter. Its very much like the angler type floatation suits but in safety orange.

There are ex-RAF drysuit type immersion suits on ebay and the other non-neoprene membrane survival suits too. Both are likely to be easier to get into and I remember trying the latter once and it was much easier to don.

If I was venturing offshore I think that I'd have one with me + a liferaft as its exposure that is going to get you if you do have to get into the thing.

Lets face it though, what really is the risk of needing one when pottering around the coast? Anyone want to buy a use survival suit? :-)
 
Stavros carries a one-size-fits-all neoprene immersion suit for every person on board, and finds an unwitting victim to put one on by way of demonstration at the start of each voyage. It seems such a no-brainer for serious survival - if I went a bit further afield than I do, I'd definitely put something of that nature on board. No room on my little boat though, and not really much need.

Pete
 
So, yes or no? You've got them, but no-one seems to be totally convinced...
I've had two memorable experiences - the first on a sailing dinghy,single-handed, when I kept on capsizing due to the weather conditions, and eventually didn't have the strength to right the boat, so just hung on to the hull and gradually slipped into cozy, letharic, comfortable, sleepieness.
Luckily, I was noticed and towed ashore.
The second was again single-handed in my first keelboat (a corribee). The weather began to worsen and I remember arguing with myself as to whether I should have a lifejacket or any other prolonging device or should just make it quick should anything go wrong. If I'd had a problem, there was no way of raising the alarm, so nobody would get to me even in the increased window that these devices/suits provide.
Possibly if you go the whole way and always wear a survival suit with an Epirb embedded, some good spirited soul will come looking for you - but don't hold your breath.
If you're not prepared to get skint knees, don't buy roller skates.
 
dancrane said:
...I'll make certain my wetsuit is in my luggage...
isn't a 'survival suit' a reassuring bit of kit?...
Click to expand...
What are the odds of you wearing your wet/survival suit when your boat is run down ? I'm guessing you won't be wearing it off watch since the first thing we do on going below is taking off our oilys. If swept overboard in view of another crew member than possibly a survival suit would be the thing but I doubt many yachtsmen would put a wetsuit on after the first couple of times...

Boo2
 
Boo2 said:
What are the odds of you wearing your wet/survival suit when your boat is run down ? I'm guessing you won't be wearing it off watch since the first thing we do on going below is taking off our oilys.
Click to expand...

I got the impression he was talking about going on a cruise ship or a ferry, not a yacht. Which makes an even more hilarious picture - the slightest bump or change of engine note, and Dan's running up and down the corridors in his rubber goon-suit :D

Pete
 
Have 2 x ex oil rig survival suits on board. They were offered to me gratis so seemed like a no brainer. They're a serious bit of kit and I doubt I would ordinarily justify buying them. They take up quite a lot of space - which is why i only have 2, not the eight i was ofered! But good to know they are there if required.
 
Simondjuk said:
They probably do a fetish cruise where he'd blend in.
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...and Pete...

Dan's running up and down the corridors in his rubber goon-suit. :D:D:D

Very comic. I guess I'd keep the wetsuit in my travel-bag, for occasions like Titanic's much-reviewed, grimly inevitable fate, where the two hours between the collision and descent into iced water, would give me almost enough time to shoehorn myself inside the suit. :rolleyes:

Clearly I've lost my mind, hearing the Titanic story, every day for weeks. Although, my wetsuit does fold down very small...

Hmm. Considering my own relentlessly cavalier disregard for ordinary good sense hitherto, I'm surprised by any inference that I haven't the elementary nerve required for unsupported adventuring like sailing...

Bosun Higgs said:
...if I were as concerned about safety / survival as you seem to be, I would not go sailing anyway.
Click to expand...

...but isn't it basic to almost any amateur pursuit, that one primarily aims to have fun, then return alive? And, if one goes sailing offshore and beyond rapid, reliable succour, isn't protection from exposure at least as worthwhile taking care of, as staying afloat?

I mean, we don't buy lifejackets with the expectation of giving them use. But who would want to risk abandoning ship without one?
 
dancrane said:
. . . . but if just getting as far as the tender may mean a dunking in debilitating single-figure temperature water, isn't a 'survival suit' a reassuring bit of kit? Isn't it actually rather basic equipment? . . . . . . .
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You legally require 3 suits (TPA's) if sailing in Portuguese waters and the certainly like to check everything if you get stopped. Not having them can be reason to be fined and told to report ashore until you comply!
 
Umm, I'm sure ought to know, but I can't recall...TPAs?

Tissue Plasminogen Activators? The blood-clot treatment? Wow! Those Portuguese like to cover everything! :rolleyes:
 
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Thank you Lenseman. I was being facetious, but I really didn't know. Ought to have been obvious though, really.

I was reading yesterday, how tough the Portuguese are about pyrotechnics...not that they're forbidden - they're compulsory!

I must make sure my survival suit is equipped with a selection. :rolleyes:

I daresay it was under the influence of the Titanic-overdose this weekend, but watching A Night to Remember today, SWMBO and I began picturing methods by which one might have stayed dry, long enough for the Carpathia to arrive...

...we decided on calm seas, a very large soup pan, pilfered from the galley, might have done it. Might have made Sable Island. ;)
 
wetsuit

Good wetsuit

Cheaper

Warmer

Very flexible

Easy to wear when sailing

Can be worn under regular sailing outer layer

Folds up v.small for storage

Can be put in grab bag

Doubles as something you can wear for a recreational swimming/beach trips also.
 
I had one as part of the inventory for my mini. A Guy Cotten one (although I think there are some made for fishermen that are cheaper). Tried it on once or twice (ashore, just to practice). I got very warm very quickly. Not the kind of thing I would like to wear normally. I would have only put it on in extremely extreme conditions.

Note also that, although a TPS (thermal protection suit) has integral bouyancy, I would not put one on without also putting on a lifejacket. Because the bouyancy is also in the legs, and if there is any air trapped inside the suit you can become very stable - inverted. Sadly one of the skippers for last year's mini transat was lost while delivering his boat to the start. He was found in the water, drowned, with his survival suit on just a few hours after he went OB. That tells me that you have to wear a lifejacket (and sprayhood) if you are going to wear a survival suit.

My preference is to wear a goretex drysuit + lifejacket (again, the drysuit can trap air in the feet). It won't give as much thermal protection as a TPS, but you can wear it all the time (with appropriate layers underneath) and replaces oilies.
 
I was off on a November cruise with pals on a charted yacht out of the Clyde some 10 years ago, across to Isle of Man, then Belfast, then back. Just 5 old farts having some offshore experience and getting B' cold!
The next year for some unknown reason we decided to do similar, but this time I was armed to the teeth with gear.
One of the things I bought was a divers inner thermal suit, the sort of thing deep sea divers wear under their dry suits.
I was too hot even when ice was forming on our rig!
 
dancrane said:
...I still can't help thinking (as I have since I first saw A Night to Remember), that whenever I go any distance aboard any ship in any weather, I'll make certain my wetsuit is in my luggage. I reckon the prospect of being frozen, is at least as bad as drowning.
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I think you will find that almost all people who go aboard cruise ships neither drown nor freeze. You are probably much more likely to suffer a heart attack or slip and fall.

Personally, carrying a wetsuit for an event that is almost certain NOT to happen would annoy me no end. You can think of all kinds of things you could carry for unlikely events - e.g. defibrillator. I guess it is up to you to consider what level of safety you feel comfortable with.
 
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