Taking your Lifejacket on a ferry

Tintin said:
I had a huge row at Plymouth Brittany Ferries 9 years ago about this, going off to do a delivery as a foot passenger. The manager got very upset when I filmed him trying to reply to my question "so, if Ive got this correct, you are prohibiting me from bringing a life jacket onto your boat?"

They allowed me and my crew to travel eventually, but I got a letter a few weeks after from the port ops manager saying I was no longer welcome on Brittany Ferries....
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I my experience (both personal and professional) Brittany Ferries can be a very odd bunch indeed.

...it's not just you!
 
seeSimon said:
I my experience (both personal and professional) Brittany Ferries can be a very odd bunch indeed.

...it's not just you!
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For completeness I’ll confess my experience was with Brittany Ferries.

Apart from the incident I’ve described (which to be fair to them was resolved reasonably quickly when the manager appeared) I thought the Brittany Ferry service was excellent. The food on board was well presented and very good and my cabin was comfortable and there was everything on board that one would need. I didn’t take advantage of the spa/nail bar/massage/well-being clinic. They even had a live band playing in one of the main bars.
 
rogerthebodger said:
I cannot understand why a CO2 life jacket would be dangerous on a ferry. On an airplane yes. I took my dive buoyancy aid in the cabin for a flight to Perth then on to Melbourn and Great Barrier reef with no issues
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Bear in mind, every seat on the plane already has a lifejacket stashed nearby, complete with CO2 cartridge.
 
rogerthebodger said:
I cannot understand why a CO2 life jacket would be dangerous on a ferry. On an airplane yes. I took my dive buoyancy aid in the cabin for a flight to Perth then on to Melbourn and Great Barrier reef with no issues
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A BCD is just an inflatable bag, there isn't normally any compressed gas cylinder until you connect it to your breathing air cylinder.

Nothing of interest to an airline as it's just a plastic waistcoat.

Compressed gases are considered dangerous goods by airlines and IATA detail limits, packing methods etc.
 
justanothersailboat said:
Ryanair? Oxygen's extra!

Objecting to lifejackets on a (ferry) boat seems crazy and awful to me and is clearly a bit of a problem in some sailing one-way trip scenarios. But I wonder if there is a sort-of-not-crazy-if-you-squint-hard-enough reason: maybe they're worried about nervous, panicky passengers doing something unexpected, maybe during a real emergency, and finding some way to make it worse. An unlikely event, but I imagine it features more prominently in their safety planning than one-way trips by yacht crew.

(In the same way as I bet airlines won't be thrilled if a nervous flier has a parachute in a cabin bag... then again, they might think you're a D B Cooper wannabe. That could be worse)
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Most airlines are used to travelling skydivers carrying their equipment in hand luggage and allow it.
 
We took a liferaft, us travelling as foot passengers, on a Lymington-Yarmouth ferry. Maybe it helped that most of the crew knew me a bit, but minimal drama. We put it on the car deck, in one of their triangular spaces unsuited to cars.
 
To be fair, they do mention this on their website:
Only passengers travelling by vehicle can transport self-inflating lifejackets and flares and must declare the fact when making their reservation. A maximum of 6 self-inflating lifejackets; 6 handheld flares; 4 parachute flares and 2 smoke floats for use in leisure craft only and within test date may be carried.

Self-inflating life rafts packed in strong rigid outer packaging with a total maximum gross weight of 40kg containing no dangerous goods other than class 2.2 compressed or liquefied gas with no subsidiary risk in receptacles with a capacity not exceeding 120ml & installed solely for the purpose of the activation of the appliance.
(Brittany Ferries)
 
Stemar said:
Out of interest, is there any reason why a yottie shouldn't use his own LJ in preference to the bulky things provided by ferry companies in an emergency?
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I can think of a few:
You're abandoning ship, and some other passenger starts going on about why that person has a different LJ and how they want one and so on. Not what you need from the ship's side when things are going sub-optimal.

Second, the ship is liable for your safety. If you relied on your kit and it failed, then Q1 to the ship would be why they allowed this. Doubly so if this caused you to no longer be around.
 
DFL1010 said:
I can think of a few:
You're abandoning ship, and some other passenger starts going on about why that person has a different LJ and how they want one and so on. Not what you need from the ship's side when things are going sub-optimal.

Second, the ship is liable for your safety. If you relied on your kit and it failed, then Q1 to the ship would be why they allowed this. Doubly so if this caused you to no longer be around.
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Thirdly, the reason commercial outfits use foam lifejackets rather than inflatable is that they are much more robust.
When I did my sea survival courses I was told that if available, a foam lifejacket was safer because it can't get punctured.
 
Sea Change said:
Thirdly, the reason commercial outfits use foam lifejackets rather than inflatable is that they are much more robust.
When I did my sea survival courses I was told that if available, a foam lifejacket was safer because it can't get punctured.
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Indeed so. If using an MES I'd rather be in an oldschool wheelmark LJ than a spinlock.

Also, if jumping from a great height (Hopefully unlikely for a passenger, but part of the sea survival course I did as a cadet) you'll go a ways underwater before resurfacing (one hopes). That deep there's a nonzero chance of the inflatable popping/leaking, whereas foam won't.
 
Agree about foam life jackets. My first life jacket (as a novice to sailing) purchase was from Compass (do they still exist? EU company if I recall) was foam.

I have two taking up space I wish to sell. Still in mint condition.

A rinse off is all that is required virtually for maintenance.

No cylinders, cylinder puncture methods (Hammer or disolvable pill).

Imagine a ferry and the Human Resources needed to check the automatic inflation life jackets many sailors use.
 
capnsensible said:
20 or more years ago, along with 2 crew, I delivered a yacht from Gosport to Le Havre. Bit grim weather so as well as foulies, I took a 4 man liferaft off of one of our yachts. All prudent, really.

We came back on the ferry. Which was delayed quite a bit marooning us, our kit and the liferaft in the ferry terminal bar. I think that we were the only ones who found this amusing when we finally boarded and had to put the raft in their small sickbay.

Being roughy toughy sailors, the voyage back was, well, in the bar. Portsmouth didn't give us the kindest of welcome homes.....
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They often have a real problem with rafts because they usually have flares stowed inside. I was advised by the vendor to, "put a blanket over it", when taking a new raft from London to the IoW..
 
Bouba said:
I suppose it’s how you look at things.....for example, nobody here would think it’s good if a bunch of revellers were onboard setting off flares.....or if someone took a CO2 cylinder on a flight...
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Parachute on a flight might be a better analogy. I imagine they would look at the rest of your luggage quite carefully.
 
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