Wearing Lifejackets Whilst Sailing

[Ubergeekian]

Disagree - the risk of an RTA on the way to the boat is probably higher.
(q.v. air transport)

In the case of air travel, that's a myth: you're about five times as likely to die on the plane as in your car.

It may be a myth for yachting too. There are about 50 casualties per 100 million vehicle miles (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1208) and about one in five of these are fatalities. That's about 1 death per 10 million vehicle kilometres - to do which you would have to drive 30 miles each way to your boat every weekend for 2 million years.

So the question is ... is the death rate for yachting more or less than one per two million participants per year? My guess is that it's around that, and probably a wee bit higher.

All that's really beside the point, though, since I was writing about hazards on the boat. The biggest hazard on a sailing boat is being hit by the boom: wearing hard hats when sailing would prevent more injuries and probably save more lives than wearing lifejackets at all times...

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

Quote from Jamesuk: " I have my SEXY Spinlock Deckvest and to enable me to look cool and kitted out I wear it, most of the time and have my Sexy black double clipped tether to hand for those upwind sail changes."

How sad is that!!!!!!!

 

[Rosey]

Heavy and uncomfortable!

Really what a lots of pussies some of you are, I am 8stone dripping wet but still manage to wear a normal 150N lifejacket with harness (have an offshore one too) and I do leave the cockpit regularly, despite my size I get no special treatment if a job needs doing....... Surely most of you chaps must find the lifejacket light and easy to wear by comparison.
My skipper allows me to wear or not wear a LJ but we all wear them all the time. As stated 20hours, may be long time in the water but gives more time for a rescue than 4 does. My biggest fear is drowning..........and I shiver when anyone mentions the Ouzo BUT I would still prefer to wear a LJ and harness than not, my choice!

 

[photodog]

"
Ah yes, I remember it well, including the seriously presented argument that it was safer to be thrown clear during a collision, than it was to be strapped into a collapsing metal box.

This still presists in many people back home... and I have a friend who I worked with in Canada who believed this... one day he was tootling along in his large american car when he lost control and flipped it over a considerble number of times...

Afterwards, he relateed the story to me and the one thing that kept going through his mind as the car was rolling over and over... was that he wished he had had his seatbelt on.

I suspect that if I fell off my boat, and I wasnt wearing my lifejacket... my thinking would not be dissimilar.

 

[mcframe]

Well, yes

This still presists in many people back home... and I have a friend who I worked with in Canada who believed this... one day he was tootling along in his large american car when he lost control and flipped it over a considerble number of times...

Afterwards, he relateed the story to me and the one thing that kept going through his mind as the car was rolling over and over... was that he wished he had had his seatbelt on.

I suspect that if I fell off my boat, and I wasnt wearing my lifejacket... my thinking would not be dissimilar.

I'd rather be on the boat wishing I wasn't wearing it, than off the boat wishing I was....

 

[Mrs Sea Mist II]

Buffers?

- W

Hooters

 

[Stemar]

"All that's really beside the point, though, since I was writing about hazards on the boat. The biggest hazard on a sailing boat is being hit by the boom: wearing hard hats when sailing would prevent more injuries and probably save more lives than wearing life jackets at all times.."

I read an article a few years ago about wearing helmets, probably on dinghies, but not certain. The RYA (I think) made some courses wear helmets while others didn't, to gather evidence about the improved safety. They were surprised to find that there was a clear correlation between wearing a helmet and having accidents. It was safer not to wear a helmet (unless you're the unlucky sod who demonstrates that it's called a boom after the noise it makes when it thumps you behind the ear)

 

[webcraft]

Hooters

Parp Parp!

- W

 

[Mariner69]

LJ Safety

Since this thread is about safety, allow me to make one point.

I fitted crotch straps to my inflatable life jacket.

Clipping the straps on and adjusting the tightness whilst sitting down was not my finest moment.

All was so hunky dory until I stood up... being male it took me some time to recover my breath and composure!!!!

 

[ksutton]

The biggest hazard on a sailing boat is being hit by the boom: wearing hard hats when sailing would prevent more injuries and probably save more lives than wearing lifejackets at all times...

Disagree, most hazardous on a yacht is being on the coach-roof, possibly near the mast, loosing your balance, slipping and going uncontrollably over the top of the guard rails.
Also embarking and disembarking yacht from and to your tender.

 

[Ubergeekian]

Disagree, most hazardous on a yacht is being on the coach-roof, possibly near the mast, loosing your balance, slipping and going uncontrollably over the top of the guard rails.
Also embarking and disembarking yacht from and to your tender.

These things may happen more often, but I suspect booms cause more injuries. Anyway, I was careful to say "on sailing boats" ... lots more people get hit by the boom in Wayfarers than fall off the coachroof!

 

[blackdogsailing]

As for Rivonia's scenario - anyone who leaves their loved one on the helm on their own at night with no harness should not be in charge of a yacht. - W

Is that in your humble opinion ? I just showed your post to the other half who had a right laugh. We have done ( double handed ) 2 trans meds, 2 U.S. to the Caribbean, 1 Azores to UK plus many more and cannot remember 1 occassion when we wore a harness at night unless the conditions were bad. Admittedly they were on biggish boats ( 52 to 68 feet ) but neither of us feel the need. Our choice. Guess I better give up my yacht then.

Chris

 

[TradewindSailor]

I hope the day doesn't come when the way we choose to live our lives are effected by bureaucrats making laws to protect the incompetent.

But then again, that's why I have left the UK for more sensible areas of the world where people are responsible for their own welfare and care about their neighbours.

When I was last in the UK there was talk of incorporating fall arresters on ladders, and preventing homeowners from working on the home electrics ...... has that come to pass?