What procedures do you follow with lifejackets when you have a crew?

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Polly1

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The most lax I have been was on my first trip from Langkawi to Singapore with a delivery skipper. We wore no lifejackets and often I would sit on the deck out of the cockpit on my watch at night keeping a lookout, looking at the stars etc. If I had fallen off no one would know as the other two were asleep below.
I have a 40ft ketch with a deep and secure center cockpit that I cant imagine it is possible to fall out of except in extreme situations.
For a trip next week with one crew I was thinking of going for lifejackets on when out of the cockpit and let the other person who is off watch know if you leave the cockpit. I have some clip on safety lines that I have not used so far, for them I would use them for sail handling in weather that looks like you might lose your footing and I am aware from reading on here of the problems with lines with too much slack.
In addition practise the man overboard drill and keep the boarding ladder accessible
I was wondering what rules other followed when sailing with a crew
 
Our general practice is:

Always at night (and hooked on regardless of weather and whether in cockpit or not)
Always when using tender.
Usually on as soon as we start putting reefs in.

Bright sunny warm day with warm sea temperatures and lots of people on deck, we don’t bother with life jackets on at all. (But on our boat there’s a dinghy on davits with outboard on and ready to launch at all times)
 
Lifejackets optional unless the skipper says otherwise, in which case there are no options. I tend to wear one as soon as the decks start getting wet and tilty.

It's not a cavalier attitude towards safety, but sometimes with inexperienced crew it is important that they learn one hand for yourself and one for the boat, so that it becomes automatic, rather like having three points of contact when climbing. Wearing a lifejacket is not a magic device to stop you falling overboard.
 
Much the same as Sarabande. Whilst it's just the two of us in the Med, life jackets are usually not worn except at night, when we also clip into the cockpit. Third reef going in is usually the time for them by ourselves, second reef if we have visitors.
In UK waters we tend to wear them most of the time as survivablity in the colder waters is markedly improved with them. Also, our UK boat is tiny and much easier to fall out of increasing the risk, so it all makes much more sense.
 
We always wear lifejackets when under way.

The helm on my boat is a safe place but if the helmsman has to go to help the crew in an emergency it would waste valuable seconds if first having to put on a lifejacket.

I heard of an incident where an engine caught fire - but due to the fire the life jackets were inaccessible in a locker under a bed and useless.

I often see people not wearing life jackets on the river while carrying out crew duties going through locks - which is bonkers . The river possibly presents more hazards than the sea.

One time a boat came in to a pontoon along side me and the skipper jumped off but missed the pontoon and went in. He had removed his life jacket as he thought the need for it had passed.

On the same basis would you put a seatbelt on in a car only when you see an enhanced risk of an accident ?
 
Adults generally wear lifejackets out of the cabin when under way, out of the cockpit when moored or anchored.

Children always wear lifejackets out of the cabin, and tie on when we're under way.
 
Agree with sarabande. I tell crew that there are 2 rules about when they wear life jackets. 1) whenever they want to. 2) whenever I tell them to.

When I (or we) are not wearing them, they are always kept immediately to hand tucked under the spray hood.
 
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MartynG said:
On the same basis would you put a seatbelt on in a car only when you see an enhanced risk of an accident ?
Click to expand...

I can understand, and support why people might wish to wear LJs all the time, but there in a similar way there is a counter-advantage to wearing seat belts and having multiple airbags in a car. They imbue the driver with a sense that because s/he is "protected", then axiomatically that protection extends to doing silly things with speeding and overtaking.

Mitigating the risks on board is not just a matter of putting on a LJ and tether. The earlier stages of controlling the risks include not getting into a tricksy situation to start with, and that means developing habits of familiarity with handholds around the boat, knowing where the trip hazards (e.g. pad eyes, genoa track) are, and making very sure that you brachiate like a monkey around the deck with only one your four contact points (hands and feet) free at any one time. Add a tether, or sit or kneel, and you can use two hands.

But if a crew member wants to use a LJ all the time, as skipper I am happy with that.

Same with having an anchor on deck ready to deploy. There may be times - in transit across the Channel for instance - when having an anchor on deck can in fact increase the hazard for crew, so the anchor goes below. But within harbour limits, one may need to stop and hold position, so the anchor gets repositioned to the foredeck.
 
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Standing orders on my boats.

Life jackets always worn except down below.
Clip on in the cockpit at night.
If there’s a need to go forward then one other in the cockpit, even if that means waking someone up.
No peeing over the side.
No alcohol unless moored up.
No wearing daypacks or rucksacks in the dinghy.
 
Rarely during the day except when rough and out of the cockpit. LJs would really spoil the fun of a good sail for us and be terrible for tan lines.
Person on watch to stay in the cockpit if there is nobody up with them
Always at night, even in the cockpit
Never in the tender

Guests and their children to wear them when we do and as often as they like when we are not.

This is really about harnesses rather than life jackets but half of ours are combined. The pure life jackets have never ever been worn but are accessible in each cabin.
 
I can't say I'm there yet, but I'm trying to get to where putting on my LJ is as automatic as putting on my seat belt. As for passengers, (I tend not to have any crew apart from the Admiral), it's wear it if you're out of the cockpit at sea, if you want to, or if I say so. It's more important for me to have my jacket, with lifeline attached, on because if something goes pear shaped, I'm the one who'll have to leap around on the foredeck or at the mast to sort it out. If passengers are having to get out of the cockpit, we're either alongside, at anchor or we're sinking.

Part of the briefing is stolen from someone here, "This is a lifeline, it will keep you from going over the side. This is a lifejacket, it will help the lifeboat recover your body if you do."
 
If my wife is aboard, (she usually is) they are worn under way and in the dinghy. If she is not there common sense is applied.
 
I'm sure the practical issues will all be mentioned by others but here's a couple of psychological ones I consider important.

Up there at the top of my priority list with the crew being safe is the crew *feeling* safe. If things get bad you want your crew to still work together and an important part of them not freezing up is having confidence that their skipper will keep them safe. For a less experienced crew, insisting on lifejackets being worn whenever people might think lifejackets *ought* to be worn and leading by example is a visible statement that we are part of a safety-first culture. What I'll do re: lifejackets with a novice crew and what I'll do if it's just me and an experienced sailing pal are completely different things and not because I think the novices are more likely to fall in (they're probably less likely).

Another thing is about my comfort level. A freak accident where a crew member is knocked unconscious and goes in the water on a calm day may have a ridiculously low probability but the probability that I will *worry* about it happening and it being my fault that I hadn't insisted they wear a lifejacket is close to 1. So insisting on lifejackets (and by necessity, leading by example) when I personally don't see the risk as being that great gives me one thing fewer to worry about
 
john_morris_uk said:
Our general practice is:

Always at night (and hooked on regardless of weather and whether in cockpit or not)
Always when using tender.
Usually on as soon as we start putting reefs in.

Bright sunny warm day with warm sea temperatures and lots of people on deck, we don’t bother with life jackets on at all. (But on our boat there’s a dinghy on davits with outboard on and ready to launch at all times)
Click to expand...

Same here - though in the unlikely event children are aboard they should have LJ's on all the time; as should dogs.

If novices feel happier with a LJ on even in good conditions they're welcome, modern ones are compact enough not to be cumbersome.

As well as showing how they work - auto, manual pull if that didn't work, oral as last resort - I always make a point of showing people how to DEFLATE them as well using the tab on the mouthpiece cap, in case things go pear shaped and they end up trapped under something - this part often seems neglected to me.
 
I suspect that those who say ‘lifejacket always on outside the cabin’ don’t sail in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. Drifting about in the bay of Palma trying to catch the sea breeze as it builds? You’d look and feel a fool wearing a life jacket. Same bay in 30 knots and I’d be lj on and reaching to clip on before I climbed out of the companionway. (Been there for both situations)

In UK waters where sea water temperature quite often reduces survival times dramatically, I can understand why some people say lj’s always on. In other areas, it doesn’t make quite as much sense as the risks are dramatically different.
 
RupertW said:
Rarely during the day except when rough and out of the cockpit. LJs would really spoil the fun of a good sail for us and be terrible for tan lines.
Person on watch to stay in the cockpit if there is nobody up with them
Always at night, even in the cockpit
Never in the tender

Guests and their children to wear them when we do and as often as they like when we are not.

This is really about harnesses rather than life jackets but half of ours are combined. The pure life jackets have never ever been worn but are accessible in each cabin.
Click to expand...

We're exactly the same as Rupert, although we don't do "tippy" so very little chance of anyone going overboard unless conditions are biblical. :)

Richard
 
Depends on the crew, anybody under 18 or is inexperienced/of a nervous disposition is welded into a LJ as soon as they step onboard.

Otherwise, at night (tethered) or when I say so.
 
Have centre cockpit with all lines led aft and must be 3 or 4 years since we've had conditions warranting life jackets at sea. They're there if visitors want one, I try to insist non swimmers wear one particularly in tender but we don't unless particularly rough. With temperatures in the 30s ljs would be very uncomfortable daily wear.
 
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