Which lifejacket has room for a PLB, miniflares, light, knife etc?

[Dockhead]

I think you might be asking too much from the lifejacket.

+1

I have a 275 Newton Seago lifejacket (this one: http://www.jimmygreen.co.uk/item/506/seago-275n-pacific-plus-lifejackets), which is ok, no complaints, reasonably comfortable and rugged-seeming, although newer designs may be more ergonomic.

I keep a PLB, diver's torch, and rescue knife in its fairly voluminous pockets, but there's no way you could get any of the current crop of DSC VHF handhelds in there.

I would also like to have a DSC VHF handheld on my person -- would be a super rescue tool -- but with their great bulk I just don't think that's realistic. My Standard Horizon HX851 also has very poor battery life and query whether I would realistically be able to keep it charged if it were on my person rather than in its charging stand.

You might consider and AIS MOB rescue beacon instead -- I am.

 

[Dockhead]

This would need the lifejacket to have a fair amount of empty space inside the outer cover ( the zipped/velcroed one which rips open on inflation).

It would also require adaptable straps pre-fitted to the bladder to attach my stuff.

However, all models have a very tight fitting outer cover, which allows no room for user fitted stuff to be added. They seem to care more about looking 'compact' in the shop, or perhaps not obstructing movement, fair enough but I would like the comforting bulge of my emergency gear a lot more. (thinking offshore singlehanded)

Any straps on the bladder would have to expand as much as the bladder, be firm enough to stay in place, yet not so firm as to interfere with inflation. Seems like a tall order, maybe impossible.

If I were you, I would carry my kit in a waist bag, or resign yourself to reaching around for it in the pockets of the cover of your lifejacket.

Another thing to think about -- wherever you keep that stuff, however easy or difficult it is to reach it, remember how easy it will be for it to slip through your fingers when you're in a MOB situation. Every single item in the pockets of my lifejacket is fixed with a lanyard.

 

[Dockhead]

P.S. -- a bit of thread drift, but a PLB should not be considered a likely method of getting rescued in case of a MOB, at least not in the frigid waters around Britain. It takes a long, long time for the message to get through the system.

In my opinion, the right place for a PLB is lanyarded onto your person, and it has a huge advantage over an EPIRB in that you are much less likely to lose it or forget to take it with you when getting into the liferaft. But don't count on it to get you rescued in case you go overboard. In that situation, a PLB should be better considered a CLB or Corpse Locator Beacon.

 

[maby]

P.S. -- a bit of thread drift, but a PLB should not be considered a likely method of getting rescued in case of a MOB, at least not in the frigid waters around Britain. It takes a long, long time for the message to get through the system.

In my opinion, the right place for a PLB is lanyarded onto your person, and it has a huge advantage over an EPIRB in that you are much less likely to lose it or forget to take it with you when getting into the liferaft. But don't count on it to get you rescued in case you go overboard. In that situation, a PLB should be better considered a CLB or Corpse Locator Beacon.

While agreeing that it is not perfect, it's probably as good as we have got - the AIS beacons are very short range.

 

[gregcope]

P.S. -- a bit of thread drift, but a PLB should not be considered a likely method of getting rescued in case of a MOB, at least not in the frigid waters around Britain. It takes a long, long time for the message to get through the system.

In my opinion, the right place for a PLB is lanyarded onto your person, and it has a huge advantage over an EPIRB in that you are much less likely to lose it or forget to take it with you when getting into the liferaft. But don't count on it to get you rescued in case you go overboard. In that situation, a PLB should be better considered a CLB or Corpse Locator Beacon.

A chap was saved by his (apparently) off Looe last year. He waited a while and was lucky the chopper found him in time.

 

[Dockhead]

A chap was saved by his (apparently) off Looe last year. He waited a while and was lucky the chopper found him in time.

That's very interesting, and the facts of that case could be an interesting lesson. First time I've heard of someone actually being rescued that way. Any links?

 

[maby]

That's very interesting, and the facts of that case could be an interesting lesson. First time I've heard of someone actually being rescued that way. Any links?

Surely not! The way I read the post was that someone in the water set off a PLB and was picked up by a helicopter some time later - that cannot be so rare, can it?

 

[prv]

Surely not! The way I read the post was that someone in the water set off a PLB and was picked up by a helicopter some time later - that cannot be so rare, can it?

Happened to a guy who fell out of his RIB in the middle of the Irish Sea, though he was wearing a drysuit.

The lady (Pru somebody) who spent hours treading water a couple of years ago before being found by another yacht and picked up by helicopter would have been very grateful for a PLB - though since she'd left her lifejacket behind on the yacht, she probably wouldn't have had it with her even if she started with one.

Pete

 

[jerrytug]

Thanks for the replies. Re PLBs and AIS MOB devices. They obviously have their limitations, the PLBs response time,and the need for pulling out the aerial, and the AIS devices, VHF range and vessels in range.

There is a false distinction between EPIRBS and PLBs which needs looking at.

An EPIRB goes off automatically, when immersed, even if the crew are dead.

A PLB will not go off unless the MOB opens the case, pushes the button, pulls out the aerial and holds it above the water.
This seems a lot to ask, but people are worried about PLBs going off in a wet dinghy, or when a wave swamps the cockpit, giving false alarms.
I want a PLB which will automatically extend an aerial, then start transmitting, about two minutes after it has sensed that I have MOB'd.
I also want it to send an AIS MOB distress alert straight away. After all the technology exists, it's less sophisticated than a kids RC helicopter down the market.

SO MR MC MURDO AND THE OTHER MAKERS, *NOW* IS THE TIME TO COMBINE THE TWO FUNCTIONS IN ONE BOX!
Floating flashing and waterproof by the way.

 

[prv]

A PLB will not go off unless the MOB opens the case, pushes the button, pulls out the aerial and holds it above the water.
This seems a lot to ask

If you're not capable of doing that, then I'm afraid you're probably going to be dead by the time your automatic beacon brings someone to you anyway. An unconscious person in anything but calm water is going to drown in short order even with a lifejacket on, from waves breaking over their face.

Pete

 

[jerrytug]

If you're not capable of doing that, then I'm afraid you're probably going to be dead by the time your automatic beacon brings someone to you anyway. An unconscious person in anything but calm water is going to drown in short order even with a lifejacket on, from waves breaking over their face.

Pete

Supposing I have pulled down my sprayhood ok, the first thing I did after inflation, and I'm breathing and thinking, but my fingers are numb with cold and my arms are tired, so I can't manage to fiddle with tape measure type aerials etc?
It's a no brainer, I want those distress signals sent on their merry way.

 

[prv]

Supposing I have pulled down my sprayhood ok, the first thing I did after inflation, and I'm breathing and thinking, but my fingers are numb with cold and my arms are tired, so I can't manage to fiddle with tape measure type aerials etc?

Possibly your PLB is unusually fiddly? Mine is pull a handle, press a button. The aerial springs out on its own. I agree floating would be nice rather than having to keep it out of the water, but then it would have to be so bulky that it would be awkward to carry.

Remember, at the moment the Coastguard treat all 406 beacon activations as serious, and in UK coastal waters will despatch a lifeboat even if there is no other corroborating information available (or so I think Chanelyacht has said). I would not want to do anything to discourage that, and I can't help feeling that any kind of automatic activation risks increasing the false alarm rate, for rather dubious gain.

(Also note that it's not the manufacturers you have to convince here, but some international SAR committee. The requirement for two-step manual activation (again to reduce false alarms) comes from them.)

Pete

 

[jerrytug]

So do automatic EPIRBS also... "increase the false alarm rate, for rather dubious gain" ?
I thought the whole system is already accepted by the international SAR committee, why would auto PLBs make much difference?
The false alarms, surely, are a small but steady random burble of very rare user errors, equipment malfunction and attention-seeking deliberate distresses?
Why would auto PLBs add much to that, if there is a short, user resettable,delay to stop them firing if they get dropped in the bilge water?
I'm not meaning to be argumentative by the way, just trying to design the perfect PLB!

 

[maby]

So do automatic EPIRBS also... "increase the false alarm rate, for rather dubious gain" ?
I thought the whole system is already accepted by the international SAR committee, why would auto PLBs make much difference?
The false alarms, surely, are a small but steady random burble of very rare user errors, equipment malfunction and attention-seeking deliberate distresses?
Why would auto PLBs add much to that, if there is a short, user resettable,delay to stop them firing if they get dropped in the bilge water?
I'm not meaning to be argumentative by the way, just trying to design the perfect PLB!

There is a difference - automatic EPIRBS are bolted to boats and are extremely unlikely to see enough water to trigger them unless the boat really is sinking. PLBs sit in people's pockets and people fall out of dinghies or off pontoons within shouting distance of help. The chances of my PLB getting accidentally triggered are far higher than they would be of the boat's EPIRB (if it had one, which it currently doesn't)

 

[jerrytug]

There is a difference - automatic EPIRBS are bolted to boats and are extremely unlikely to see enough water to trigger them unless the boat really is sinking. PLBs sit in people's pockets and people fall out of dinghies or off pontoons within shouting distance of help. The chances of my PLB getting accidentally triggered are far higher than they would be of the boat's EPIRB (if it had one, which it currently doesn't)

Yes Maby that's absolutely right, and I have completely hoisted it on board.
I was suggesting automatic PLBs, with AIS distress MOB alerts built in as well, and automatically deploying aerials, but with a DELAY before the alarms are actually sent.
So if it got dropped in the dinghy, for example, you would have two minutes to press the big green "not really!" button.
Obviously the number of minutes, the colour of the button, etc, are up for discussion!

 

[prv]

There is a difference - automatic EPIRBS are bolted to boats and are extremely unlikely to see enough water to trigger them unless the boat really is sinking. PLBs sit in people's pockets and people fall out of dinghies or off pontoons within shouting distance of help. The chances of my PLB getting accidentally triggered are far higher than they would be of the boat's EPIRB (if it had one, which it currently doesn't)

Agree with the general point - although my worry is not so much people falling off pontoons as PLBs being stuffed into wet bags etc and going off unnoticed. I know a number of people who've opened their lifejacket locker to find it jammed full of inflated bladder - we don't need helicopters hovering above them as well.

Pete