Life Jackets

What kind of life jacket do you use? Do you feel that they should be mandatory? (Pretty open thread, so answer as you please.)

 

My fast bow rider only 100mph vests are on us when I do 50+.-------------- 16' 25mph boat, cheap USCG app. What other conditions are there?-------------------------Yes the 100's are hot and uncomfortable. If you can't take the heat, don't get on the boat.

 

Woah.... you're saying in CT they aren't mandatory?
OK, to start with- USCG's regs on PFDs and ligejackets are useless, half of what they approve is utter junk. Start with the Canadian Coast Guard regs as a bare minimum for lakes, SOLAS for offshore. Stick with red, orange and yellow (honestly, making a lifejacket in 'ocean blue'? how dumb does it get...). Under Canadian law, there must be one for every person on board, proper weight class, and they must be sized before leaving port. They must be readily accessible at all times.
Now, my own preferences: In the Sunset Chaser (5m LOA) everyone wears theirs all the time, no arguments. By 6m LOA I don't think wearing them full-time is necessary until it gets pretty choppy or the waterways are busy. Once you have a cuddy-cabin size it's probably OK to just keep them arm's-reach unless the weather gets nasty. Performance boats: anytime over 50mph, and in bad waves. Any size vessel, when out on open decks, wear it at all times.

As a lifeguard and regular lake patroller I see far too many sad endings because someone was too stupid and thick-headed to do up the vest. Buckle up, return alive.

 

CT they are for children 12 and under unless they are in a cabin.
I am a coastal (Long Island Sound) dinghy sailor and I used a USCG Type I last season (22 lbs. buoyancy). This time around, I switched to a Type III with 16.5 lbs. of byoyancy. Also, about hypothermia, wear a wetsuit if you're gonna get dunked in the summer and a dry suit for the winter (generally).

 

I believe you're referring to the CG's desire to make it mandatory to wear a life vest at all times by all the people in a boat. They cite the figure of a few hundred boating related drowning deaths per year as a horrible scourge they have to protect us from. Somebody in another forum was all aquiver about THE HUMANITY of the situation and was all for it but I believe Big Brother has other things it can do. I looked up some USA statistical death site and found 7,000 people die of medication errors each year, 12,000 people die of unnecessary surgery, 20,000 die due to medical errors. Why can't the CG make themselves useful and go harrass Doctors? Just from "level surface falls" something like 13,000+ die each year, if "they" get wind of that "they'll" probably want everyone to wear full protective gear like football or hockey players. If lifejackets do become manditory, looking at women sure won't be the same.

 

marshmat: ... USCG's regs on PFDs and ligejackets are useless, half of what they approve is utter junk.

Thanks for mentioning that. I decided to special order mine because the ones in the local shop were awful. The ones with the big vertical ribs seem to popular these days. I call them "robo-vests". But in addition to the ribs creating extra windage, the armholes in those things are humongous. If you don't have tree-trunk arms, you can drown in one of them with the vest floating happily on the surface, your head below water, and the armholes hardly supporting your arms at all.

 

Let's have someone design a $20 inflatable hybrid that's tiny...

 

I was put in my place by a woman boater because I said a CO2 inflatable life vest was not reliable. I ran a web search on the CO2's. Recalls by a brand name who supplys all the major outlets. Seems they dont go off and the manual inflator does not work. Or they go off for no reason. Sounds like life saving air bags in cars. High tech is OK if they also has perfect Q. C. Get approval on 1 unit, then garbage for the almighty $$.

 

For me, it depends...

The larger the boat, and the calmer the conditions, the less inclined I am to say that the vests should be worn 100% of the time. Having said that, I like the "arm's reach rule" which I didn't follow last September when I got caught in some lumpy water where I really wanted my vest, but couldn't get to it.

The wind and the chop came up to a pretty fierce level after my wife had already gone below. The helm of my heavy 26' powerboat is ahead of the cabin a la the commmuter style boats, and I could not leave the helm in those conditions. (here's the url to a similar boat, if you can't picture it http://www.marinesalvagepi.com/26personnel.html ) I didn't have enough experience in my current boat to even be comfortable taking my eyes off of the swells and one-handing the wheel because I didn't know if it would surf and/or breach. That left me unable to even turn around for long enough to push back the hatch and call down to my wife for a vest.

After that experience, I keep a few vests at the helm IN ADDITION to having one for every crew neatly stashed where they can easily be reached just inside the cabin. If the water isn't quite calm, I suggest vests for everbody and immediately put mine on. So far eveyone has followed my lead, so I haven't been forced to decide how bad I will let it get before I insist that they put them on.

I also wear mine any time the boat is moving when I'm aboard alone, and even when the boat is stopped if the water isn't dead-calm.

Having already made a short story long , My opinion is that I would be against a requirement to wear them all of the time, but I support stricter standards on the design of the vests themselves, and on their immediate accessibility.

 

Stevel. Thanks for the true story of how most of us learn to be safer. I am just like you.

 

On my bowrider space is at a premium. Put the jackets in the bow? no, not enough space left for stuff. Stern bench? Too close to a engine fire. Locker under the console and the passenger foot locker. 100mph vests are big. I am forced to live dangerously now. Next to the engine is all the toilet paper.

 

I agree completely.
Those bundles of vertical foam blocks that pass off as canoeing vests? They're crap, ban 'em. Those nice navy blue ones, that render you utterly invisible when in the water? Those belong in the same sunken freighter as luxury SUVs. That pile of vests you're using to soak up bilge oils? Clean 'em up and put 'em under the seats where people can reach them.
Make it comfortable, make it fit right, make it in a half-a-dozen sizes so we don't see 12-year-olds with the jacket over their ears, and people will wear it.
The collection of vests at the cottage dock contains a dozen or more different styles, in about eight sizes. Everyone can always find one that's comfortable. My own (a fairly new Coleman general-purpose vest) fits well enough that I don't even notice it's on. If the stores ditch the junk and put good gear up on the shelves, people will wear it.

 

Type IIs

I say: Ban the type II horsecollar. it's ugly, uncomfortable and, due to this, no one will want to wear it. Rather, in place, I'd reccomend encouraging hybrid inflatables, they're great: perfect balance. Also, just wonderin' anyone use inflatables regularly? How about Type V decksuits?

 

Roger that Matt.

 

I definitely DO NOT support making them mandatory for adults. I'm a big boy and can figure out for myself when I need one (glug glug ). I've given up enough of my freedom in the name of "safety". Kids? Mine wear them ALL the time, cabin or not.