Life Jackets – Safety Gear Upgrades

Mustang Survival Deluxe Inflatable PFD with Harness

   
Safety is one thing you can’t cut corners on. You can never be too prepared. 

Knowing the Can Opener has strapped on his life jacket with safety harness gives both of us peace of mind. It’s better to focus on the task at hand rather than being distracted worrying about ‘what if’. And in a squall there’s no time to hesitate. 

So time to upgrade the First Mate’s safety equipment… 

What to look for in an offshore life jacket
A life jacket with safety harness might just be the most important piece of safety gear you own. 

The RYA recommends a good life jacket should include at least the following*:

• crotch straps to stop the lifejacket riding up over your head
• spray-hood to stop waves and spray entering your mouth
• lights, dye-markers and personal locator beacons to aid location
• harness D ring for harness attachment to stop you falling off in the first place 

and of course, you should also ensure: 

• there is freedom of movement
• the life jacket is appropriate for your weight
• it fits comfortably but snugly 

In the UK, there ‘are four main buoyancy levels: 50, 100, 150 and 275. In general terms, Level 50 is a buoyancy aid designed for when help is close at hand, whereas Level 150 is a general purpose lifejacket used for offshore cruising and motor boating’.*

When to wear it 
‘…wear a lifejacket or buoyancy aid unless you are sure you don’t need to.’* 

So what does that mean? 

Well if you can’t swim and/or are a child, it means you are wearing a life jacket from the moment before your feet touch the dock until they leave the dock after your return. 

If you can swim and you are coastal sailing and there’s no wind and the water looks like glass, maybe you could leave it off. But if the wind picks up, be safe, put it on. 

If you are offshore, put it on to leave the cockpit. If the wind picks up, wear it all the time. In other words, ‘wear a lifejacket or buoyancy aid unless you are sure you don’t need to’*. Better safe than sorry every time. 

Price Comparisons 
Upcoming post – Life Jackets: How Much Does Safety Cost? We’ll be price shopping on both sides of the pond – we’ll work out how to actually pick up the stuff later. 

What kind of life jacketdo you have? How’s it holding up? Would you buy this brand/model again? 

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

* RYA.org.uk pages on ‘Safety Information, Buoyancy Aids and Life Jackets’

Safety Gear
Next: Life Jackets – How Much Does Safety Cost?
Previously: Foul Weather Gear – So How Much Does Safety Cost?

Boat Research Begins – Needs and Usage

 

What kind of boat do you really need?

In ‘How To Buy A Used Sailboat – Step 1’, Adam Turinas asks some straightforward questions to help potential buyers make sure they get the right boat for their real needs. 

His questions seem routine at first glance but are worth serious consideration. Buy a boat for what you are really going to do, not what you vaguely might hope to do. ‘Hope is not a strategy,’ he says.

I like his method (and our plan will only be looking at used boats…), so I’ll bang through his quick questions here with respect to the Can Opener and myself:

Where are you going to do most of your sailing?

Ocean coastal and then offshore. We’ve already done lake sailing on 2 continents, coastal cruising and some offshore. Time for the next challenge.

How much are you going to sail?

6+ months of the year live-aboard during refit and first 1-2 years thereafter. Considering full-time after that. After refit, an estimated 10% of that time passage-making.

Racer, cruiser, racer/cruiser, blue water?

Blue water.

Who’s going to be sailing with you?

Counting just those with opposable thumbs, the Can Opener’ll be solo-sailing most of the time. We’ll probably pick up 2-3 crew for ocean crossings.

How long will you own it?

Estimated 10 years. But we will research/ cost analyze 5, 10, 15 year scenarios.

Will you be able to sell it later?

Final sale is an important working assumption in our cost analysis.

How much work will you do on the boat itself?

No contest, I prefer sailing to endlessly working on boats at the dock. The Can Opener is up for basic repairs, refitting for offshore and maintenance as needed, but not for engine overhaul, rewiring or an interior rebuild. 

As Turinas says, don’t fall in love with a boat that’s a ‘project’ and ‘buy with your brain not your heart’. ‘Nuff said.

How much can you afford?

The real question here is not just about the initial purchase cost – it’s about the cost end to end. A damn hard question that will keep the Can Opener up at night balancing initial purchase cost vs. needed refit costs vs. running costs vs. financing (while I snooze on the relevant open reference books, keeping them warm and toasty). 

But one of the driving purposes of this blog is to cost/benefit analyze the answer.

So what’s the right category of boat for our planned usage?

We’re looking for a blue water live-aboard, good for solo-sailing, with a design that holds its value over time. We’re aiming for 30 feet or so to begin with. Enough space to provision and live in but a workable size that’s not overpowered for single-handing.

Captain Cat, however, does reserve the right to completely revise his assessment based on new information uncovered going forward. Just as he does nightly when musing the wide ranging options for his upcoming dinner…

But these are the baseline assumptions we start from.

What assumptions will you start from?

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)