petekd wrote:anthony2carr wrote:One more point. I've read that self inflating life jackets are only for swimmers. Non-swimmers should wear the traditional life jackets. Another drawback is once they get damp from say spray they inflate. They then have to be re-armed, this can take time and may encourage a person to venture out without a lifejacket.
Hi Anthony,
Self inflating jackets are not at all suitable for swimmers as they inflate in contact with water, are you confusing them with buoyancy aids? I personally have used 4 or 5 different brands of lifejacket, in all weather conditions and have yet to have one accidentally inflate on me. It does happen granted but in normal use, it shouldnt, certainly not with the ones on the market at the moment. You are more at risk from catching the manual toggle and inflating it than one inflating accidentally due to water ingress. Jackets do have to be rearmed and should be done so on an annual basis but its not prohibitively expensive I think its about 25 quid or so but I stand corrected on that.
I stand corrected. I read this information incorrectly.
I have taken a young fella out fishing who owned an inflatable life jacket. Spray from a single large wave and boom, he was Marshmallow man. You wanna see the look on his face when the thing went off without warning.
They do provide some great buoyancy though.
I personally have a lifejacket of the padded variety. I use this for a number of reasons, mainly because it is always ready to go and I am not relying on a mechanism to save my life. It was a very rare case, but the story about the kayaker in Cork whose jacket inflated incorrectly and dragged him to this death stuck out in my mind.