another reason to wear your lanyard

[Powerboat]

Remember last year when HMS took a stand about kill cords and lifejackets been worn in adverts in RIB International .

Very praiseworthy .......unfortunately that fine ideal seems to have slipped in this years additions with not alone adverts but articles showing RIBs been driven without Killcords or life jackets .

I think Hugo listens in on this forum so it would be interesting to hear his views and to find out if commercial pressures over ruled the praisworthy ideals .

Incidently if you look at the cover picture of the old RYA powerboat logbook ( just replaced recently ) it showed two girls travelling at speed in a Fletcher of the cliffs of Dover with no Lifejackets !

I do quite a bit of accident Investigation / Expert Witness work in Powerboats over here . In almost evey one of the many cases I have investigated and reported on in recent years , death or serious injury would have been prevented if either ( let alone both ) the kill cord and life jacket had been worn .

I think we are all agreed that the bottom line if to wear and test your kill cord and life jacket .

Best wishes ,

Stuart
www.powerboat.org

[Keith Hart]

Hi there

I used to be very involved in the motorcycle industry (training). As the country's largest motorcycle training body, we had to be VERY careful with our advertising to ensure that everyone was obeying all laws and everything was being done safely. I was often consulted by motorcycle manufacturers to comment on safety aspects of adverts. Remember we were talking BIG, FAST motorcycles here. The ads had to look fun, sexy, exhillarating, but they also had to be legal and safe. In the main we managed to do this.

I must admit that in most of the catalogues on boats that I have seen, it is the norm for the people in the boats not to be wearing safety gear. I was rather surprised by this.

Even in my little boat I would not go out without a life jacket AND the lanyard attached to the kill switch. I don't see that this spoils the fun. It's just a part of boating, just as wearing a helmet on my motorcycle is.

However up at my house in Scotland, I can't think that I have ever seen one of the locals wearing a life jacket. One day I saw some people out in a boat (not a rib), an man and two children, 7 to 10 yrs and a woman with a BABE IN ARMS. None of them were wearing life jackets!!!

Keith Hart

[Paul Glatzel]

Stuart

Ultimately we're all in agreement here - wear a kill cord and check it works regularly. Clearly all our boats are different and no prescriptive approach is correct as we all need to do what's right according to the set-up of the boat, gear been worn etc etc.

Paul

[Ribald]

What never ceases to amaze me is the number of people who, when taking their kids out on the boat, make sure that the kid is kitted out safetly but don't bother themselves. Do they think that they are invincible?

Earlier this summer, I witnessed a small speedboat (not a RIB or SIB) with 5 adults and two kids under five go out from Lymington in a steady SW F6 WAT. None of the adults had any form of bouyancy but the children were fitted with very expensive lifjackets. We later saw them wave hopping with the boat leaping out of the water by at least 8-10ft. The skipper suggested we hung around near them as he felt a rescue coming on. Only when the kids were screaming their heads off did the pr*** decide to go in. You should have seen the pig's ear he made in coming along side - more by luck than judgement.

I forgot to mention that before he launched the boat he had to jump start the o/b from his car and then ran the engine up on the hard for about 2-3 mins with no cooling water.

[Keith Hart]

Hi there

You know what really puzzled me about the idiot I mentioned above:

"One day I saw some people out in a boat (not a rib), a man and two children, 7 to 10 yrs and a woman with a BABE IN ARMS. None of them were wearing life jackets!!! "

If the boat capsized or sunk, which of his passengers was the man going to try to save? What a choice. Mind you I should imagine that the first thing he would have done was save HIMSELF!

Keith Hart

[David Perry]

On the matter of lifejackets, I made a point in a national boating mag some years ago about pics of people without Jackets/BA's. The response was sympathetic but pointed to artistic preferences. I suggested that magazines refuse copy which is not selling the right message but this was thought to be unworkable...not so I feel. X company wants to sell its boat, Y photographer is asked to do the shoots, Z mag refuses the shots due to the danger factor, X company sacks Y photographer and finds someone else. Its a matter of education....education...education.
The department dealing with life jacket execption cetifiactes works so much overtime in this area it beggars belief.
So come on....lets all make a plea for ads to portray the right image, complain when you see one, buoycot (sic!) manufacturers who don;t play the game.

[Allan]

I would add another vote for the killcord to the leg, I have found it to be a reliable and workable placement.

As for the wearing of lifejackets in advertising, I would agree that it would be good if advertising supported the wearing of lifejackets/bouancy aids (as appropriate) but feel that the boycott route is doomed to failure unless it were to gain 100% support from the marine publishing industry.

The bitter truth is that (virtually all) publications live off their advertising revenue and that they need the advertisers more than the advertisers need them, so the publicity boys and girls will put their advertising cash into the publication that lets them display the "sexy" lifejacketless pictures whilst leaving the publications that try to insist on the "artistically boring" shots with lifejackets, out in the cold.

It will be a long hard slog to get universal concensus on this one but I believe that until the publishers all agree ( and stick to it!) to publish only "safety conscious" versions of adverts, it is most unlikely to become a reality.

[Keith Hart]

Of course in the motorcycle industry HELMETS were required by law, so the riders and pillion passengers HAD to wear them. However there was a massive industry supplying leather suits, jackets etc. The answer was to make the accessories DESIRABLE. Forget the safety message ... BORING!

They made them a fashion thing. Just look at motorcycle adverts. Great colours, great designs for the helmets and leather suits and stuff. It became fashion to wear the stuff and it looked COOL

Now, I enjoy wearing the life jacket because it makes me feel SAFE. Personaly I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks so long as I feel happy, but perhaps younger ribsters do care about their 'image'. So, make the 'image' of life jackets 'cool'. Make them fashion. Make them look good. Then people will wear them.
Also the manufactures will sell MORE. So you see it can work in everyone's interest.

Any way. Bye for now. I'm off to my house in Scotland now. Kylesku and Moray Firth here I come........bring on the big seas, the waves, the spray (okay so I exagerate a little but bring on the smooth calm seas would make me sound too much of a wimp).. However you can be sure of one thing...I will be wearing my lifejacket.

Cheers

Keith Hart

[Keith Hart]

Hi there

Whilst browsing through Biblines (Winter issue) I've noticed that in EVERY photograph of members in boats lifejackets are being worn. In the majority of dealer ads NO lifejackets are being worn!

Look at the back page advert.The man in the boat on the right looks like he is dressed to sit at his office desk! In the middle boats they all have proper gear. BUT the boat on the left has NO ONE at the controls!!! Is it radio controlled or have they all fallen out?

Keith Hart

[MarkWildey]

I have been thrown out of a boat, at around 40knots , when the hydraulic steering failed. As I surfaced all I could see was the boat up on the plane travelling in a straight line.

My first thought was “I didn’t have the kill cord attached”, but looking at my wrist confirmed it was attached to my velcro wrist band.

A few seconds later the boat dropped off the plane and stopped. If the seas had been rough then attempting to swim to the boat for the average person may not have been possible. Luckily I’m a strong swimmer and the task didn’t seem much of a problem. This would have been made harder with the life jacket attached.

As it happens we were racing and the support boats came to the rescue!

Anyway getting to my point…

What I don’t see that often is a spare kill cord located near the helm for the crew, assuming there still in the boat, to start the boat back up and pick up the driver. When On the Suzuki o/b I had the kill cord needed a special connecter to work, so it wasn’t just a matter of flicking a switch.

Also don’t assume that your crew know the ins and outs of how you boat works. Make a point of telling them that the boat won’t start in gear, where the kill cord goes etc etc.

Regards

Mark