Buoyancy Aids vs LJ's?

[DonutUK]

The youth organisation that i am connected with has recently purchased brand new buoyancy aids to use with the 2 RIB's we have.

We mainly use them either in estuary's or fairly close inshore coastal.

I have questioned why they use BA's as opposed to LJ's....and got told that was what they had always done.

I want to try and make a compelling case for them to purchase at least 10 LJ's, either manual gas or auto gas inflation.
Any recommendations as to a reasonable one to go for....obviously cost is a major issue, but so is reliability and safety.

Or....am i just being a bit OTT, and they are really ok using BA's?

[Starovich]

2 things I would say.

BA fine if you expect to go into the water, or at least its a high possibility and you need to be able to swim in it.

LJ if the plan is not to go in the water and its and being in the water is the result of an incident.

if the boat use is that of a rescue boat, then you could argue both ways, depending on the persons roles are within the crew.

Some types of Jacket are both, BA until canister is triggered, then LJ. However, these are expensive.