Buoyancy Aids...

[Limecc]

Chichester has 8kn speed limit, out of channel often in 4 to 5ft of water or less. I'm not rushing to judgement on anyone except the 'tool' who would best have minded his own business or else given a kindly reminder to a fellow boater. No need to spoil somebody's day and raise his own blood pressure.

[Limecc]

Duplication

[Fender]

Originally Posted by Limecc

Chichester has 8kn speed limit, out of channel often in 4 to 5ft of water or less. I'm not rushing to judgement on anyone except the 'tool' who would best have minded his own business or else given a kindly remibder to a fellow boater. No need to spoil somebody's day and raise his own blood pressure.

Originally Posted by Limecc

Chichester has 8kn speed limit, out of channel often in 4 to 5ft of water or less. I'm not rushing to judgement on anyone except the 'tool' who would best have minded his own business or else given a kindly reminder to a fellow boater. No need to spoil somebody's day and raise his own blood pressure.

You do like repeating yourself, there must be some form of medication for that.........

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by Fender

You do like repeating yourself, there must be some form of medication for that.........

I hope it's not dementia!
Only corrected a spelling mistake. Something off with my browser cache or something lol

[jeffstevens763@g]

Safety PDF on the Chichester harbour site advises LJ


https://www.conservancy.co.uk/assets...L1sSGPPDV4.pdf

[John Kennett]

Originally Posted by Fender

And if your still a little confused, here's a link - Oh, your welcome

I’m not confused. This is what the OP said:

Originally Posted by mikew4

we were in shallow water that can stand up in that we go swimming in unsupported without BAs. Weather, warm, sunny, blue sky, good forecast…

I’d be unlikely to make the same decision as him as it happens, but it’s not something I think it’s reasonable for anyone to get shouty about.

[Pikey Dave]

Back in the day, I used to write many Risk Assessments & Method Statements for some “difficult” operations. No one ever got hurt. It’s always the stuff that you didn’t think of, or see coming that catches you out. When it comes to boating, you can be as confident as you like in your own boat/abilities/crew/preparations, but you can’t say the same for the idiot whose had a few at lunchtime & is tonking back across the harbour impressing his mates/missus/onlookers. If you get caught out by said idiot, & you’re not wearing lifejackets/buoyancy aids/killcord, in the eyes of the media & MIAB you’re as guilty as the idiot that caused it. If you’re fully tooled up & get injured, then you’re the innocent victim & you did everything right.
We wear LJs when underway, if it’s a warm day & we’re sat out fishing with the engine off, I might take it off, but it always goes back on before starting the engine.
Just my 2 penneth/opinion & each to their own.

[neil.mccrirrick]

Right or wrong we still live in a free country. My choice is to always wear LJs for all the reasons Dave says. But I value the “right” to make my own decision and so would not be happy with someone I don’t know who doesn’t know me and has no official status thinking it’s appropriate to impose his decisions on me.

Tbh that would more likely cause an incident on an otherwise calm day ha

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by neil.mccrirrick

Right or wrong we still live in a free country. My choice is to always wear LJs for all the reasons Dave says. But I value the “right” to make my own decision and so would not be happy with someone I don’t know who doesn’t know me and has no official status thinking it’s appropriate to impose his decisions on me.

Tbh that would more likely cause an incident on an otherwise calm day ha

Agreed, him berating me, would probably be more detrimental to his health than mine.[emoji57]

[mikew4]

I find it amusing the amount of replies that refer to life jackets in the context of buoyancy assistance. The original post was about buoyancy aids. This reinforces my point that many folks do not know the difference between a life jacket and a buoyancy aids. An LJ will keep your head and nose/mouth up and out of the water wherease a BA won't. A BA isn't much use if you are unconscious. The amount of water users that don't know the difference and use the names LJ and BA interchangeably and astounds me.

The RYA endorses a free choice of whether to wear an LJ or BA:

"The RYA recommends that you wear a lifejacket or buoyancy aid unless you are sure you don't need to.

You can base this decision on factors such as weather conditions, the type of activity you are doing and your level of experience. If you are a beginner or still relatively inexperienced, making these judgements is often not that easy, so if this is the case, wear one at all times....."

Source:https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge/saf...ids-lifejacket

The Conservancy (Chichester harbour authority) suggests you should wear a life jacket at all times but does not madate it. However nobody in the harbour wears a life jacket - those that wear any form of personal flotation device use a buoyancy aid.

Life is about free choice. Provided you have performed a risk assessment then there should be no judgement on the matter of PFDs, which is aligned to RYA guidance.

[Fender]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

I’m not confused

Maybe.......just a small amount

Originally Posted by John Kennett

How do you feel about people who go swimming at the seaside? Are they all lacking sound and prudent judgement too? Just wondering.

Originally Posted by TmMorris

It's a different scenario though isn't it? One is voluntarily going into the water for the purpose of swimming ( plenty still manage to kill themselves) whereas the other is involuntary and usually part of a greater incident such as a collision etc.

As pointed out by Tim they are very different situations, I'd suggest the major majority of open boat users quite rightly wear a floatation device of some sort - has anyone ever seen a beachgoer/swimmer wearing a LJ or BA?

[John Kennett]

Maybe you should educate them

[Poly]

Well this thread turned out exactly as I predicted when it began! That said I'm not quite sure the OP expected any different or what the point of his post was. Possibly it was a way to emphasise that he knows the difference between a Buoyancy Aid and a Life Jacket?

Fender - if you really feel strongly about people wearing personal flotation, the way to win them over is almost certainly not to make it an argument. Very rarely does someone get faced with assertive or aggressive responses and switch their thinking - in fact, in my experience, its likely that people in mikew4's shoes are MORE likely to go out without personal flotation in the future to prove that they don't need it and nobody can make them!

Like most people on here, I would make a different decision to mikew4, but if I'm on a yacht my personal risk assessment says LJ when on deck - but you don't need to look far to see that this is still not a universal norm and I don't judge those people (well I do but I don't do it out loud!). If you are travelling at "yacht speed" (which the harbour speed limit is) then I'm not sure why a stable rib with no swingy boom to knock you over, far less likely to be moving around or have ropes to trip on is higher risk.

Mikew4 - I think you will find the vast majority of people on here do completely understand the difference between life jackets and buoyancy aids. Many like me will have both depending on the circumstances they are operating in. If they have used the LJ then either they literally mean LJ or they are using it in much the same way I might refer to my waterproofs as oilskins. Repeatedly asserting that they aren't the same thing is probably not adding to the total knowledge of the forum. Understanding the difference in the wider public may certainly be a gap - but most people would argue that either is better than nothing in most situations. I've never ribbed in Chichester Harbour but am surprised if this is true, "However nobody in the harbour wears a life jacket - those that wear any form of personal flotation device use a buoyancy aid."

[citygent111]

Woah - this one blew up!

My twopeneth - wearing a "life preserver" of any kind is as difficult and inconvenient as wearing a seatbelt in a car - in that it's not difficult at all.

That said, if the OP isn't breaching any rules or bylaws then he is perfectly entitled to wear what he wants, or not in this case.

Whatever we think as individuals, the fact is this is still (for now) a free country and if he and his party don't want to wear one, then that is their right. It is their business and no-one elses.

Unfortunately, these days some people seem to have appointed themselves as "society police" - they're no doubt the same people who would have approached and confronted a stranger in a supermarket for not wearing a mask. Maybe that's what was wrong with the other guy - masks aren't compulsory any more so he's now policing the wearing of life preservers?

And for what it's worth - we wear buoyancy aids on our little rib. We're never venture more than 1/2 mile away from the shore, and in the event that one goes in the water we could deal with a MOB easily. If the boat was sinking we could swim to shore. If we were going out much further or in inclement weather then LJ's would be the order of the day. :-)

[John Kennett]

Originally Posted by Poly

I've never ribbed in Chichester Harbour but am surprised if this is true, "However nobody in the harbour wears a life jacket - those that wear any form of personal flotation device use a buoyancy aid."

I have and it’s not

[TmMorris]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

I have and it’s not

I can't say I've noticed it either. Dinghy sailers, paddle boards and general muckers about around the edges aren't wearing self inflators or life jackets in general for obvious reasons. People on larger boats tend to not be wearing anything, unless a yacht heading out. But I've not noticed folk in ribs etc not wearing life jackets.

Nor would it bother me if some chap came storming over to me and started shouting orders. They're easily handled as they're typically too worked up to be thinking straight. Or the f I were doing something daft then I'd just take it on the chin and apologise to my guests onboard.

[GuyC]

The bilge beckons.

[fastasfox]

Originally Posted by jeffstevens763@g

With Neil on this but a gob shite always gets my hair up. If I were RNLI picking you up near drowning I wouldn’t be best pleased either

Try telling that to the fishermen I was watching in Cornwall....not a life jacket between them. RNLI save without question..... I do believe in a good life vest myself...but each to their own I guess.

[lakelandterrier]

Personally, if I'm underway anywhere in my RIB - even motoring slowly from slipway to pontoon on launch / recovery I will always wear a LJ. The depth doesn't matter, you can drown in very shallow water

If I'm anchored and swimming from the boat etc I will take off the LJ.

If one of the children are ringo-ing we'll swap LJ for buoyancy aid, and swap back to LJ when finished.

In a RIB, unless doing something specialised where you may need to be in / out of the water, and not travelling at speed, I think the only sensible PFD is an auto-inflate LJ, (solid foam from young children before anyone gets picky) not a buoyancy aid.

I don't agree with the OP's rationale for not wearing LJs, but that said, it's not the job of any member of the public to start ranting to another boat user about whether they are wearing PFDs. If it was a Harbour Authority boat about safety on the water / local byelaws , that would be different - but I'd expect it to be polite.

[GuyC]

Slight thread creep but for our six year old, I bought him a Seago Waveguard Junior. It's an auto lifejacket which he's very happy to wear as it's a bit like his mum and dad's but more importantly like his older brothers.

https://www.seagoyachting.co.uk/products/waveguard/