If you are concerned about the reliability of an inflatable and the class I PFD is too uncomfortable. You might like the very comfortable vests used by Sea Kayakers. Stolquest (sp?) makes a really comfortable USCG approved vest. The neoprene vests worn by slalom skiers are quite comfortable, though a little pricey. Some neoprene vests are not USCG approved, but they are very comfortable, slim fitting and provide enough floatation that you don't need to tread water. Obviously if you plan on being unconscious when you fall overboard, only the automatic (if it works) inflatable or the bulky type I is going to keep your face out of the water. (If you have the required USCG vests on board, you can wear anything you want). Smitty Windsurfers Do It Standing Up ! US-842 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Kelch" <doug_kelch@yahoo.com> To: <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 9:42 AM Subject: Re: M_Boats: tether, storm jib Dan and Tod, An interesting web site. I use a flat nylon web for a jack line. It doesn't roll underfoot when you step on it. My jack line runs from a stern cleat, through the bow cleat and back to the other stern cleat. There is enough excess web to use as a line to tie off the tiller. I use an inflatable life jacket with integral harness but I have recently heard bad things about their reliability. When required to inflate they don't always work. The canisters leak with age and the only test is a destructive one. The defect rate on new cannisters is high enough not to trust your life to. I still use it because I don't want to wear a full vest and it's better than just a plain harness. I use two 6 ft tethers to get around the shroud problem. each tether has carbiner clips on both ends but one is kept coiled up and tied off so it doesn't get in the way. The M15 is low enough in the water that I can reach the jack line from the water at the shrouds and switch tethers at that point. I hope we never need any of it. Thanks Doug Kelch --- Dan White <danwhite@austin.rr.com> wrote:
Tod,
Take a look at http://webhost.sailnet.com/glss/v2n8.htm
Another thing I would suggest is that in going over, it isn't all that unlikely that you are going to suffer some bodily injury up to and including getting knocked in the head by a turnbuckle -- plan on it.
The inflatable life jacket with integral harness and a 3 point tether is, I think, a good solution. The shorter tether (3 ft) being clipped to a forestay or the mast and the longer tether (6 ft) to the jack line.
Dan M-17 #316B
"htmills@bright.net" wrote:
Here's my latest thinking on drown prevention. Yet another boater has drowned in Lake Erie. There has been a lot of them it seems. This guy was a 37 y.o. man singlehanding a 15' boat (make unkown) from either Lorain or Vermilion (have heard both on the news) to Johnson's Island in Sandusky Bay. Waves were just 2', but a ferry spotted his boat drifting between Marblehead and Kelley's Island with no one aboard. Helicopter and patrol boat searching has been called off.
Feel free to critique; it may be your chance to save my butt:
Picture two long tethers. Each tied to the boat at the bow only and each with an eye in the other end. Each runs back to the cockpit, one on each side of the boat outside the [inboard] shrouds. Then, a shorter tether on the harness that can be clipped to a padeye in the cockpit or to one of the other tethers. When going forward, I'll clip to the weather tether. If I fall overboard either direction I should be outside the shrouds and sheets or, if the jib is down, over the sheets. I hopefully don't have to unhook to end up at the transom or fool with clipping one and unclipping a second tether. If need be, I suppose you could even hold the boat by the tether [painter] and choose the side you wanted to go to the boarding ladder. Might get dragged a bit before the boat rounded up, but it's light enough that it should round up when connected at the bow.
On the 17, the chances of falling overboard to leeward aft of the shrouds has to be minimal with the small space between the boom and the deck; it's when moving from the cabin side to the fordeck that looks to be the risky place. That and going over to weather while along the cabin.
I think I'll add a padeye to the front of the cockpit next to the centerboard pendant.
**************
Thanks for the storm jib dimensions, John; I've never seen a sail quite like that before. A pic of it flying would be interesting, I'm sure. I went ahead today and ordered the one I had seen.
Tod Mills M17 #408 "BuscaBrisas"
_______________________________________________
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
_______________________________________________
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats