Anyone used one of these in a kayak rescue emergency? Pros and cons? They seem to be gaining favour with yachties here in Australia because they can be incorporated in a storm parka without adding too much bulk. I was intrigued by a PaddleWise post which suggested they could be unsuitable for kayak emergencies because of their shape and bulk when inflated. Just when you want them to perform! Can they be deflated after use in a successful re-entry after a wet exit? Do you carry spare CO2 cartridges. How fiddly are these things when you have cold and numb fingers? At first blush, any gear which reduces weight and bulk is obviously good news, but is the Co2 cartridge just another gadget which cannot be counted upon in an emergency? Has anyone relevant experience? PJ Wollongong, Australia *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
From: "PJ Rattenbury" Subject: [Paddlewise] Inflatable PFDs > Anyone used one of these in a kayak rescue emergency? Pros and cons? > In a previous life where I had to work for a living running a hydrological survey team, we used inflatable PFDs when working from boats to avoid the bulk of a conventional PFD. We also used them when wading in rivers where there was a possibility of being swept off your feet, as a normal PFD would give you lift when you did not want any. We held a safety exercise once with another team, where, amongst other things, we tried inflating the PFDs and swimming. The model that we had gave adequate buoyancy without unduly restricting movement, but the other team had ones with much more buoyancy, and swimming was difficult. In NZ, where PFDs are called lifejackets, and are approved for different yachting categories, a Cat 1 Offshore jacket has more buoyancy than a Cat 2-3-4 Sheltered Waters jacket. It turned out that our PFDs were Sheltered Waters ones, the other team's were Cat 1. You would have difficulty re-entering your kayak with a Cat 1 model inflated. The other thing to avoid is the automatic inflation model. You don't want it to inflate when you are trying to exit the beach through a wave! If you look at the website for Safety at Sea Australasia Ltd, www.safetyatsea.co.nz and look for Sospender lifejackets you will find an Offshore and a Sheltered Waters model. Other models available here come from Hutchwilco and RFD, but I couldn't find websites for them. I think changing a CO2 cartridge on the water would be dicey. You could probably deflate the bladder and get it more or less back in place under the cover, but if you needed it again you would have to blow down the tube to inflate it. If conditions were such that you wet exited though, you would probably want to leave it inflated while you concentrated on staying upright and pumping out. Allan Singleton *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi PJ, we own two of these inflatable ones and found them very useful in a foldable kayak in hot climate. We took a spare set of CO2-cartridges just in case and took the mechnism apart at home to be sure we knew how they worked. In Germany you can only get the automatic type with salt tablet triggers. So to prevent inflation on entry and exit in deept water we disabled the automatic trigger, which was also the only fiddly part of the mechanism (inserting a salt tablet). All the rest is fairly simple should be easy to perform in rough conditions. Ferdinand > Anyone used one of these in a kayak rescue emergency? Pros and cons? > > They seem to be gaining favour with yachties here in Australia because > they can be incorporated in a storm parka without adding too much bulk. > I was intrigued by a PaddleWise post which suggested they could be > unsuitable for kayak emergencies because of their shape and bulk when > inflated. Just when you want them to perform! Can they be deflated after > use in a successful re-entry after a wet exit? > Do you carry spare CO2 cartridges. How fiddly are these things when you > have cold and numb fingers? > > At first blush, any gear which reduces weight and bulk is obviously good > news, but is the Co2 cartridge just another gadget which cannot be counted > upon in an emergency? > Has anyone relevant experience? > PJ > Wollongong, > Australia > > > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not > to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** > > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Ferdinand, I am just going to by those inflatable vests for our trip to Thailand in February. > In Germany you can only get the automatic type with salt tablet triggers. So to Thats not quite right, you get the ones without the automatic trigger f.e. from secumar (German brand) and they offer some especially for paddlers (very short version). > prevent inflation on entry and exit in deept water we disabled the automatic > trigger, which was also the only fiddly part of the mechanism (inserting a salt There are different systems on the market. Some are very easy to disable (f.e. bfa-vests).There can screw off the automatic trigger completely without disabling the hand-trigger -- Rainer Schroeter, Marburg, Germany *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:06 PDT