Lifejacket Advisor
Lifejacket standards
Most, but not all of the lifejackets we sell are rated at 150 Newtons (150N). Newtons measure buoyancy, 150 Newtons = 15 kilos of buoyancy, though all 150N lifejackets exceed this. 150 Newton is the European Standard for adult lifejackets. EN396 is the CE approval for a 150 Newton lifejacket and should appear on each jacket along with the CE mark.
Children's lifejackets are usually rated at 100N or 150N but the actual buoyancy may be scaled down for a particular weight range, so it's important to match the weight of the child to the capabilities of the jacket as shown on the details page. EN395 is the CE approval for a 100 Newton lifejacket.
The only other lifejacket that needs a mention here is the 275N lifejacket, CE approval number EN399. Sometimes referred to as an offshore lifejacket standard its main purpose is commercial, providing a lifejacket standard that will operate for workmen in heavier clothes or burdened with tools.
The CE standard covers a lot of other things besides buoyancy but these short paragraphs are meant to help you choose, not to be a treatise on lifejackets!
Which adult jacket should you choose?
The standard 150N lifejacket comes in four forms, manual release where you pull a toggle to release the gas and inflate the jacket, and automatic release where water action releases the gas to inflate the jacket. Both these lifejackets can also be purchased with or without a harness built into the lifejacket with a stainless steel "D" ring, to which a safety line can be attached to secure you to the boat, and in this way we have the four options. Automatic lifejackets can also be released manually, and all can be topped up by mouth if necessary.
Safety always involves some compromise otherwise we'd live on soup and never leave the house. Which lifejacket you buy is therefore your own personal decision, what follows is only a general observation of the criteria used by some customers to make their decisions. We each must make our own.
Automatic lifejacket with harness, on our product code this appears as AGH. You might choose this lifejacket if you felt there was some chance of going into the water unconscious, (perhaps being hit by the boom of a sail), or for use by a handicapped person, or for use by a child, and where you feel it might be an advantage to be able to secure yourself to the vessel while working on deck. Probably the first choice cruising or racing sailors.
Automatic Lifejacket without harness, on our product code this appears as AG. You might choose this lifejacket if you felt there was some chance of going into the water unconscious, or for use by a handicapped person, or for use by a child, but where there is little chance of needing to secure yourself on deck for working. Probably mainly the choice of motor boaters.
Manual Lifejacket with harness, on our product code this appears as MGH. If you believed at least one of our competitors you would assume there were no virtues in a manual release lifejacket, but I don't think this is so. As I said earlier, safety is a matter of personal responsibility, if you are a sailor and wish to secure yourself to the boat on some occasions, but perhaps she is a very wet boat, or perhaps you frequently come ashore by tender, then you might decide that a lifejacket that goes off on contact with water is going to be a very expensive choice. Added to which, having gone off, the lifejacket must be re-armed before it has any further value, and this could be a nuisance in the middle of a cruise. For whatever reason the MGH lifejacket is a very popular choice at www.allgadgets.co.uk and www.on-line-marine.com
Manual release without harness, on our product code this appears as MG. This is the most popular and biggest selling lifejacket of all. Probably the choice of most Motor Boaters, Day Sailors, Launch and Speedboat users, backpackers, pilots, and inflatable boat users. Releases on the pull of a toggle.
A note on children's lifejackets.
All gas inflation lifejackets for children are automatic release for obvious reasons. The advantages are that they are more comfortable than foam lifejackets to wear, so less a cause of arguments aboard than some bulky types, and they are just like Mum and Dad wear. The downside may be that children playing near water are more likely to accidentally trigger the jacket requiring a re-arm kit each time, added to which fiddling fingers have been known to loosen the gas cylinders so this is a matter for checking by Dad and advice to the child to leave well alone. The bulkier foam filled lifejackets, such as our Baltic range, are suited to children playing near water, always work, are less costly to purchase, are very light, and never need to be re-armed.
A note on re-arm kits.
There are four main makes of re-arm kit, United Moulders, Halkey-Roberts, Hammar and Secumar. Whichever lifejacket you order if you also order a re-arm kit we will supply one to suit. It may not be in the same packaging as the lifejacket since, for example, Typhoon, XM, and Seago all use the same inflator, and we buy where the price is most competitive.
I advise purchasers of automatic lifejackets to buy a spare re-arm kit, though it's not necessary perhaps to buy one for every jacket if making a multiple purchase. There's nothing more inconvenient than having one go off in the middle of a holiday, and having to trek round trying to find a match. Another reason for buying at the same time as your original purchase is the high cost of freight if sending a re-arm kit alone with an approved carrier.
Final Note.
I hope you have found this helpful, but I am not a safety professional. If in doubt about any purchase please seek additional advice. Anyone who feels that there is information in this article that could be improved without adding much to its length please let me know. Thanks for your time.
John Church