"Roger Long" wrote:

I've been looking at the safety harnesses that have a built in CO2
lifejacket. Pricey, but they look comfortable to wear and you don't have to
worry about digging up a harness if things get hairy. I'd appreciate some
experience / or comments on these.

We always wear these when underway. We have the auto-inflate ones.
We didn't actually really believe that they would inflate, so one warm
day on the Chesapeake, we jumped overboard (the boat was anchored) to
see. Boy do these inflate fast. We periodically have them go off
without being submerged. The first time, Bob accused me of pulling
the manual inflate tab. So we always keep a couple of refill kits,
and a couple extra life jackets on board. We also keep enough for
various ages of grandkids.

Bob was concerned that I would not be able to pull him aboard because
even though I'm heavier than he is, I'm also weaker. He's worked out
a way to use the jib winches so that either of us can pull up the
other one.

We also keep the swim ladder deployed most of the time, even when at
the dock, as I was folding the sail getting ready to haul the boat for
the winter, and backed right off the end of the dock into the 50
degree water. The dock ladders had only one rung, and since it was a
lowish tide, it was way over my head.

I do not know how to deal with cold water, so I won't address that,
but an occupational health physician told me the 50 50 50 rule - 50
percent of people survive 50 minutes in 50 degree (F) water.

I refused to go offshore without an SSB. We have several VHF radios -
some installed, and some portable. I've come to the conclusion that
for sailors, the only really important news is the weather, and I like
to have as many different viewpoints on that as possible. If I was
going to be going offshore at all, I'd want to have one of us get our
ham license.

We have a dinghy on davits - I've not felt the need for a liferaft for
coastal cruising, which is what we do. If something happens to the
boat in the Chesapeake or the ICW, we can likely get into the dinghy
in time to save ourselves, or even in most cases swim to shore. YMMV

Bob has various tools and spares on board, and I've heard that crash
mats and plugs for big and small leaks are a good idea.

We're in Maine and most of our cruising will probably be to even colder
regions. The Mustang coats look great but are probably too warm for summer.
Growing kids (12 and 14) will go through them fast.

Safety perception is a funny thing. My wife is petrified to have me take the
kids up in my well maintained airplane in clear calm conditions but sees no
danger in boating at all. Now that I'm coming back to sailing after learning
to fly and think very proactively about safety and what can go wrong, I can
see about 100 more ways to hurt or lose a kid on the water than in the air.

When I started to learn how to fly, everyone who had ever sailed with me
said that there was no way in hell that they would ever get in an airplane
with me. I turned out to be a very cautious and conservative pilot; even
became a contributor to "Aviation Safety" magazine. I think I'm going to be
a very different kind of sailor when we get the boat launched.

grandma Rosalie