Joe wrote:
katy wrote:
Joe wrote:
katy wrote:

That's good to hear. I am always concerned, though, when newbies read
posts in this forum and see that some experienced sailors eschew safety
procedures over comfort or sea conditions.
I'm not eschewing safety at all. I figure if something happens I will
be more usefull in the water being able to swim and dive. Helping
people tangled below is a real factor on a sailboat. Comfort is not my
issue either. Float coats are very comfortable.

Mobility and not getting tangled up in stuff is my issue.

While there is a factor that
experience is a safety factor in itself, there are those unforeseeable
situations when experience doesn't count at all. We've all read the
accounts of famous sailors who have gone to Davy Jones because they
weren't wearing a PFD and were swept overboard.
Yelp, you wanna play the game you might have to pay the price. Best to
stay on the boat.

I can give an example of how not having a life jacket kept me alive.
I've told the story here before of being washed over in the gulf. Seas
at 11-15 ft and I went under the boat. Had I had a life jacket on when
the boat came down on me several times, I would have been hammered and
cut up worse by the bottom growth, since I did not I just flowed with
the action and was able to claw my way out from under the boat.

I would not endorse or suggest that anyone else follow my example, but
I'm not going to change my ways.

Joe

Yet if you had on a harness and line you would not have been in that
situation. It's the same argument that people use about seatbelts.

Had I had a harness on, I'd been snapped at the harness like a twig, or
crushed by the deck cargo awash, and not able to do my job. Picture
standing on a steel beach, around you is 10X15 ft metal boxes that
wiegh in on average 2000 pounds. Now violently rock the beach 25 to 35
degrees, back and forth, then have a 15 ft solid wall of water hit you
and all the gear, breaking 3/8 chains everywhere and washing it to all
in one big slosh to stbd in 1/2 a second and tell me you want to be
harnessed in.

Joe

OK...you've qualified that you were not sailing but on some kind of
commercial or Navy vessel, which is an entirely different matter...most
people here would never be in that situation so what you're saying
doesn't apply...hey...just a thought...why don't you ask Terry to come
back and post? I promise I won't pick on her...for real...since
Haggie's immersed in other projects lately it's rahter devoid of the
female perspective around here (I don't consider "Ellen's" perspective
as being female)...and the guys all like her...