Never have liked Inflatable PFD's. This article confirms my feelings.
http://www.bassfan.com/docktalk_article/14632/cox-on-accident:-it-was-scary-#.VRp1kVzXlsM
Good to hear they didn't suffer worse injuries. Crazy how the boat just spun out of control like that. Sounds like they must have hit something, or is it possible for the motor to act up on its own and cause that?? Scary stuff
He fished out of a 19 foot Crestliner Aluminum Boat with a 150 Merc the first 3 days, but had to use a FLW approved Ranger on the last day.
I read the article and I have to believe he hit something the way it was described by everyone.
I would like to see the gps speed reading first.
From what I 've read
There was a chase boat behind him, They were running at 40-50 MPH and making a slight turn
nothing crazy that stands out
And both of their self inflating pfd's didn't work, and they were different brands. very alarming.
Scary thing is you never know if it will inflate.
Quote from: dartag on April 01, 2015, 04:47:49 PM
Scary thing is you never know if it will inflate.
Yea,
But in this case it was a good thing
Both were thrown out, And went under.
And then the boat went over the top of them.
Quote from: Manxfishing on April 01, 2015, 05:10:11 AM
From what I 've read
There was a chase boat behind him, They were running at 40-50 MPH and making a slight turn
nothing crazy that stands out
Other than a steering failure of some kind the only way I've heard of this happening in an explainable way in the past is dropping the bow too fast during a turn. It can bite in suddenly at those speeds and cause the boat to do a sharp turn.
I've done it once at a moderate speed where I turned while trimmed out and slowed far enough to drop the bow fast. The force of the bow catching the water could easily eject someone from the boat at speeds less than full once you've felt it.
I have not idea if that's what happened but that's one thing that I have seen and heard of happening several times. It can also happen with some hulls if your going fast trimmed down and you turn just right, and raise and drop the bow quickly. Some boats won't cut sharp but some boats will cut very sharp. Depends on the prevailing water conditions too. It can happen in calm water but waves and wakes at the wrong time can make it happen too.
That's crazy. Alot can go wrong out there.
They recommend we test our inflatable life jackets once a year too but each cylinder and 'trigger' is only good for one dunking so I'm not sure how this works... other than you can see if it leaks or not (I try to keep mine away from the fishing cats here...) I guess good advice would to replace the trigger and canister at least once per year. What do any of you do?
Since they survived it is easy to say the non-inflation helped.
I can understand wearing one while fishing but not running. Would be a pain to swap since you would not want it under the PFD and have it deploy and be restricted.
I will stick with my type 3 pfd.
With my inflatable, I pull the cord at the end of every season to make sure it works and that there isn't any leaks. I don't immediately reinstall a new CO2 cartridge, as I prefer to wait until the spring time.
As for the auto inflating part, that tests itself at least once a year when I am wearing it during a heavy rain. Nothing makes driving a boat in the rain more enjoyable than suddenly having it suddenly inflate! I figure if it goes off in the rain, it should go off if I ever end up in the lake.
However, this will be last inflatable I own. As soon as this one develops a leak, I buying a regular life vest.
I had a nice low profile vest for a short time but I accidentally blew it out of the boat at Lake Lansing. I think some old-timers picked it up but by the time I remembered and went back looking for it all I saw was the old-timers and they were playing 'I didn't see anything' (with smirks on their faces).
My old inflatable inflated in the compartment one day after a really heavy, prolonged rain soaked everything. I haven't done the rain or wave-spear 'test' yet. Just lucky so far... I may get another low profile vest one of these days but I like wearing the inflatable while fishing by myself when it's hot out.
I use the old school type. Made up my mind about 10 years ago when I witnessed a guy fall out of a boat head first. His vest never inflated. Thats all I needed to see, period.