From: btcx@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing
Subject: Re: Lifejackets while windsurfing (pretty long)
Date: 1 Sep 92 00:40:49 EDT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Cornell University

basically i agree with will, i just think he's being too polite.

but before i start nitpicking on will, i will answer the original post and say
that i use an old Stearns vest (not bulky though not as free as a kayak vest)
and am used to it.  i think it does get in the way occasionally but i don't
notice.  i imagine a kayak vest would be no problem at all. the seat harness
hook is low enough to be unaffected.  i used to wear a chest harness over it.

despite the no-seatbelt no-helmet massachusetts-libertarian types' (may their
insurance rates rise forever) claims about situations (requiring proper
alignments of the planets, mind you) where lifejackets are less safe, i am
objectively safer with it on.  yes, i have to occasionally take a few extra
strokes to catch the board compared to a stripped down swimmer, but the
*INCREMENTAL* loss over the wetsuit and seat harness and footwear is
probably negligible. 

my dad has a life jacket he made by taking apart a mae-west style jacket,
carving away the foam a little to free up his arm motion and harness hook, and
re-sewing a vest cover for it.  i don't think he uses it except in the ocean,
but it would probably be better than what i use. 

waterstarting in marginal conditions (lake sailors take note) is ***MUCH***
easier with a life jacket. 

In article <zbgn1pk.westes@netcom.com>,
westes@netcom.com (Will Estes) (NOT a mass. lib.) writes: 
> I have never once met or heard of a person who landed *conscious* and
> could not catch up to his board.  

well, now you have.  there have been several posts stating such
and it happened to me once IN LIGHT AIR!!!  i was messing around on
a small lake (more of a pond really) going downwind and lost my balance
and the sail fell on the nose so it was supported out of the water
by balancing juuuuust right on the boom.  the board took off, and
easily drifted the 100 yards or so to shore, but it was stable enough to
go much farther.  i know i couldn't SWIM to catch it because i landed in waist
deep water and couldn't RUN to catch it.  i don't think it was blowing over
10-12.  now imagine that happening in an offshore wind.

> The worst case I think would be sailing in a strong flood tide with the 
> wind going in the same direction as the tide, and the board separating from 
> the rig.  Not only would that be quite a rare event indeed, but I maintain 
> that if that happened even Mark Spitz would lose the board.  In that one 
> circumstance, your body has way more friction than the board does, and
> in a strong wind you are hosed.  

the tide has nothing to do with it, only in that it might make it difficult
to get back to shore.  once you leave terra firma, only windspeed relative
to the water matters.  you can't sail in a 5 kt (over the bottom) south breeze
in a 5 kt (over the bottom) north current (i.e. water and air moving 
w/same velocity vector wrt land).  also, the board won't leave you in that
situation.

> say you sail on a lake.  I can't imagine anyone who is a good swimmer
> not catching up to a board on a lake.  

now you can.

> But, seriously, I look at a lifevest like a seatbelt.  After you wear it
> for a while, you forget it's there.  Yes, in some small number of
> bizarre scenarios a seatbelt will get you killed.  But in the vast
> majority of cases it will save you if something happens.  A good kayak
> vest is actually kind of fun to wear.  It puts no restriction on your
> movement, and it offers good body armor for spills against the board and
> boom.  If it lowers my risk of dying by 60% in an event that only
> happens to one in 500 sailors, I feel that it is worth the $50 it cost. 

that anybody would argue with your excellent summary here is ludicrous.
(non-wave) sailing with a life jacket is safer.  (this from someone
who doesn't sail with a helmet, but, thanks to you all, now knows better)

> But then again, as you say, I am the paranoid type.  I recognize your
> right to evaluate risk differently. 

people who sail w/o one are NOT "evaluating risk differently" (unless
they ignore the obvious), they are choosing to be less safe. 

btw, the big threat with being separated from the board for a long
period is not exhaustion but hypothermia, with or without life jacket.
i imagine this goes double on the west coast and in the bay area.

Brian Carcich - Galileo Project - Centre for Radiophysics & Space Research
Cornell University                     | +01(607)255-5908
422 Space Sciences Building            | carcich@cuspif.tn.cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY   14853-6801                | CUSPIF::CARCICH (SPAN 6287::)
FAX +01(607)255-9002                   | btcx@crnlvax5.BITnet
The only things I don't like about C and Eunuchs(tm) are their proponents
Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing