Wear Your P.F.D.
 

....that water is still pretty cold!
Sympathies to the Hadlock family
...kudos to the first responders.

20 minutes is a pretty long response time.

You don't know how many times
 

I've seen folks in non-motorized vessels not wearing a PFD out on the Broads! And they are not kids either!

The problem is that people don't think accidents will happen to them.... Unfortunately they happen all the time.

Yes indeed that water is still cold............

I don't think people think accidents will not happen to them its more uncomfortable to wear. To put it on and keep it on when its hot and then start sweating its gets itchy and very uncomfortable. I agree they should be worn at all times in a non motorized boat, or in a boat by yourself.

We have the inflatable PFDs with the manual pull cord. They are comfortable to wear and we wear them whenever in a boat, paddle or motorized. We got the manual type as we sometimes use them paddling kayaks on the lake, an auto inflate type might inflate just from the paddle dripping/splashing.

For use in just motorized boats the auto inflate type may be a good choice.

I've responded to thousands of medical calls and I know even a 3 minute response can feel like 10 minutes to someone waiting for help. Doing CPR and waiting as long as Mr. Lutz did must have seemed like an eternity. He was doing some good CPR considering the victim got a cardiac rhythm back after being down for so long.
Cold water drownings are much more survivable than other drownings, younger patients have been revived after being submerged for over an hour.
Anybody who is hypothermic and still alive is very susceptible to cardiac arrest if they are jostled around. Nice and easy is paramount when dealing with a prolonged cold water submersion or any hypothermic patient.

Let me repeat myself...
 

New Hampshire law requires that all children 12 years old and younger are required to wear a PFD while underway in a boat.

Underway is any time that a vessel is not tied to the shore, anchored or aground.

I can not recall ever hearing of a child drowning while underway. When do they drown? When the boat is tied to a dock. At the campground. On the beach. Playing on the dock. In the brook. In the pool. These are times when parents and older family are not paying as close attention to the children as they would in the underway boat.

No blame game here. Kids are quick and when they go under there is no noise. It is an easy mistake to make.

OK lecture over. Just kids need to wear their any time they are near the water.

Misty Blue

You won't hear them.
 

Great point about kids going under quietly. I was vacuuming my above ground pool and let a 6 year old sit on the side until I was thru. While looking away, he slid in and I never heard it. I turned in time to see the top of his head bobbing and pulled him out. I still shudder to think he could have drowned 5 feet from me.

Also, every year we can count on a few drownings in NH lakes when a canoe tips on a 70 degree day, and the water was still so cold the person only had a short time. I'd think there are enough examples that some kind of clear example/warning would save lives. Maybe a controlled filming of a capsize with a person without a pfd, to show how little time they have.

Spence was my neighbor and a great guy who LOVED to fish. We will miss him. This unfortunately happens every year in the early spring and late Fall. Please folks wear a PFD :)

While not a Coast Guard approved item, a swimmer's belt is less bulky and more comfy to wear, plus they center the buoyancy which makes them actually good for swimming, not the case for the pfd. The swimmer's belt comes in a number of different designs and will definitely conserve your energy and keep-U-afloat while you swim or tread in the 40-50 degree water. With just one click snap, it is easier to adjust, and easier to put on when already in the water, too. And, unlike the pfd, it can always be used to practice your swimming in the calm water or in the choppy waves.

Back in the 1960's the swimmers belt was commonly used for waterskiing, and now one almost never sees them anymore, and they have them at Parafunalia in Gilford.

I don't think a swimmer's belt helps if you're knocked unconscious.

A USCG or NH MP approved PFD needs to work while you are unconscious, that why FLL's swimmers belts are not legal as a PFD on a boat.

I do agree it's a PITA to swim in a PFD. They are meant to keep you afloat until help arrives, not to help you swim to safety.

I would take a swimmers belt over nothing, but I believe this to be a far cry from an approved PFD. A usefull link with lots of info.


http://www.ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm

....the "Ferrari of waterbelts"!
 

... http://watergym.com/content/sf.asp ...this looks like it probably has more floatation than one really needs, and it is high priced...and obviously it is better to be wearing a swimmers belt should you fall into the icy cold water, than not to be wearing a pfd when you fall in ... plus waterbelts are good for swimmer safety when the lake gets choppy, windy or rough with white caps...and it is more comfy and less restrictive with less heat build-up when paddling...

...bargain hunting at local garage sales, old swimmers belts that have been hanging out in the garage since 1966 can sometimes be found for something like 50-cents that are still usable...

I don't recall the circumstances when inflatable belts are OK to use but I believe they are now coast guard approved (at least for some situations). They are not ideal for situations when you may go into the water unconscious (nor are some life jackets) but they have the potential to help, particularly in instances when someone otherwise would not wear a PFD.

Your "Ferrari" is not an approved life saving device. Best to stick with the Ford or Chevy.

Gym belt is a REALLY bad idea
 

In really cold water you can become unconscious from hypothermia surprisingly quickly so the suggestion of treading water would become drowning if you couldn't get to shore VERY quickly. The idea of using such a belt is false security and therefore foolish and dangerous.

Frankly, even a good PFD may not save you from "freezing to death" in cold water but it should keep you from drowning so you have a little longer to be rescued.

I'd happily pay real good money for a device I could count on rather than a 50 cent yard sale item that fails when you really need it. Personally, I'd be really appalled to give such a suggestion and then found someone got killed following it.

$200+ PFDs for Windsurfers...!
 

Back a few years, then-Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen floated the proposal that every boater would be required to wear a PFD when under way.

Check on those PFD "approvals".
:look:

Only a couple of PFD model-designs will keep one's face above the water should the wearer be unconscious.
:eek2:

Back in the 1940's we would have said WHY.

safetycheck
 

I would recommend that at the start of the season you take your life preservers, and all such equipment on the boat and test them, Back in the early 60's we used to use life cushions we sat on them, made life a little comftorable. However, we decided to test them at the end of the season and guess what, they went to the bottom faster than the anchor. My Uncle gave me four new ones for Xmas. I think the wearing ones are much better and safer, but I still think they need to be tested at the start of the season.

Safe boating this 2013 year.