Trapeze harness and life jacket

[McKrassy]

Hey, you are all wearing life jackets when going out on the water, right? But most of you would wear a trapeze harness, too.

Do most of you just wear the life jacket over the trapeze harness? I find that a little uncomfortable and it's getting pretty warm in summer, too. To make things worse, I like to wear a hydration backpack, too. I think it's all getting a bit much.

I have been thinking about a self-inflating life jacket, too, since they are more comfortable to wear. However, there is a problem with that: There is the auto-inflating type and the manually inflating type. On a 14ft cat you are getting wet far too often for the former type; the latter type, I reckon, won't help you all that much since you are most likely to need it when you get hit by the boom and thrown overboard and you may not be conscious at that point. Not that that happens all that often, but I think that is one of the main scenarios a life jacket is for.

I would be interested to see what you guys are doing. Thank you.

[TornadoSport260]

Most of us wear Type 2 PFD's with a harness (unless you don't sail with trap ie. Maricat cat/sloop & Paper Tigers).

If you want a Type 1 PFD that is 150Nm bouyancy (as required for Cat 2. & Cat. 1 offshore racing) look at some of the auto inflating hydrostatic PFD's.

The hydrostatic ones only work once you are actually IN the water (i've seen them work while doing my SSSC and they are great but not cheap). The other auto type use a dissolving tablet or paper strip which as you say can set themselves off with the amount of water you cop on deck.

I personally own both a type 2 PFD for cat sailing and a manual inflate Type 1 PFD with tether attachments for offshore racing.