Safety at Sea

Hayden Speed guides us through how to check inflatable lifejackets to make sure they will actually work when you need them.

Safety at sea is extremely important and each and every boatie should have the necessary equipment to stay safe. This gear should also be reliable and well maintained, as without it working properly you are putting your life, and the lives of the others on board, at risk. 

One of the most important pieces of safety equipment is the lifejacket. Everyone on board, by law, has to have one available that fits adequately and performs when needed. There are many different variations of lifejackets, all with the same purpose – to keep you afloat should you end up in the drink.

Lifejackets are often neglected and their performance is taken for granted – we all assume that when required the lifejacket will inflate. However, this isn’t always the case! Some basic maintenance is required to ensure that they are in perfect working order. 

Slim-profile lifejacket in action.

One Sunday afternoon I headed down to my local Burnsco store and got a run-through on how to best maintain inflatable lifejackets and also ensure that our old ones were up to scratch. Our lifejackets are 6 or 7 years old and haven’t been serviced in a very long time. Upon inspection, it appeared that the air canister was beginning to corrode in one of the jackets; however, it still looked reasonably okay. So, I put this lifejacket on and pulled the cord to inflate the jacket. It turned out that the canister wasn’t screwed in enough and we could see some air escaping out the side of the jacket. This resulted in the lifejacket only being partially inflated – not ideal if I was in the water! 

The guys at Burnsco then gave me a brand new inflatable jacket to trial, so I put this on and gave it a pull. Inflation was instant and filled entirely as it should. I then deflated the jacket and put it back into its case ready for action (after fitting a new air canister of course!). 

Air canisters - the one on the left is significantly rusted and corroded so will need to be replaced. The two on the right are examples of air canisters in good condition.

As a guide, you should open the lifejacket every six trips to check everything looks like it should. To do this, start by opening the velcro around the outside of the jacket. Inside, you will see the air bladder. You will also find an air canister and a fitting into which the canister threads. Check that the canister is screwed (finger tight) into the bladder’s filling port. If it is loose some of the air will leak out of the port and won’t go into the lifejacket – leaving you only partially inflated (as we had just experienced!). Worse still, it may have become totally unscrewed, as was the case in one of the other jackets we opened!

On the fitting into which the air canister screws, you will see a small indicator that represents the charge held in the canister. Red indicates a failed canister or connection. Green is good to go. 

Air canister indicators - pictured here is the fitting that the air canister screws onto. The red/green indicators will tell you if the canisters are charged and ready for use. Red indicates a failed connection, while green is good to go.

To test the buoyancy of the actual lifejacket itself, and make sure that it’s airtight, it’s a good idea to manually blow up the lifejacket (via the manual inflation tube on the side) until full. Let this sit overnight and check on it in the morning – a good lifejacket won’t have lost any air by the time you check on it. If it has deflated slightly, you may have a leak and it will obviously need to be mended. 

To repack the jacket back into its case, it helps if you pay attention to how it was packed when you opened it! There will likely be crease lines in the bladder to indicate where the folds were previously. It’s important to make sure that the pull cord is still outside the jacket and available if needed. 

Over time the velcro around the outer edge of the jacket may become knitted together, making it hard for inflation to happen freely. Regularly opening the jacket will help prevent this issue. 

As with all safety gear it’s extremely important that it is maintained and serviced regularly so that when required it won’t let you down.

A huge thanks to the guys at the Mount Maunganui Burnsco for giving me the rundown on how to ensure that our lifejackets are up to scratch! 

August 2022 - Hayden Speed
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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