Our third Winter Talk took place last night at Bere Alston Bowling Club and our speaker, David Johnson gave us a truly fascinating insight into how important life jackets are to us and particularly to offshore sailors.
He explained what happens to us after falling into sea water and how short a time we would have to survive and hence how important a good self-inflating life jacket is and preferably one with a face-covering hood and water-activated light.
We saw the components of an offshore life jacket and how to inspect these to ensure the system will work, should we ever need to use it.
Having opened up the life jackets we had brought with us, it soon became clear that none of us had firing mechanisms that were within their expiry date! Quite a sobering discovery.
We learned how to check the condition of the components and how to tell if the CO2 cylinders were correctly full.
One life jacket that had a corroded CO2 cylinder and an out-of-date actuator (hence needed new parts) was activated to see it inflate and learn how to adjust the fit correctly to allow space for the inflated shape.
Afterwards, we went outside, where member Mike Tucker showed us the inflation of his life raft (it had reached the end of its expiry life, so could be used for demonstration).
We learned so much about these important safety devices and certainly feel inspired to make the necessary checks to ensure they will be always be in full working order.
We are indebted to David for his creative and inspiring presentation.