Seawork meeting leads to safety in style
The Deckvest is contoured, and minimises any restriction of activity
Has the leisure market got anything to teach the commercial side? Well, yes, apparently. It seems that there have been a number of crossovers ‘upstream’.
James Hall of Spinlock tells MJ that, for example, the Deckvest 275 has sprung from a design that is based on sports equipment, with all the research from ease of use and manoeuvrability that implies, rather than just being thought of a ‘safety extra’.
Spinlock’s Deckware manager Myles Uren adds that the standard regulation lifejackets are well known to be less than comfortable. ‘This means that despite marine professionals spending many more hours in lifejackets than leisure sailors, their lifejackets are typically heavier, more cumbersome and unnecessarily tiring to wear.’
Thus, the new 275 life jacket has been designed with freedom of movement in mind that helps reduce fatigue and allows users able to stay alert and safe for longer. Some of the design input comes from further afield than you might think. The lifejacket’s positioning, more central and higher on the chest than most standard jackets, has come about from research originally intended for the backpacking and travel market. Clever use of climbing technology helps avoid the ribcage injury in a restrained fall that typical marine harness webbing can cause.
From the leisure boating side, there was a need for the lifejacket to be able to be shrugged on or off without a lot of readjusting each time, accommodating changing of clothing layers or the normal in and outs below deck. This meant a neck adjustment for the shoulders plus an easy to change waistband adjustment on the front so the jacket sits well and fits properly every time. It also has a neat Hammar hydrostatic activated 275N bladder and is compliant with the latest ISO 12402 standard.
Mr Hall goes on to say that the design has benefitted from leisure technology ‘simply because a lot of money has been pumped into developing kit that specifically aims to be wearable.’
The developments have proved useful for a number of operations, including the British Antarctic Survey and Vestas Offshore UK. Magnox North’s decommissioning of the Hunterston power station has also benefitted, as here workers coordination and balance are tested as they spend prolonged periods using high pressure steam cleaning equipment on pontoons over large, 9mdeep pools of water.
Mr Hall explains that Magnox first met Spinlock at Seawork, and being suitably impressed by the freedom of movement allowed by the Deckvest, ordered a set of 10, which were added to by another set of the same number.
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