New lifejacket design keeps head above water

TeamO Marine Safety Products unveiled its Hi-Lift 150N lifejacket at the show this week.

The design has been developed from the previous BackTow lifejacket from TeamO, where the wearer is rotated into a face-up, seated position rather than being pulled along face down. 

The Hi-Lift maintains this function but also raises the head and shoulders higher above the water with a pillow at the back, thus reducing the risk of the head being submerged when waves are high.

It also has an enhanced stability, with the front of the jacket flaring out to the sides.

TeamO says the Hi-Lift lifejacket has ’revolutionary buoyancy distribution’ and dramatically increases the mouth freeboard to keep the user’s airway clear above water even when conditions are turbulent.

TeamO was created in response to tragedy: a fatal accident, it says, highlighted a failure in conventional harness technology, where if a person overboard was clipped to a moving vessel, the harness would drag them into a face-down position.

Its response, the BackTow harness, was launched in 2017 and was shortlisted for multiple design awards for its rotational feature, increasing the amount of time rescuers have to get to a person overboard because they are face up in a seated position.

Receiving the DAME Design Award at METS, Oscar Mead, Designer & Product Manager for TeamO, said: “We are so proud to be the DAME award winner, the Hi-Lift is a total re-think of lifejacket bladder design, we really had to forget everything we thought we knew and start from scratch, but the results speak for themselves.”