One piece Harnesses - AGAIN !! Sorry

[Janos]

Originally Posted by Digger

Thanks for sharing experiences with open suits, I can see how it could happen now, but am still not sure on the physics of it. I suppose if the whole suit is filled there may be a way.

One explanation is that the material of the suit is more dense than water. Throw an undersuit into the water and the only thing that keeps it afloat is the air trapped in the fibres. However, if you flood the suit, then instead of having fibres+air (lighter than water) you have fibres+water (heavier than water). Consequently you sink.

I'm fairly sure that most of my (day to day) clothes sink when sodden, and I think my 4th element does too. Although it's been a while since I've washed it.

Finally, my drysuit on it's own is quite heavy. I think when I weighed it before going to Norway it was 5kg. That's quite heavy. I can swim up 4kg of lead, but it's a struggle.

Janos

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by Janos

Has anyone cut the end off a weightbelt that was too long? Or the extra bit off the end of a harness? Did it take you a minute? No? me neither.

Janos

Now , go and soak you bit of webbing in the bath for 30 mins or so ,,,,, coz as it gets wet the harder to cut.

Shears hard to cut.
Normal dive knife hard to cut.

Andy's special £ 9.99 tool a piece of pi$$. less than 6 seconds out of 5 goes on wet dive belt.

((( If ya want to ask what my special tool is ,,,,, it'll cost ya £ 9.99 in ya local RNLI box )))

[Spike Jackson]

Very interesting thread. Owenter's experiences are not unique, I have heard from at least two seperate sources of people really struggling to get casualities (real or simulated) out of one peice harnesses.
There's a high chance that the first person on the scene will be the skipper of the boat (or his deck hand), your buddy may still be looking for you, finishing his deco, or have surfaced 20,30,50m away and struggling to reach you.
So what are the options the skipper has? If he has a lift he can float you on to that and get you out quickly regardless of what harness you have but if not he needs to get you out of it very quickly. So he gets to you, gets hold of you - does he have a knife or shears to hand? Or does he have to let you go having realised its a one peice harness and rush back to the wheelhouse to get it, then bring the boat round again.....
Deflating the wing and sliding you out of it, (assuming you don't sink!), how doable is this when leaning over the side of a rib or hardboat?
It may all be relatively doable with sufficient rescuers with the right knowhow, the right equipment (knives or shears) and who are keeping their heads together but in a real situation?

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by Spike Jackson

Very interesting thread. Owenter's experiences are not unique, I have heard from at least two seperate sources of people really struggling to get casualities (real or simulated) out of one peice harnesses.
There's a high chance that the first person on the scene will be the skipper of the boat (or his deck hand), your buddy may still be looking for you, finishing his deco, or have surfaced 20,30,50m away and struggling to reach you.
So what are the options the skipper has? If he has a lift he can float you on to that and get you out quickly regardless of what harness you have but if not he needs to get you out of it very quickly. So he gets to you, gets hold of you - does he have a knife or shears to hand? Or does he have to let you go having realised its a one peice harness and rush back to the wheelhouse to get it, then bring the boat round again.....
Deflating the wing and sliding you out of it, (assuming you don't sink!), how doable is this when leaning over the side of a rib or hardboat?
It may all be relatively doable with sufficient rescuers with the right knowhow, the right equipment (knives or shears) and who are keeping their heads together but in a real situation?

I know what ya saying Spike......... Me, I'll have no second thoughts of using a knife to get someone out of any form of kit , that wasn't easy to get at / dekit at a glance ,,,,,,,

[Digger]

Originally Posted by Spike Jackson

Very interesting thread. Owenter's experiences are not unique, I have heard from at least two seperate sources of people really struggling to get casualities (real or simulated) out of one peice harnesses.
There's a high chance that the first person on the scene will be the skipper of the boat (or his deck hand), your buddy may still be looking for you, finishing his deco, or have surfaced 20,30,50m away and struggling to reach you.
So what are the options the skipper has? If he has a lift he can float you on to that and get you out quickly regardless of what harness you have but if not he needs to get you out of it very quickly. So he gets to you, gets hold of you - does he have a knife or shears to hand? Or does he have to let you go having realised its a one peice harness and rush back to the wheelhouse to get it, then bring the boat round again.....
Deflating the wing and sliding you out of it, (assuming you don't sink!), how doable is this when leaning over the side of a rib or hardboat?
It may all be relatively doable with sufficient rescuers with the right knowhow, the right equipment (knives or shears) and who are keeping their heads together but in a real situation?

I do think any skipper on a dive boat, or just about any other boat for that matter, should have a decent knife on their person all the time. If someone gets caught in the many ropes on board, if a shotline catches something/someone on the way down, getting people out of gear like this, they would need it. There's plenty of knife belts that you would never know were there until you need them.

But I can't see an easy way of a skipper effecting a rescue on their own on most hardboats I know. Which is another good reason to take along surface support. They answer to the skipper and can assist or drive the boat as required.

Digs.