Survival Suits

Hello Fishies!

During last nights premier of Deadliest Catch you were able to see a small part of the safety drills and equipment that are aboard vessels. With the footage of the search, rescue and recovery of the F/V Ocean Challenger you saw how that equipment is deployed.

As is obvious from the show, the bright “safety” orange color has better contrast than any other, it draws the eye. All of the equipment is that color – life rings, rafts, survival suits and smoke flares.

Prior to the development of the first immersion suit by the Bayley Company, if you went into cold water and were not rescued immediately, that was the end for you. One of the starkest examples of the success of the suit happened back in the early 1980’s when a fisherman, (whose name escapes me now) survived 36 hours after the sinking of his boat off the coast of Washington State.

Bayley has a good piece about the history of their suit at its company website:

BayleySuit - Custom Tailored Drysuits

There are several different types of suit available today. On commercial fishing vessels you will find either the Bayley or Stearns survival suits. These are the industry standard and referred to as the “Gumby suit” due to the shape the wearer takes. (I haven’t heard of any plans for a Pokey suit for boat pets.)

Safety drills are absolutely necessary; they familiarize you with the equipment and try to get you to ready to react appropriately in an emergency situation. The harsh reality of it all is that you rarely have a calm deck to roll out the suit and put it on at your leisure. More often than not the crew is awakened to a nightmare that has already progressed to the breaking point. Many a man has gone into the water clutching his suit in a desperate attempt to put it on.

Wikipedia has some good information about the suits:

Survival suit, or more specifically an immersion survival suit, is a special type of waterproof dry suit that protects the wearer from hypothermia from immersion in cold water, after abandoning a sinking or capsized vessel, especially in the open ocean. A survival suit's flotation and thermal protection is usually better than an immersion protection work suit, and typically extends a person's survival by several hours while waiting for rescue.

Usage

Unlike work suits, survival suits are not normally worn, and are stowed in an accessible location onboard the craft. The operator may be required* to have one survival suit of the appropriate size onboard for each crew member, and other passengers. If a survival suit is not accessible from a crew member's work station and berth, then two accessible suits must be provided.

An adult survival suit is often a large bulky one-size-fits-all design meant to fit a wide range of sizes. It typically has large oversize booties and gloves built into the suit, which let the user quickly don it on while fully clothed, and without having to remove shoes. It typically has a waterproof zipper up the front, and a face flap to seal water out around the neck and protect the wearer from ocean spray.

The integral gloves may be a thin waterproof non-insulated type to give the user greater dexterity during donning and evacuation, with a second insulating outer glove tethered to the sleeves to be worn while immersed.

A ship's captain (or master) may be required hold drills periodically to ensure that everyone can get to the survival suit storage quickly, and don the suit in the allotted amount of time. In the event of an emergency, it should be possible to put on a survival suit and abandon ship in about one minute.

Suit construction

Survival suits are normally constructed out of red or bright fluorescent orange or yellow fire-retardant neoprene, for high visibility on the open sea. The Neoprene material used is a synthetic rubber closed-cell foam, containing a multitude of tiny air bubbles making the suit sufficiently buoyant to also be a personal flotation device.

The seams of the neoprene suit are sewn and taped to seal out the cold ocean water, and the suit also has strips of SOLAS specified retroreflective tape on the arms, legs, and head to permit the wearer to be located at night from a rescue aircraft or ship.

Safety features

Survival suits can also be equipped with extra safety options such as:

A whistle on a lanyard to permit the wearer to signal for help

An emergency strobe light beacon with a water-activated battery

An inflatable air bladder to lift the wearer's head up out of the water

Tethered mittens to better insulate the hands

An emergency radio locator beacon

A "Buddy line" to attach to others' suits to keep the group together for rescue

Inflatable Survival Suits

The inflatable survival suit is a special type of survival suit, recently developed, which is similar in construction to an inflatable boat, but shaped to wrap around the arms and legs of the wearer. This type of suit is much more compact than a neoprene survival suit, and very easy to put on when deflated since it is just welded from plastic sheeting to form an air bladder.

Once the inflatable survival suit has been put on and zipped shut, the wearer activates firing handles on compressed carbon dioxide cartridges, which punctures the cartridges and rapidly inflates the suit. This results in a highly buoyant, rigid shape that also offers very high thermal retention properties.

However, like an inflatable boat, the inflatable survival suit loses all protection properties if it is punctured and the gas leaks out. For this reason, the suit may consist of two or more bladders, so that if one fails, a backup air bladder is available.

* they ARE required. Some fishing vessels provide them and others will require you to purchase and maintain your own.

Stay Tuned!