What life jacket to wear?

Wolo4

New Member
I have a dumb question about the style/type life jacket to wear while sailing? I don't like the ones that ride up on you when sitting.
 
I have a dumb question about the style/type life jacket to wear while sailing? I don't like the ones that ride up on you when sitting.

I wear a West Marine jacket that I think is more of a kayaking jacket. I believe they are higher cut. I've never had an issue with it riding up. In fact, if you're able to see my profile picture I am wearing it (unzipped though).

 
It's quite personal and I highly recommend that you try on several PFDs before you buy.
I have a Gill one (bought at a discount). It's pretty similar to the Onyx one mentioned above.
 
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The more expensive ones have zipper pockets.

Try before you buy is the key.

I have a better quality West Marine Kayak type.
 
Stohlquist is the preferred PFD at my club. They are comfortable and stay in place well. My husband has it and likes it a lot. I got a women’s kayaking one for myself and don’t much like it. It has a high back intended to sort of sit on top of the seat back and gets caught on the boom when I don’t bend down far enough. Kids have NRS. When we bought last summer, everything was out of stock. We took what we could get.
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I have this one and I love it. Never had an issue with it riding up, but YMMV.

I use the same one. The zippers work easily and never bind. The pocket is great to store a car key+float and it also has a built in whistle for emergencies. My only complaint is that when ducking under the boom during a gybe or tack, the back of the life jacket can get caught on the boom. But I believe that would be true of just about any PFD.
 
"... the back of the life jacket can get caught on the boom."

We look for PFDs that are cut low around the neck and they tend to have straps vs "shoulders." We also set our rig higher, the "Geezer Rig," to get the boom higher and angled up a little more aft. Nice rig for light winds.

Other tricks to keep the sheet from catching a PFD is to add sheet hangers, either home made from Duct tape, zip ties etc or we purchase ours from Intensity.

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Some folks also put a t shirt on OVER the PFD to smooth everything out.

One more way to keep the boom away is to wear Muck boots to kick the boom over your head while tacking...

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I use the same one. The zippers work easily and never bind. The pocket is great to store a car key+float and it also has a built in whistle for emergencies. My only complaint is that when ducking under the boom during a gybe or tack, the back of the life jacket can get caught on the boom. But I believe that would be true of just about any PFD.

I don't think I've had that issue but I use 3D printed hangers so that's probably why.
 
Never had trouble with the boom catching my PFD, but the sheet YES...constantly an issue unless I kept the sheet very tight while tacking. Adding a couple of duct tape sleeves on the boom to keep the sheet tight against the boom while tacking made all the difference.
 

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