Inflating Your Safety IQ

If you were a boater in the late 20th century, you probably recall the life jacket options: the bulky Type I that made you feel like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the screaming-orange horseshoe-style Type II that put you in a headlock, or the comparatively svelte Type III vest that most boaters preferred (if they wore one at all). Comfortable or not, these models were generally affordable, did their jobs, and saved lives – when they were worn, which only about 15% of recreational boaters did regularly, according to the U.S. Coast Guard Life Jacket Wear Rate Observation Study.

How to get more boaters to wear life jackets while underway has always been the “elephant in the boat” for our BoatU.S. Foundation for Boating Safety & Clean Water and other boating-safety organizations. In 1998, a new option became available to U.S. boaters – the inflatable life jacket. It was a turning point in boating safety: a wearable not much larger than suspenders (or a fanny pack); way less bulky than traditional options; and lightweight, more buoyant, and cooler to wear. These devices stayed nearly flat until you pulled a cord that activated a compact CO2 canister inside the jacket to inflate it. (Automatic and hydrostatic inflation came later.)

Bringing this trailblazing product to market in the United States didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of at least a decade of arduous work by a lot of people from all corners of the boating and product-testing industries. Ruth Wood, who was manager of the BoatU.S. Foundation at that time (later Foundation president and now a board member), was there from the start.

“It took a long time to pass some kind of standard with the Coast Guard,” she recalls.

At the time, inflatable life jackets were already in use in Europe (and by competitive sailors); Wood was advocating for using the European standards as the model for getting inflatables approved in the U.S. As for her role, she says her goal was ensuring the design of the jackets was comfortable for the boating public. “Otherwise, people weren’t going to wear them. You can design the hell out of it, but if no one will wear it. It sits on a shelf.”

Wood says there were three to four meetings each year, and manufacturers would bring their prototypes. “[The process] took so long that the standards kept changing, but it helped with the evolution of the inflatable life jackets.”

For several years during the 1990s, Wood commuted from BoatU.S. headquarters, then in Alexandria, Virginia, to Underwriter’s Laboratory (now UL Solutions) in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I went down every few weeks for testing in their labs and pools,” she says. “There was a lot of testing!” In addition to the Foundation, there were a cadre of stakeholders who also wanted to be part of bringing inflatables to market – the Coast Guard, life jacket manufacturers, boating safety groups. Wood says that was a major reason it took so long to get them approved. “UL liked to have consensus across the industry.”

The process was taking so much time, in fact, that the Foundation held a design contest to keep the idea of an inflatable life jacket alive and keep the public engaged. It was a success, Wood remembers. “It brought everybody out of the woodwork!”

But will that life jacket float?

Once the Sisyphean task of getting inflatables designed and approved was completed, it wasn’t always smooth sailing when it came to boaters embracing the new technology. First, there was the initial mistrust and skepticism – not unusual when a “disrupter” enters the market.

“This translated into jackets that were extremely durable and almost overbuilt,” explains current BoatU.S. Foundation president Chris Edmonston. Today’s jackets, in comparison, are also well-built, but they are lighter, made from more comfortable materials, and come in more styles and models than originally available.

Another barrier, Edmonston explains, was that years ago, if you saw someone wearing a life jacket on a perfect boating day, you might think something was wrong. “Now,” he says, “it’s just part of the gear, and no one seems to notice.”

A third issue is that there were (and are) many misconceptions about the legality of inflatables, especially as standards evolved. “The best rule of thumb is to look at the label for the jacket you have,” says Edmonston. “It tells you what the legal requirements are. Some jackets must be worn to meet carriage requirements; others don’t. It’s always on the label.” For more on this, see “9 Things to Know About Inflatables” below.

Finally, there was the cost factor. When inflatable life jackets came to market, they cost the equivalent of $200 or more in today’s money. Now there are models available for under $80, with many great options under $150.

So have inflatable life jackets changed boater habits over the last 25 years? Edmonston says he believes inflatables are the key reason that life jacket wearing has increased 27% since the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Observational Life Jacket Wear Study was first completed in 1999. (See “Life Jacket Statistics” above.)

Checking in

Periodically the BoatU.S. Foundation obtains and uses a current range of popular inflatable life jackets to track improvements, changes, new options, and trends. In February 2023, our staff and volunteers once again convened at a pool in Annapolis, Maryland. We purchased nearly two dozen inflatable life jackets, belt packs, and throwables, including U.S. Coast Guard-approved models from top manufacturers, plus some non-U.S.-approved models for comparison.

Volunteers included men and women ages 29 through 58 with a range of physical builds and boating and swimming experience. Each person did a dry fit of each wearable inflatable, including donning and adjusting straps, without input from the facilitators. The wearers and observers rated the ease of putting them on and adjusting, as well as gave feedback on comfort and ease of movement while the jackets were uninflated.

Testers then stepped into the deep end of the pool while wearing the life jacket. An observer with a stopwatch timed how long from the time the life jacket or belt pack submerged until it brought the wearer to the surface and fully inflated. Testers and observers offered feedback on the inflation process, swimability, ease of getting into the H.E.L.P. position, and the comfort of the inflated jacket in the water.

After the jackets dried, staff deflated, rearmed, and repacked them while taking notes on the process regarding ease and whether the inflatable repacked to the same condition it was when new. Refer to the comparison chart for info on each inflatable we reviewed, our notes, and what we learned.