I think they should only be compulsory in certain weather conditions. Sure it would be hard to enforce but I don't think everyone should have to wear them when it's calmer and especially up north when big swells are pretty much unheard of.

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Jay Burgess
jayburgess_14@hotmail.com

Be interested to find out if the skippers involved in the recent fatalities had their RST already.

Compulsory life jackets, not sure about that one. Common sense is good enough for me. Two years ago at Kalbarri I went out trolling in my 4m tinnie, swell came up while fishing so I decided to head in.
First thing I did was put my life jacket on before I got back to the mouth. Spent 20 minutes circling and watching for the swell pattern, then zap, shot through. Felt good having the life jacket on, but I was confident in my own abilities and only used the jacket for extra insurance.

Best advice I can give is, if in doubt pull out and don't be afraid to put a jacket on (no point being a hero).

John

definatly children at all times but adults I think should use there own descretion to wether they feel the need to wear one. Regardless of weather conditions accidents will happen its just a fact of life. I no that the weather plays a big part in boating accidents but so does the lack of common sense. I dont mind fishing in bad conditions but to have to wear a bulky life jacket allday as well dosnt sound like fun. Hey Big john I dont blame you for wearing one in the Kalbarri river mouth lol, It should definatly be compulsary through there.That river mouth has scared the shit out of me heaps of times.

if you look at it in a fishing way you cannot fish with lifejackets and i think all off you should know.

i think all it is, is having commen sense going out in a tinnie in a 4 meter swell is a big no no. you must be pretty crazy to go out in those conditions in a open vessle like that even with a bigger craft its just plain stupidity [the most well go out now is 2.5 meter swell because we have been out in 4 meters plus swell and it isnt that nice too see]
in the end life jackets should be postitoned so you can get them straight away but i think with wearing them all the time will be pretty hard to be a law enforced for recreationals.

Compulsory lifejackets - nup couldnt agree with that one if it came in.

As has been said numerous times before on the above posts, discretion is the way to do it. If you start feeling uncomfortable out there then come back and put them on, when you get back ask yourself why you were out in the first place??

Peolpe have got to learn that you cant go fishing everytime you have a day off and if the weather is ordinary - stay at home and plan it for another day where the weather will hopefully be better. I know I do not go out off Two Rocks anymore in swell above 2.5m - I have been out in 3m and it is just to stressful and takes the gloss off a good day out. I am there to enjoy fishing, not worry about how big the swell is when returning (let alone if the SW kicks up).

Besides that lifejackets if not put on correctly can do damage by riding upp around your neck and if worn all day on a boat I would say they would have loosened up a fair bit. If put on just before or when it gets nasty then at least it SHOULD be fitted properly.

As Ryan has posted about the new 'Storm" light weight jackets - they are pretty good and after a while you wouldnt even know you had them on but the downside is I could pretty much guarantee there would be a few stay strands of line causing a few unwanted inflations :)

Is a hard one to call on but I think people should learn more about using boats and judging weather conditions before implementing something such as this. With the RST I am unsure about whether this will actually do this - I think it might be a bit to much of a basic course for new boat owners but lets hope Im wrong about that one

Cheers

Gully

Hay guys ,
I see up the top people asking about if the rst would help resolve this problem.Well I just finished my course on saturday and most of the course comes down to common sense. Still it was surprising to see long term boaties that did not even know simple navagation marks or saftey issues.Then it got even funnier on the practical watching my wife with no boating experience preform boating manouvers better than these so called expeirenced operators.
cheer5s shag