Personal life-saving appliances
Lifejacket
Keeps an unconscious person face up above the water. One for every person on board, plus spares.
Key facts
- Turns and holds a person in the water so that the mouth and nose stay above the surface, even when the person is unconscious.
- The lifejacket has a whistle and a light, so a rescuer can find the survivor in the dark.
- It also has a releasable buoyant line for securing yourself to another person in the water, and means that let a rescuer lift the wearer out of the water into a boat.
- Besides a lifejacket for every person, the ship carries additional ones for the watchkeepers and for stations remote from the survival craft.
Technical parameters
- Colour
- highly visible, orange or yellow
- Whistle
- yes, secured on a lanyard
- Light
- white, at least 0.75 cd in all directions of the upper hemisphere for at least 8 hours; if flashing, 50 to 70 flashes a minute
- Releasable buoyant line
- yes, for securing to the lifejacket of another person in the water
- Means of retrieval
- yes, so a rescuer can lift the wearer into a rescue boat or lifeboat
- Retro-reflective tape
- yes
- Turns an unconscious person face up
- yes; this is what separates it from a buoyancy aid
- Donning
- within 1 minute: without demonstration by at least 75% of people, and after a demonstration by all
- Jump into the water
- from at least 4.5 m holding the lifejacket (and from 1 m with arms overhead) without injury and without the jacket coming off
- Loss of buoyancy
- no more than 5% after 24 hours submerged in fresh water
Watch out
Do not confuse the SOLAS lifejacket with the buoyancy aid from water sports. A lifejacket has high buoyancy and turns an unconscious person face up. A buoyancy aid has less buoyancy and will not turn an unconscious person, so it is not a life-saving appliance in the meaning of the Convention.
Legal basis
SOLAS III/7, III/22, III/32; LSA Code section 2.2 (light: 2.2.3.1, line and retrieval: 2.2.1.16 and 2.2.1.17).
This is not a legal text: when in doubt, the current wording of the Convention and the LSA Code decides.
Related STCW training
Personal survival techniques (STCW A-VI/1-1).