Thanks
SW

It’s called the Challenger Convertible lifejacket, and it’s an automatic 150N which can be converted, by the manual deployment of a second cylinder of gas, into a 275N jacket. When you want to swim, or board the liferaft, you simply pull another toggle and release the air from the secondary bladder.
Presumably anyone who had the wits to remember about the extra bladder would also be sufficiently compos mentis to let the extra air go again when he needed to.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found this lifejacket for sale anywhere, and so I don’t know any more about it.

Jill

I would definitely go for 150N jackets instead of 275s. I think that the manufacturers comments (above) sum up the situation quite clearly.

Protagonists of the 275 say, “Well you can always let out some of the air when you want to swim, or board a liferaft” – but I have my doubts about whether most of us would actually remember to do this in the moment of crisis.
Examination of accident reports suggests that a person who finds himself in the water sometimes forgets even to pull the manual cord and inflate his jacket. (Panicking divers, likewise: they reach the surface in a state of confusion and forget to inflate their BCDs or even to drop their weights.)

I have heard that the RNLI aren’t too happy about 275N jackets, but this may just be a rumour. I can’t find anything negative about 275s on their website. The Yachting Monthly website contains a report which seems to imply that more than one person has drowned whilst wearing a 275N jacket, the problem apparently being caused by the size of the bladder in association with his failure to use the legstraps:
“The crotch strap must be worn. If not, then the vastness of the air bladders in the case of the 275N jacket will cause them to rise up above the wearer, reduce their vision and potentially result in drowning. This has happened on more than one occasion in UK this year.”
I have not been able to find any other reference to these alleged accidents.

Part II of our lifejacket test was performed and written up some months ago – but the MC is under orders to keep his nose in his maths text book, and study for his exams, so it may be some time before it is on line. Since you are about to invest in some new jackets, Pete, I will give you a sneak preview of our findings: essentially, we reckon that a lifejacket without an integral sprayhood is less than half as valuable as a jacket with the hood permanently fitted and easily put into place.

We have not yet found the Perfect Lifejacket, but we have not stopped looking. If any manufacturers are reading this and would like to send us their handiwork for testing we would be very happy to get wet again and to add our input to the latest designs.

Jill