Wearable personal alarm that sounds & flashes when immersed in water

[Yank on the Cut]

Does anyone know of a small personal alarm that could be worn around the neck with a lanyard or on the wrist that would alert other people to assist by emitting a loud sound as well as a flashing light when the wearer falls in?

 

Liveaboards in marinas are often surrounded by people but it is hard for the person in the water to alert them.

 

Like a bedwetting sensor but one that emits a loud sound and flashing light to attract attention.

 

Rape alarms and similar personal alarms are great but can stop working in the water.

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

[LadyG]

14 minutes ago, Yank on the Cut said:

Does anyone know of a small personal alarm that could be worn around the neck with a lanyard or on the wrist that would alert other people to assist by emitting a loud sound as well as a flashing light when the wearer falls in?

 

Liveaboards in marinas are often surrounded by people but it is hard for the person in the water to alert them.

 

Like a bedwetting sensor but one that emits a loud sound and flashing light to attract attention.

 

Rape alarms and similar personal alarms are great but can stop working in the water.

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

Its most unlikely that one would fall in, but a self inlating life jacket usually has a light,  and a whistle.  Crewsaver make lots of designs, but there are plenty other makes. I wear mine in deep locks, singehanded, and more often in winter. Thermal shock is likely to catch you out, but the life jacket inflates and holds you in position.

Morse code S O S

dot dot dot

         dash dash dash

                           dot dot dot

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[Yank on the Cut]

Sorry - this is not so much when cruising but just living aboard in a marina and doing normal day to day tasks getting on and off the boat seeing others, etc, returning to the boat along jetties and pontoons at night and perhaps unsteady on their feet.

[LadyG]

16 minutes ago, Yank on the Cut said:

Sorry - this is not so much when cruising but just living aboard in a marina and doing normal day to day tasks getting on and off the boat seeing others, etc, returning to the boat along jetties and pontoons at night and perhaps unsteady on their feet.

At night and slightly pissed is when you are more likely to fall in. Even if someone hears your alarm at 11.30pm,  they are going to struggle to get you out.

In larger marinas there will be ladders, you have to hope you are not unconscious, not  hypothermic,  not swallowing water and unable to self rescue.

Two fit men will probably be required to get you out if you are in the water for more than a few minutes 

In summer the water will be warmer, but not swimming pool warm. 

Getting on and off the boat i always have two hands on the boat. The younger, fitter person generally only needs one. The pontoons are usually stable, and frost free, its really not a danger.

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[Yank on the Cut]

Yes plenty of people around to help but how do you ensure they hear you when they are inside a nearby boat probably listening to the TV or asleep? Shouting is good but sometimes not loud enough.

[LadyG]

34 minutes ago, Yank on the Cut said:

Yes plenty of people around to help but how do you ensure they hear you when they are inside a nearby boat probably listening to the TV or asleep? Shouting is good but sometimes not loud enough.

Blow the whistle attached to the life jacket.

I carry a heavy metal torch at night, plus my head torch which flashes red if I spend a few minutes setting it up. The torch would make a heck of a din if banged on metal.

Ive sailed for forty years, racing offshore and inshore, never lost any crew. 

8 minutes ago, LadyG said:

 

 

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Yank on the Cut said:

Does anyone know of a ...........

 

 

You can buy the water activated device that inflates a lifejacket for about £3 to £5 on aliexpress with a bit of ingenuity I bet you could attach it to a horn similar to that on the hand held 'air horn'

 

Add a 16gram  CO2 cartridge and "Robert is your mothers brother"

 

 

 

[LadyG]

Just carry the air horn, I generally have a small rucksack with me when leaving the boat, so carrying the air horn would be easy. I could get my lifejacket, torch and air horn in my rucksack.

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[Alan de Enfield]

14 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Just carry the air horn, lol. 

 

You have been knocked unconscious - as you fell in, your head hit the pontoon, lock wall, side of a boat etc.

 

Thats why we wear auto-inflate lifejackets !

Edited April 14 by Alan de Enfield

[LadyG]

10 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

You have been knocked unconscious - as you fell in, your head hit the pontoon, lock wall, side of a boat etc.

 

Thats why we wear auto-inflate lifejackets !

Read my earlier posts 

@Yank on the Cut is convinced he needs additional alarms, additional to the standard whistle. 

I dont recommend shouting, as one needs to  conserve energy, plus it is demoralising when no one shouts back....

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[wakey_wake]

I got an AliExpress battery-operated water-activated white flashing light to clip on to my reputable self-inflating.

It looks like the reputable ones I saw at the time, but was a little less than stupidly expensive for what it is.

My thought was if I went over in a tunnel, I may not be seen until days too late...

 

It works as expected, but it's far too sensitive to rain and the battery doesn't look replaceable. Maybe it needs an anti-rain cover.

Also, no noise as requested in OP.

 

39 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

You can buy the water activated device that inflates a lifejacket for about £3 to £5 on aliexpress with a bit of ingenuity I bet you could attach it to a horn similar to that on the hand held 'air horn'

In the absence of anything like a 'standard noise' for MoB in a marina, I would think that a continuous horn noise for 20 sec / gradually dying out or stopping and then not continuing, may not raise the alarm effectively. 😞

 

22 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Thats why we wear auto-inflate lifejackets !

 

Except not inside the boat. If it goes off in there you're in trouble.

It's like playing rock-paper-scissors with fate. 😱

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, wakey_wake said:

I got an AliExpress battery-operated water-activated white flashing light to clip on to my reputable self-inflating.

It looks like the reputable ones I saw at the time, but was a little less than stupidly expensive for what it is.

My thought was if I went over in a tunnel, I may not be seen until days too late...

 

It works as expected, but it's far too sensitive to rain and the battery doesn't look replaceable. Maybe it needs an anti-rain cover.

Also, no noise as requested in OP.

 

In the absence of anything like a 'standard noise' for MoB in a marina, I would think that a continuous horn noise for 20 sec / gradually dying out or stopping and then not continuing, may not raise the alarm effectively. 😞

 

 

Except not inside the boat. If it goes off in there you're in trouble.

It's like playing rock-paper-scissors with fate. 😱

Not many boats have a bath, and few captains wear their lifejacket while playing with their rubber ducks.

If you fall over in a tunnel grab the grab chains and as the boat sails merrily on, return to the tunnel entrance. It might be faster to swim on ones back, but then the boat behind might hit you !

In summation

There are no suitable alarms.

Wear an self inflating lifejacket when you think you are at risk

Blow the whistle 

Wear a head torch flashing red if you are pissed.

Edited April 14 by LadyG

[wakey_wake]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Wear a head torch flashing red if you are pissed.

That or equivalent bike light is as good a suggestion for the OP question as I can think of.

Not water activated, but if it stops moving you hope someone would notice. 🥶

 

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Not many boats have a bath, and few captains wear their lifejacket while playing with their rubber ducks.

Self-inflating in the cabin was the scare-escalation while discussing crossing the Wash.

I suppose one could get embarassingly wedged into the shower.

[Peanut]

We have at least one person fall in every year, they are not always found straight away, no alcohol involved. The last was a single-handed octogenarian yachtsman, who fell while tieing up his boat. He was lucky, someone heard him, but it took three of us to get him out. Far worse if you fall in the mud

when the tide is out. We have had the ambulance, fire brigade and costal rescue attend, to recover them. There are ladders, but down in the water they are hard to see. One gent fell on an icy pontoon, had laid there for hours before someone quite by chance found him. He was very cold but survived.

There is certainly a risk of falling in when in a marina, It maybe that people become complacent, or are tiered and lose concentration, but it happens. In a canal, you may be able to stand up, but in a tidal marina there can be seven or eight meter tides, and noise from boats and rigging to drown out cries for help.

[Momac]

47 minutes ago, wakey_wake said:

 

Self-inflating in the cabin was the scare-escalation while discussing crossing the Wash.

I suppose one could get embarassingly wedged into the shower.

This is a possibility and something along those lines has, I believe,  caused a death when a boat sank quickly and a person was trapped inside when his lifejacket inflated

Wearing of lifejackets should therefore be confined to when you are out on deck

[Ronaldo47]

I remember reading a letter in, I think,  "Waterways World" a couple of  decades ago from a man who had fallen off his boat when in his marina, saying how difficult it had been to pull himself out due to the weight of his now-waterlogged multiple layers of winter clothing. It had been in winter, and there had been no-one else around to help him get out.

[Yank on the Cut]

9 hours ago, Peanut said:

We have at least one person fall in every year, they are not always found straight away, no alcohol involved. The last was a single-handed octogenarian yachtsman, who fell while tieing up his boat. He was lucky, someone heard him, but it took three of us to get him out. Far worse if you fall in the mud

when the tide is out. We have had the ambulance, fire brigade and costal rescue attend, to recover them. There are ladders, but down in the water they are hard to see. One gent fell on an icy pontoon, had laid there for hours before someone quite by chance found him. He was very cold but survived.

There is certainly a risk of falling in when in a marina, It maybe that people become complacent, or are tiered and lose concentration, but it happens. In a canal, you may be able to stand up, but in a tidal marina there can be seven or eight meter tides, and noise from boats and rigging to drown out cries for help.

Yes, living aboard in a marina or indeed on an online mooring, you become complacent as you say. Wearing a lifejacket is a good idea but not practical nor is carrying around a big metal torch or an air horn.  Carrying something like this in your jacket pocket/handbag/what have may do the trick of alerting others: https://amzn.eu/d/0iG3qb4h but I suspect it would not make much noise underwater!

Edited April 15 by Yank on the Cut

[pearley]

We have had 2 drownings in our marina in the past 2 years although one of those was found to be due to a heart attack leading to home falling in. The distressing bit was that one if those bodies was not found for 3 days.

 

Out pontoons are amongst the widest around but quite long. It is about 100 yards from our berth to land. Quite exposed to a sideways wind sometimes meaning my wife and I have to walk with arms locked together to keep our footing. The spacing between boats is very wide meaning more very deep, open water and escape ladders are far apart. (But, unless there is one between every boat they will always be far apart)

 

Although I wear I life jacket when out on the river it's not reasonable to wear one just to go to the shops or dump the rubbish. My Father in law used to work on the marine terminal at Fawley refinery and was issued with a wind and waterproof coat with built-in auto inflating life jacket. Perhaps I should get one of those.

[Alan de Enfield]

I have an underwater air horn which is worn on your BCD when diving - but - it is not automatic, and, it requires a 150psi air source.

 

[LadyG]

11 hours ago, Momac said:

This is a possibility and something along those lines has, I believe,  caused a death when a boat sank quickly and a person was trapped inside when his lifejacket inflated

Wearing of lifejackets should therefore be confined to when you are out on deck

I dont think its practical to remove the lifejacket when going below, and on a yacht it would be dangerous to put it on when outside.

I used to wear a little waistcoat style bouyancy aid when doing deckwork, but nowadays the self inflating lifejackets come in various designs for various activities.

PS wear the crotch straps, if they dont have one dont buy it.

Ive worn Crewsaver lifejackets in storm wave conditions and they have not inflated.

If by chance one  was trapped inside, a knife would deflate, or use the mouth tube, but the doors and hatches are usually big enough to exit. I think there was once a drowning when a yacht capsized upside down, but that has to be a one off  

Edited April 15 by LadyG

[Llamedos]

I pulled a chap out of our Marina a month ago. I was walking back to my boat along the pontoon and suddenly saw his head at the side of the pontoon right next to me. If I hadn’t happened to look down at that moment I’d have walked right past. He wasn’t calling for help, clearly in shock and talking complete gibberish. Once warmed up and dry again he was soon back to normal, scary moment though.
 

My arm hurt for days from the effort of heaving him up onto dry land. There was a portable ladder and life ring at the other end of the pontoon which would have been a big help but I worried that if I let go of him he might have slipped under in the seconds it took me to go and get it. 

[David Mack]

A number of years ago my wife fell into the River Nene from Fulbourne while we were moored up, along with a number of other boats, on the EA mooring at the back of the old Rushden and Diamonds ground. It happened in broad daylight in the middle of summer and the river was reasonably warm. But she couldn't climb out and those of us around were unable to pull her out onto the boat (and the bank we were moored to is a piled wall several feet high). She seriously thought about swimming across the river to the opposite bank which was a low and marshy edge to a field. In the end one of the other boaters produced an aluminium ladder which we stood on the river bed and she was able to climb out, wet but otherwise unharmed. If it had happened in the dark, or in winter, or with nobody else around it might have been a different story.

[cuthound]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

A number of years ago my wife fell into the River Nene from Fulbourne while we were moored up, along with a number of other boats, on the EA mooring at the back of the old Rushden and Diamonds ground. It happened in broad daylight in the middle of summer and the river was reasonably warm. But she couldn't climb out and those of us around were unable to pull her out onto the boat (and the bank we were moored to is a piled wall several feet high). She seriously thought about swimming across the river to the opposite bank which was a low and marshy edge to a field. In the end one of the other boaters produced an aluminium ladder which we stood on the river bed and she was able to climb out, wet but otherwise unharmed. If it had happened in the dark, or in winter, or with nobody else around it might have been a different story.

 

I replaced my wooden gang plank with a cut down aluminium ladder and got a local engineering company to bend a piece of aluminium chequerplate to act as a removable surface to walk on. The chequerplate springs into place between the stiles of the ladder.

[Yank on the Cut]

20 hours ago, Llamedos said:

I pulled a chap out of our Marina a month ago. I was walking back to my boat along the pontoon and suddenly saw his head at the side of the pontoon right next to me. If I hadn’t happened to look down at that moment I’d have walked right past. He wasn’t calling for help, clearly in shock and talking complete gibberish. Once warmed up and dry again he was soon back to normal, scary moment though.
 

My arm hurt for days from the effort of heaving him up onto dry land. There was a portable ladder and life ring at the other end of the pontoon which would have been a big help but I worried that if I let go of him he might have slipped under in the seconds it took me to go and get it. 

People are very disoriented when they fall in due to the almost inevitably cold water, the bewilderment, the initial desire to simply hang on to whatever is at hand (if anything),  the panicked shouting which may or may not reach someone's ears.  An alarm triggered by immersion (or indeed a fall alarm that is waterproof) with light and sounder would be a great asset.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Alcohol was a contributing factor in all the soakings at my prevous marina. The water there was a minimum of five feet deep. After some campaigning, ladders were installed at the ends of some pontoons, but these were rarely in the right place for a person in need. I made a rope ladder for easy deployment, but climbing them is not easy and it isn't a skill you want to be trying to learn when unexpectedly soaked, cold and disorientated. Agree that a short aluminium ladder is the best solution. 

I am not sure a reliable alert beacon can be made. Where would you wear it? If in a pocket, or round a waist, nothing will be heard, or seen, if you fall in, unless it can deploy to the surface reliably. CaRT elf'n'safety rules say their employees, contractors and volunteers have to wear self inflating life jackets when near water. They are reasonably small and unobtrusive. I do wear one when on rivers, or deep canals, where standing up in the water isn't going to work. especially if single handing. Not on shallow canals. That's my compromise. Rarely drink much these days, so that's the main cause removed.