One of the services that the RNLI do, is show you how to service your life jacket. So we decided to share with everyone some of the tips that we had picked up.

Life jacket Service

You need to give your life jackets a quick check on a regular basis, the things to be looking for in the quick check are

1. Can you access your manual inflation cord in case the automatic system does not work
2. Is your canister well secured into the firing device

On a yearly cycle, you should check your jacket more thoroughly

1. Look at the fabric, is there any signs of wear
2. Blow up your life jacket, taking pictures of how they pack the life jacket. If you can, use clean sanitised air, to blow up your jacket, but if you are like us, then you have to blow it up with your breadth
3. Leave for 24 hours, this checks your jacket for leaks. If you have a leak, do not attempt to repair it, just buy another one, your life is not worth the saving in money.
4. Check the date on your firing mechanism and make sure it is in date
5. Check the date on your gas cylinder. The date on the gas cylinder is the date of manufacture so you can either
• Add five years
• Replace when you replace your firing mechanism
• Weigh the gas cylinder and make sure it is the same weight as that printed on the bottle
6. Check the firing mechanism, some have a coloured tab which must be green

Small jobs

Whatever the weather, there are always small jobs to do.

1. Checking the lines, just checking them for wear and tear
2. Checking the state of the fenders
3. Filling up with water, we use aqua tabs on Salty Lass to keep the water clean. Also always run the water first, so that the water is not from the pipe that is lying on the deck