Had an 'incident' today: A MN lake, 'White Bear Lake', is at historic low levels - water apparently draining out into underground aquifer. So guess what I did? Huge rock vs dagger board on high speed broad reach (I think winds were 15-20). Almost pitch poled over the rock. Through some miracle the only damage was to a now completely obliterated dagger board. Anyway, the sudden near-stop got me thinking about how I could have face planted into the mast without too much difficulty - and then pitched poled the boat.
I always wear a PFD but this has gotten me thinking about having something that will keep me face up if unconscious. I wear a Stholquist vest that is this style:
I know that there are PFDs (type 2 like this:
) that are supposed to keep you face up. But that looks miserable to wear. Anyone been unfortunate enough to have been unconscious in the Stholquist type shown above and lived to tell? Any thoughts (besides staying conscious) on PDFs that fit this need and are still workable for sailing (couldn't find old posts to specially address this issue)?
thanks!