Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Survival suits

Gumby are they not called?

Wife has a couple of neoprene wet suits and I thought they gave her bouancy. Some floatation vests are neoprene.

Reading a book now on boat rescues in AK and it says if your suit leaks you sink. And if you don't get the collar inflated you sink.

Just looking for input to understand what I"m reading a bit better.

I thought if they were survival, the big orange things, you should float. I get the fact you can easily die in them shortly from hypothermia. But if they don't float you whats the point? Only insulation as long as you are sealed tightly?

They are not very thick. Fill your lungs with water and they might not float you.

Cold water immersion suits are the gumby style and are thick neoprene. The Mustang work suit like you see the Coasties wear have closed cell foam sewn into them and offer more floatation as well as greater range of motion but don't have boots sewn in and they have a looser collar so you get more water intrusion and thereby less insulation. Like a wetsuit getting wet isn't the problem because you can heat that thin layer of water but you don't want the water cycling through your suit as that defeats any insulating properties you'd otherwise get.

thanks for the info. Stories mostly on crab boats going down in cold water. I'd assume they are talking the thick heavy ones. Something about getting the thing zipped up so itwould seal around your face and have very little intrusion. But the part about having to inflate collars to keep you floating kind of blew my mind. I figured a thing named a survival suit for abandoning a ship, would have the floatation built right in and plenty of it.

A friend survived in the Bering Sea for many hours without a survival suit. He gave his to a deckhand that died wearing it. It caused him to develop diabetes and that is doing a very good job of killing him, literally.

The gumbies (cold water immersion suits) are great, IMO. The trick is to keep it in good working condition and to know how to get into one both dry and in the water. The pillow keeps your head up. You can fill them with water and you still float. Just hard has hell to get in a raft with a bunch of water in the suit but you can do it if you are strong enough.

Took a commercial drill instructor class last winter. They ran us through everything with the suits. Had us flip over liferafts, climb in them, jump in the water and put them on, etc. I have 4 on my boat. 2 up forward in my berthing and two where I can grab them should the boat catch fire while I'm on the back deck. Pretty confident I could get one on and be in the water in no time at all.

There are many types of mustang suits. I've worn both the MAC 10's and the MAC 200's in Kachemak Bay. The MAC 10's are lighter duty, like you describe have no booties sewn in. They act like neoprene, in that they suck to your skin, and you are warm when wet. However, get out, start to dry out, and air gets against your skin and you freeze. The MAC 200's have dry booties, and a watertight neck seal. Feels like wearing a space suit.

Gumbys are for emergency donning. Suits like the MAC 10 are for wearing while doing an active job (Iv'e worn mine snowmachining). The MAC 200 is for doing a generally sedentary job while being prepared- like flying a helo.

I have both a CWI suit and work suit and carry one or both onboard with me just in case. I drill myself to get it on quickly and change the batteries in the strobe every couple years (remnants of my FF days) but realistically on a small boat I don't know that I'd have much time. I can get into my CWI suit in under a minute but hope I'm never put to the test.

Good info LoadClear.

FF days?

Firefighting. I still keep my chainsaw and axes to the same protocol that I did for years. Regularly changing batteries in smoke alarms, drilling myself or family on emergency drills etc has become a habit.

Got it. Thanks.

and not a bad habit either....

All I know is extended time in very cold water kills.

I had to don a gumby suit in deep water as part of the requirements for my Merchant marine license. It was the kind they use in the North Sea in the oil and gas industry. You definitely won't sink with one on.They are difficult to put on because they float so high in the water. They do offer some protection against cold water and increase your survival time. How much I don't know. I believe it would be way better than wet clothes and nothing else.

Leaky suits often leak where it feels coldest.

We generally just wear Mustang jackets (with boat ID info marked thereon) so they have some idea who they're cremating at some later date. (I really hate the idea that I should be served with hot butter via the food chain at some later date.)