Why Crewsaver?

Crewsaver is recognised as a world leading designer and manufacturer of lifejackets and sailing equipment. As a respected authority on personal marine safety and with a history dating back more than 50 years, today we work closely with the RNLI and with the Military and Emergency Services. The knowledge we continue to gain both influences and enhances the products we bring to the commercial and leisure markets.

Expert Design

Crewsaver’s expert designers work closely with the most experienced lifeboat crews, as well as elite round-the-word racers used to pushing their limits within the extreme wind and wave conditions of the Southern Ocean. With their unique insight we are able, step by step, to refine every aspect of our lifejackets’ design and construction.

We feed these innovations directly into each of our lifejacket ranges, whether for commercial or leisure use, ensuring that whatever your reason for being afloat, your safety is never compromised.

Materials and Fabrics

Whether you seek comfort, functionality, approval, reliability, longevity or strength, we have a Crewsaver lifejacket to suit you. Our design team carefully chooses the best and most appropriate materials for each product, ensuring the ultimate in comfort and longevity for the individual environment. We then combine our in depth know-how with the latest technology to construct quality products which offer you the best possible performance.

A great example of this is the Riverseal® fabric that we use in all of our lifejacket bladders. Crewsaver was one of the first companies to incorporate this fabric into lifejacket designs, so providing the strongest and most resilient bladders on the market.

When it comes to the covers for our lifejackets, we principally use a highly durable 300d polyester with an anti-fray PU coating. Despite being soft and comfortable to wear, the fabric is tough enough to protect the jacket’s mechanisms to ensure its reliability and thereby your safety.

Within the Ergofit range, we have developed a 300d polyester fabric with a dobby weave that we have tri-laminated with a mesh and cushioning foam. This construction method provides structure and shape to the lifejacket cover, while also protecting the bladder inside. The result is excellent performance combined with a unique and stylish look.

Within our commercial range, we produce wipe-clean coated PVC covers to ensure complete safety and practicality in the workplace. We also incorporate fire resistant aluminised cloth into more tailored products for highly specialised working environments and the fire and rescue services.

Our research team is continually assessing how new technology can improve and develop fabrics for all types of lifejacket. However all new candidates must meet our strict high standards for comfort, practicality and safety before we begin to incorporate them within our lifejacket designs.

Bladder Technology

Our design philosophy begins with approval standards. To this we add the Crewsaver difference brought about by our complete understanding of both daily life and emergency survival in extreme marine environments. All of our products are designed, tried and tested with real life situations in mind, allowing you to rely on them completely.

For example, all of our lifejacket bladders are designed ergonomically for every day use but without compromise for your survival in the very worst scenarios. In normal conditions, the 3D sculptured shaping gives you maximum comfort and our sculpted sides allow you to move freely and without hindrance. However should an emergency arise and you find yourself in the water, you’ll find our unique designs inflate quickly and reliably. They have buoyancy distribution to keep your mouth well above the water, known as mouth freeboard, and top of the range turning properties to safely float you on your back. Our inflatable chin support will also help to keep your airways clear.

Firing Mechanisms

Crewsaver works tirelessly with the world's leading firing mechanism manufactures to ensure that all the units we use offer the best possible performance within each individual lifejacket design. The Hammar firing system alone comes in four different variations to suit your requirements, including the use of soft tabs to help prevent snagging in a working environment.

In addition, we are proud to have introduced the Prosensor Mk3 operating head into our Ergofit lifejackets as the culmination of a project with one of our valued suppliers.

With an improved mechanism, the head operates in less than a second of coming into contact with water. Just as importantly, it also includes a new anti-tamper locking system. We have combined the Prosensor Mk3 with the MK5i capsule, which incorporates a new sealing method to help prevent inadvertent firings.

With great success within the ErgoFit range, we are now incorporating the Prosensor Mk3 into some of our other lifejacket designs.

Whatever your circumstances, be sure to choose your offshore lifejacket carefully. Whether you are selecting for yourself, your family, your crew or your work colleagues, you should consider worst-case scenarios and the type of lifejacket everyone should be wearing for their ultimate safety overboard in that environment.

Using our ErgoFit lifejacket as an example, here we demonstrate the essentials of lifejacket design complete with a guide to our very latest safety features. This will help consolidate your knowledge and allow you to identify the features you need for your own specific use. Then simply pair up the features with our comprehensive lifejacket range to select the very best model for you.

 

 

Comfort Technology

A common complaint is that lifejackets are heavy on the neck. At Crewsaver, we design ours to prevent this, ensuring the weight of the lifejacket is distributed evenly around the body. In fact, they are designed to be so comfortable you won’t notice you’re wearing it. Our latest lifejackets, for both leisure and commercial use, offer 3D shaping to provide even more comfort.

Our designers have paid particular attention to the comfort around your neck as you move. Whether you’re running from side to side and hopping under the rail while yacht racing, or continuously up and down ladders and in and out of vessels when working, you want to be sure your lifejacket stays in place and never rubs. Our form-fitting neckline gives you great neck mobility which, combined with our unique designs and fleece lined collars, ensure that our jackets offer chafe-free comfort day in, day out.

Newton Ratings

Lifejackets are classified by the level of buoyancy they offer measured in Newtons (N). Today the leisure and commercial markets comprise lifejackets with 100N, 150N, 190N, 275N & 290N of buoyancy. The buoyancy can be provided by foam, by air or, for industrial or rescue environments, twin chamber lifejackets and lifejackets that are a combination of air and foam.

Traditional Crewsaver lifejackets, such as the Crewfit, offer 150N or 275N levels of buoyancy. They are approved to CE and/or EN standards.

For offshore use, the Crewsaver ErgoFit OC 290N is approved to ISO level 275N yet actually offers a mighty 290N of buoyancy. Our design team included the extra buoyancy to give you vital extra turning speed and mouth freeboard should you unexpectedly fall in. This is the type of innovation that could be fundamental to saving your life out at sea.

Our more modern inshore lifejackets, such as the ErgoFit 190N CS and OS, are approved to ISO level 150N. This is the quality standard traditionally used for inshore and coastal yachting and motor boating. However once again our designers have included additional buoyancy to give you the most advanced safety performance on the market.

Harness

Not all lifejackets double as a safety harness as some people prefer a standalone harness. However our latest generation of lifejackets, including the ErgoFit, combine the harness within the lifejacket to provide an essential safety solution when out on deck. Alternatively, many of our traditional lifejackets, such as the CWX 150N Hammar, can be supplied fitted with or without a harness. Safety lines are available as an optional extra.

Crotch straps

All Crewsaver lifejackets come with crotch straps as standard. These are essential to stop the lifejacket riding up in the water, which could render it far less effective, and perhaps even dangerous, in an emergency situation. Despite this, many other brands of lifejacket are sold without them. When selecting your lifejacket make sure it includes crotch straps and that all the attachments are sturdy. Lifejackets are on the market with inadequate plastic clips that pop apart as you move around, making them useless in an emergency. All Crewsaver attachments are built so that you can rely on them in the worst of situations.

Spray Hood

A spray hood is essential for anyone going offshore. They fit over your head and inflated lifejacket to make you more visible and to reduce the amount of spray you inhale. All modern ErgoFit lifejackets come with a built-in spray hood as standard. For older versions, please consult the product label.

Light

A light is essential if you are making a long voyage or a night passage. The Crewsaver Surface Light (Hyperlink) is a flashing light that keeps you visible in the worst of conditions. As a Crewsaver product, it naturally meets all relevant safety standards.

AIS MOB Device

An AIS MOB Device is essential if you are making a long voyage or night passage. You can have the McMurdo Smartfind S20 built in to your lifejacket or you can purchase it separately. Either way, it fits safely and conveniently into this specially designed pocket integral to many of our lifejackets including the Rope Access 275N for tough commercial environments.

A whistle

Essential if you are making a long voyage or night passage, these come fitted in most Crewsaver lifejackets as standard. Alternatively you can select one as an optional extra.

PLB pocket

A Personal Locator Beacon is essential if you are making a long voyage or night passage. The McMurdo Fastfind 220 fits safely and conveniently in this specially designed pocket integral to many of our lifejackets including the Rope Access 275N for tough commercial environments.

Bladder design

A top-of-the-range bladder will turn you onto your back, support your head and divert waves from your face. The added chin support offered by the ErgoFit will also tilt your chin back to keep your airway open. Crewsaver bladders are additionally made using the toughest materials and follow a stringent manufacturing process to ensure we offer the best possible quality available today.

Unique Chin Support

Should you be in the water, you need your airway to be kept clear, particularly if conditions are rough. Our unique chin support, integral to our ErgoFit design, tilts back your chin to protect your airway and help prevent water washing over your face.

Firing Mechanism

You can choose lifejackets that inflate either with a standard automatic, Hammar or manual firing mechanism. Standard automatic mechanisms will inflate within 5 seconds of hitting the water. Most leisure users choose such a mechanism for their lifejackets. To make it really quick and easy to check your lifejacket is in working order, many of our standard automatic lifejackets include a pro sensor inflator with an indicator window showing the status of the firing mechanism.

Hammar firing mechanisms will inflate once submerged in water, decreasing the chance they will go off accidentally. This is particularly valuable in instances where a yacht’s foredeck crew may be soaked by waves, making Hammer mechanisms the choice of many racing crews. Manual firing mechanisms activate only when you pull the tab. Some of our commercial lifejackets include a soft tab manual inflator to help prevent snagging and accidental inflation when in working use.

Fabric Technology

To give you the best possible performance from any of our products, at Crewsaver we employ extensive research to ensure we use the most advanced fabric technology, coupled with expert design to get the very best from that fabric. In this way, we lead the market and ensure you get enviable levels of comfort and longevity. For example, we have incorporated sculpted and breathable mesh back panels into the ErgoFit lifejackets to offer the ultimate in comfort and fit.

Dual lifting beckets

We have integrated dual lifting beckets within our lifejacket designs to aid a speedy recovery should you fall into the water.

Form fitting neckline allows for greater head mobility
Burst Points

Our latest lifejacket designs incorporate quick burst zip closure systems with three burst points to ensure rapid and unimpeded inflation should you fall overboard. This modern design also provides maximum longevity and maintains your overall comfort afloat. Our more traditional lifejackets, such as the Crewfit 150N, use a Velcro closure system that provides a quick and easy burst system for the lifejacket.

Carriage of accessories

Our top of the range lifejackets are designed with your convenience in mind, allowing you to easily carry any accessories you may need - such as the ErgoFit safety knife.

3D Shaping

Our Crewsaver designers have recently introduced top of the range, innovative 3D Shaping across a number of our designs, including the Seacrewsader 290N 3D for working environments and the ErgoFit range. This allows you great comfort combined with full, unobstructed movement.

Flexible durable 300d fabric ensures super comfortable custom fit
Indicator window

We have designed an indicator window for some of our more modern Pro-Sensor and Hammar lifejackets. This allows you to regularly check everything is in perfect working order without having to pack and repack the lifejacket, giving you maximum reassurance before going out on the water.

Light

The Crewsaver Surface Lightis a flashing light that keeps you visible in the worst of conditions. As a Crewsaver product, it naturally meets all relevant safety standards.