Float-Tech

Part foulweather jacket, part life vest, this versatile product looks promising, but what about the harness?

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Float-Tech

Synergistic efforts carry strong potential, and that’s essentially how Float-Tech—which is both a company and a product—got it’s start. When now-CEO Cecilia Domingos and her partners Michael Lobsinger and Jeffrey Betz were MBA candidates at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, several years ago, they pooled their talents to develop this life-saving device as a class project, and it grew from there.

Float-tech is essentially an auto-inflatable PFD built into a nylon foulweather jacket. The jacket is ruggedly constructed from 70-denier, rip-stop (PS had a seamstress with 25 years of experience examine it). It has a stow-in-the-collar hood, adjustable cuffs, reflecting strips, and the usual foulweather gear features, but it also has zip-out sleeves so that it can be worn as a vest (see photo). It’s available in yellow-navy, and red-navy combinations.

The lifevest is built from heavier 210-denier Solarmax™ and is zipped into the jacket so that either garment can be worn separately. It contains three urethane-coated nylon bladders that inflate via a standard CO2cartridge or back-up oral inflation tube.

Float-Tech

The Float-Tech PFD, which is offered in seven sizes, provides 27 lbs. of buoyancy, and its makers say that it’s designed to turn an unconscious person face-up. The vest inflates either by pulling the deployment cord or automatically when immersed in water. It uses a Halkey-Roberts manual and auto-inflation device. Recently approved by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Float-Tech performs as a Type III device.

PS tested the Float-Tech in a nearby waterway. It’s comfortable to wear, but you have to have the vest cinched tightly or it will ride up uncomfortably when inflated. Though he wasn’t unconscious, the product did roll our tester face up. But we wondered why there’s no safety harness incorporated into this system. Domingos explained that adding a harness would make the product uncomfortably heavy. You can use a harness, but it must be worn underneath the coat.

At $300, the Float-Tech isn’t inexpensive, but a good foul-weather jacket can easily cost $150 or more, and a good auto-inflatable PFD (the Crewfit Crewsaver won our Oct. 1, ’04 test) costs over $160. Add those up and the Float-Tech is in the ballpark. We’re just not sure we can get used to wearing our harness underneath it.

 

Contact – Float-Tech, 518/266-0964, www.floattech.com.

Darrell Nicholson
Practical Sailor has been independently testing and reporting on sailboats and sailing gear for more than 50 years. Its independent tests are carried out by experienced sailors and marine industry professionals dedicated to providing objective evaluation and reporting about boats, gear, and the skills required to cross oceans. Practical Sailor is edited by Darrell Nicholson, a long-time liveaboard sailor and trans-Pacific cruiser who has been director of Belvoir Media Group's marine division since 2005. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license, has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans, and has skippered everything from pilot boats to day charter cats. His weekly blog Inside Practical Sailor offers an inside look at current research and gear tests at Practical Sailor, while his award-winning column,"Rhumb Lines," tracks boating trends and reflects upon the sailing life. He sails a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Yankee 30 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can reach him at darrellnicholson.com.