Life ring thrower

[huisjen]

Dunno if it really works, but someone had fun designing it.

Longreach is a man-portable system that allows for the rapid conveyance of temporary, water-activated buoyancy devices to a drowning victim's location. It is designed to allow a victim to remain buoyant while rescue personnel prepare the appropriate response to the situation. The rescue package uses hydrophobic or rapidly expanding foam to provide buoyancy once the package contacts the water. This allows the package to be vastly smaller in size than any currently existing buoyancy device. Equipped with a light for attracting attention the Rescue Package can be propelled over 150m. Longreach is also equipped with Para-Flares for night-time Illumination. Longreach is designed to be simple to manufacture and easy to handle. Ideally used by emergency services personnel or a ship's crew, Longreach has the potential to significantly reduce the number of drownings at sea.

Dan

[Ian McColgin]

Re: Life ring thrower

I'd be more impressed with an actual movie, not so much bad cartooning.

[Garret]

Re: Life ring thrower

I'd be more impressed with an actual movie, not so much bad cartooning.

Don't think it's actually been made yet.

[Ian McColgin]

Re: Life ring thrower

In real life, even if it's aimed accurately, it will blow out of reach the minute it pops to the surface. Gotta be one of the two or three most pointless "rescue" gizmos yet.

The thing is only for active and conscious casualties anyway, so perhaps if they modified it to have an inflatable danbuoy it might stay in place long enough for the casualty to reach it and then inflate the main unit. If the casualty could figure all that out. Perhaps the inflatable danbuoy and a drougue would hold the inflated gizmo well enough.

For an active casualty, the Mossberg line launcher attachment seems a more flexable and useful tool.

[David W Pratt]

Re: Life ring thrower

He didn't drown, we recovered him, but the projectile killed him.

[Shang]

Re: Life ring thrower

Long ago in my teen years I was a member of a Red Cross lifesaving team. I had a crush on a Pretty Young Lady from Red Cross Headquarters, who was teaching us how to throw a heaving-line. Weighting the end of the line was a monkey's fist knot about the size of a baseball, and about as hard and heavy. The Young Lady handed me the heaving-line, and then she swam out about fifty feet to play the role of a drowning victim ( do you begin to get a premonition of where this story is going…?).
Wanting to impress the Young Lady I whirled the weighted heaving-line like a gaucho with a bola, and let fly! As you may have already guessed the monkey's fist knot hit the Young Lady squarely in the face, breaking her nose and blacking both of her eyes.

I am still not very good with a heaving-line since I received no further instruction from the Young Lady.

[Captain Intrepid]

Re: Life ring thrower

He didn't drown, we recovered him, but the projectile killed him.

An instructor of mine was on a vessel when they threw a dummy overboard for an MOB drill. A seaman on the side saw him fall and though, "That's no good!" So he grabbed a grappling hook and line, tossed it overside and dragged Oscar up the side of the ship, grappling hook firmly embedded in his chest. Not exactly ideal! :P

[wizbang 13]

Re: Life ring thrower

Akbar could knock a plane outta the sky with that thing!

[seanz]

Re: Life ring thrower

In real life, even if it's aimed accurately, it will blow out of reach the minute it pops to the surface. Gotta be one of the two or three most pointless "rescue" gizmos yet.

The thing is only for active and conscious casualties anyway, so perhaps if they modified it to have an inflatable danbuoy it might stay in place long enough for the casualty to reach it and then inflate the main unit. If the casualty could figure all that out. Perhaps the inflatable danbuoy and a drougue would hold the inflated gizmo well enough.

For an active casualty, the Mossberg line launcher attachment seems a more flexable and useful tool.

I got the impression from the press releases that it was for beach life-saving, not off-shore rescue....the bouy would be more useful in that situation but now the animation doesn't make much sense.

I'd just like to add that this thread was funnier.

[Paul Pless]

Re: Life ring thrower

I'd just like to add that this thread was funnier.

LOL

[sailboy3]

Re: Life ring thrower

Long ago in my teen years I was a member of a Red Cross lifesaving team. I had a crush on a Pretty Young Lady from Red Cross Headquarters, who was teaching us how to throw a heaving-line. Weighting the end of the line was a monkey's fist knot about the size of a baseball, and about as hard and heavy. The Young Lady handed me the heaving-line, and then she swam out about fifty feet to play the role of a drowning victim ( do you begin to get a premonition of where this story is going…?).
Wanting to impress the Young Lady I whirled the weighted heaving-line like a gaucho with a bola, and let fly! As you may have already guessed the monkey's fist knot hit the Young Lady squarely in the face, breaking her nose and blacking both of her eyes.

I am still not very good with a heaving-line since I received no further instruction from the Young Lady.

Why would you need further instruction? Sounds like you're already pretty accurate.

[paladin]

Re: Life ring thrower

A gazillion years ago I was going for certification as a rescue diver....two lady instructors. Then, in turn, one of the ladies would swim to a point and become "ill" and we had to grab our fins and mask etc and swim to the location and "rescue" the lady/victim. My lady had a habit of being a real hard A$$ and when I got to her she started fighting.......I yanked the mouthpice from her face, and then jammed it down between her tank and neck so that she didn't have any air....she stopped fighting when I dunked her......I swam her ashore....she flunked me for not grabbing my snorkel.