Breathing without spray, even in waves: The sprayhood or Spraycap/ Spray Protection Cover protects a shipwrecked person from being washed over by waves and from flying water, so-called ‘spray’ on the water surface in strong winds. It also reduces cooling of the body over the head.
A modern lifejacket can do many things, but unfortunately some things it cannot. For example, although it can keep a shipwrecked person’s head at a safe distance above the surface of the water, it cannot guarantee unhindered breathing in the splashing water of churning wave crests. The fatal thing about this is that the life-threatening inhalation of water – or the penetration into the respiratory organs of the already weakened body – is unintentionally accelerated by the person affected. This is because, due to the physics of swimming, the wearer of a lifejacket is always turned with their face to windward, i.e. exactly in the direction from which the storm and spray are whipping towards them. The body acts like a drift anchor.
Watch the video Protection from spray:
There are also wave formations on the open sea that cause a person who has fallen overboard to be constantly washed over despite wearing a lifejacket. Especially in ‘choppy water’, such as in the German Bight, the current, tide and wind often work against each other. Breathing can become impossible even for people who are fully conscious.
A third point that should not be neglected is the cooling of the body via the head. The head is always one of the best supplied with blood in hypothermia, even if the body’s circulation is restricted. However, this is one of the reasons why the body loses a lot of energy via the head.
These disastrous additional dangers can only be effectively prevented by a special protective sprayhood, which the shipwrecked person puts over their head and lifejacket. This type of sprayhood, which was developed by the British Royal Navy back in the 1950s and is standard equipment in the German Navy, among others, is now a sensible, recommended component of SECUMAR lifejackets.
In the SECUMAR Sport range, sprayhoods are fitted as standard on the more advanced models such as the SCOUT and SURVIVAL series. An ULTRA PACK retrofit pack is available for the ULTRA series, consisting of a SECULUX LED lifejacket and a sprayhood. This additional equipment can be retrofitted in just a few simple steps. We even recommend that our customers retrofit the sprayhoods themselves so that they can take proper care of their lifejacket.