Personal flotation device

Changes to lifejacket rules have made a splash with professional rowers worried the bulky vests will slow them down.

Lifejackets are now mandatory for anyone using any vessel shorter than six meters.

Now, that includes jet skis, dinghies, sailboats, kayaks, paddleboards, and motorboats.

Felix Walton has more.

Yeah, I, I love that top.

Uh, and then now, new for 2027, re-introducing PFDs, but didn't just come out-

Yeah

... with one-

Yep.

Uh, I, I lost count.

H- tell us how many new PFDs-

Yeah

The lifeboats were there, canvas intact, paddles lashed to the tollpins, not a rope missing.

Lifejackets, surplus boxes of flares, everything accounted for, every safety measure unused.

In the galley, mugs set out as if to warm hands now gone, a half-made sandwich growing stale on a board, kettle rendered stone cold.

Celia opened a cupboard stuffed with notebooks, slips of paper fell out, written in two hands, scrawls, don't speak, write don't say, and chillingly, cover your ears at midnight.

Yeah.

[laughs] Look, the important thing, can it float? Lifejackets.

[laughs] It's not only big boats that save lives.

In a flood, not only big boats save lives.