Quote Originally Posted by kazualobzerver View Post
Always been a vocal proponent, this has me questioning.

Cox and New were launched into the 52-degree water, but their inflatable PFDs did not deploy and they quickly dropped to the bottom as both were wearing their foul-weather bibs and extra layers of clothing.

“Neither of our life jackets went off and I think that’s probably a good thing,” he said. “We went to the bottom. If we were wearing regular jackets, it would’ve kept us toward the surface and there’s no telling what would’ve happened when that boat went over us. It was crazy.”
No different than a seat belt in the car and helmets on motorcycles. There are those rare incidents that not having them or them not working is a blessing. The other 99.999% of the time it's good to have them in proper condition, properly installed and working.
i would say never wear them under clothing as the balast needs to have room to expand.
DRFish told me a story about his friend that had his on under his waders when his vest got just wet enough to deploy. That puts a lot of compression on the chest and could cause someone to panic. In his circumstance it turned out to be hilarious.

Were they under power with the big motor when they went overboard?