CREATORS OF THE BACKTOW™ LIFEJACKET

TeamO Marine designs and manufacturers award-winning safety products for sailors. Best known for the BackTow™ lifejacket, this patented design is the only lifejacket with a moveable harness point. A TeamO lifejacket will keep a sailor face up if they fall overboard whilst clipped on to their vessel. All other lifejacket harnesses will tow the wearer faced down in the water.

TeamO BackTow lifejackets: always the right way up

how does a backtow lifejacket work?

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ABOUT US

TeamO is a design business that creates award-winning life saving products for anyone who works in, on or around water. Best known for the patented BackTow™ lifejacket, which was created following a number of accidents and fatalies in the marine industry, TeamO has since expanded the range to cater for all sailors, whether racing or cruising, heading offshore or exploring the coast. 

Founded by siblings Oscar and Lauren Mead, the business started out as just family in 2013, and now this small but dedicated team work from the TeamO factory in Southampton. The range is distributed in seven countries and sell both online and in marine stores around the UK.

In 2018 the business successfully crowdfunded to enable faster growth. In 2019 Oscar and Lauren were honoured to jointly accept the British Marine Federation's Young Business Person of the Year Award. 

Testimonials

First impression: great!

Great and innovative product, great and caring company. No water test yet. Hope, we'll never need it. The quality perceived creates confidence.

Roland, Vienna

Great looking and the quality is superb. I love the fact that the collar sits back off my neck so it’s not weighing down and really unnoticeable when wearing it. We purchased ours for an offshore race which was rather challenging with high wind speeds. This product fitted well and never irritated me like others have done with being too heavy on the neck.

Kirsty, Hobart

I have two of these now and love them! The comfort and quality are great. The features within this life jacket are very reassuring and I highly recommend them to anyone who ventures out to sea. My wife also thinks the colors and design are great.

Nick Bender

Really slick service and quality product.

Tim Fraser

Awards & nominations
Latest Reviews

We let our customers speak for us:

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Offshore 170N BackTow Lifejacket
Doug Busch
Very Comfortable

I looked at a lot of different life vest and found these to be the most comfortable life jackets and with the option of being towed correctly was on obvious choice. Been very happy with the life jackets.

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Offshore 170N BackTow Lifejacket
Dana H
Offshore 170N

Fits very well, I was able to make all the adjustments necessary to fit me. The instructions are good so read them. I have not deployed the jacket yet. I also have worked out how to attach the MOB1. The tether works as expected and attaches to the jack lines with the clips. All in all, I am very pleased and recommend buying this life jacket.

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Ocean 275N BackTow Lifejacket
Zbyněk Hercík
Good choice

Would prefere any EU shop, customs and Vat procedure is boring :)

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Offshore 170N BackTow Lifejacket
Umberto
Excellent lifejacket

I purchased this life jacket in January and, although I have (fortunately) not had the opportunity to use it in a real emergency, I have used it several times. The materials and workmanship are excellent and the jacket is very comfortable to wear, despite being an offshore jacket, which is bulkier than many other “coastal” items (the jacket has a light, a built-in hood and can easily accommodate a PLB). For a more in-depth analysis, look for the Yachting Monthly review published in 2022.
There are only two “issues”: the backtow system does not appear to be all that easy to be repacked if the jacket has been activated and the system deployed. The manual is not very clear on this and the videos on the TemO website refer to older and different versions. I hope TeamO will address this by publishing an updated video for the current system. Otherwise, it would probably be a wise idea to open the jacket and record a video showing how the system is packed for future reference.
The second issue is due to Brexit: if, like me, you plan to buy this life jacket from abroad, be prepared to pay very high customs duties. It's not TeamO's fault, clearly (they seem to try to keep prices low), but if you end up paying 30% more than the listed price, other products might become more interesting. Of course, you'll have to give up the backtow system as TeamO is the only manufacturere to offer a similar solution.

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Offshore 170N BackTow Lifejacket
Gasper Snuderl

I had a chance to use my new vest this October on 14 days offshore sail. It fits very well no problem to wear it many hours and the materials seems good and durable. Considering my heigh almost 2m i would appreciate even longer straps between legs (always easy to shorten than other way). I haven't fall over yet but once it happens, I will write the second part of review.

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