When I had my Baja 272, i wore a 100mph rated life jacket most the time IF I was gonna drive real fast, sometimes doing speed runs I also wore a helmet, you get funny looks though! I spun the boat out once at high speed and it coulda ended badly, only had tether on, bow hooked at high speed, went sideways, managed to twitch the wheel as I was partially ejected, I managed to hold onto the steering wheel, pulled my left shoulder out of its socket, feet touched water as I was tossed partly out, tether didnt pull out of switch until I was slammed back into the boat on the floor. I wore a lifejacket ALOT MORE after that. When my wife saw me putting it on, she knew we were gonna be racing someone. I started keeping it behind me on my seat with it spread apart were I could slip my arms into it IF I wasn't wearing one, I made sure there were a couple in cockpit along with 2 throwables in case we ended up in the water with hope you could grab one vs drowning assuming you weren't knocked out.

Dang you were lucky you didn't get ejected!

Whenever we take the ex race boats out we wear them.

In smaller boats, the type it’s possible to fall out of and especially when alone, I wear one.

Also any non swimmers on board are strongly recommended to wear one.