Again sorry for being late in reply to this post.
The Bouée Fenzy is an Adjustable Buoyancy Life Jacket ABLJ designed by the Underwater Research Group of the French Navy. Again available only to military customers for the reasons I gave above on the Conshelf XIV post. Originally there were a number of manufactures well before the Aqualung group existed. The X4 mentioned is simply an Aqualung version, not the original.
For sports divers the French La Spirotechnique and British A. Tillbrook & Co (Spartan) companies both supplied the sports versions.
The versions in the photo are called the Bouée Fenzy Mark 6. Not to be confused with the Aqualung Fenzy. But to be strictly honest the mark was designated by the type of inflator mouthpiece and the type and size of cylinder and these are always added separately. So a Mark 4 or 5 or 6 would in effect be the same. The material is the same and is also used on inflatable RIBS and is quite a complex 3D construct.
The term used now to describe what was the ABLJ is now called a Self Rescue Devise SRD as EU law forbids us from using the term Life Jacket unless we are jumping off ships LOL
The basic Mark 6 is just a cheap rugged utility divers vest used with back mounted diving sets and useful for surface support on RIBs etc
Automatic SRD versions are used today with covert military rebreathers in the latest generation of UBA which are used for there unique ability that in the event of high C02 reading in the breathing bag or an inactive 02 consumption rate or if the diver is incapacitated the SRD will activate and you have two options, one to reset the devise or if not you are on your way up to the surface.
On shallow oxygen systems its a straight lift up to the top but on the deeper 80 msw 300 fsw SRDs versions are fitted with automatic solenoid valve control that reduce the final accent to surface time as the diver rises through the final few meters of the water column.
When on the surface they also activate a Strobe (in training mode) or EPIRB for diver EVAC dependent on application it is usually easier to locate the diver on the surface than the alternative of a body search.
Due to the active threats we are now faced with Military diver training is now much more aggressive and in some not so friendly areas LEBA or Long Endurance Breathing Apparatus is required. Getting you investment up and out on time is in some circumstances critical.
I dont know that this is the correct forum to discuss these aspects but the lowly ABLJ still does it part. Iain Middlebrook
