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Would you take a liferaft?


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Liferaft - yes or no  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. Liferaft - yes or no

    • Yes
      35
    • No
      5


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Having a liferaft is a requirement of Cat 1 ... so ... yeah.

 

Even if it wasn't a requirement of Cat 1 I'd still carry a liferaft ... we've got one, we might as well carry it. I don't ever want to use it, but I guess having it there is no big thing. If it wasn''t a requirement for Cat 1 and if I had to go out and buy one I may start to question the need for it.

 

OK, so I understand the argument that if you don't have a liferaft you won't wimp out and call for mummy, but there are plenty of situations where the liferaft is the only sensible option and without one things get very difficult indeed. A more interesting question would be "would you carry an EPIRB?" because its so easy to flick the "come get me" switch when things get difficult.

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Having voted yes, I'd have to say that many people, who take to their liferaft, would have been better to remain with their ship. Quite useful if you are actually sinking, however.

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Why would you not take one? :shock: :shock: Whether you jump in at the first chance or not is more the question. Its a last resort but i cant see why you would go offshore without one for the life of me. Boat sinks then what do you do?

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Since this is hypothetical, let's ignore the Cat 1 requirement, we'll assume it is your choice.

MM Reasons consider going with out a raft

1) can the money be better spent elsewhere

2) they have a less than 100% success rate when asked to inflate

3) they need constant recertification

4) is there a better option

5) examples of people jumping into a raft never to be seen again and the boat drifts to shore (best known in the 79 Fastnet)

 

I thought it interesting that the poll on CF was running about 40% voting no to a raft. They are not all bunnies, and tend to be quite conservative.

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Even on a multi we took a raft. The may thought was for an option in case of fire.

We had a battery bank overheat so it nearly happened I guess.

We kept it under the saloon table and came back from diner in Mahon to find it had set itself off.

Filled up the cabin pretty well. Luckily we had small boys who could fit in the gap to get to the dump valve.

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Surely it comes down to space considerations as well.

 

Further the choice between:

a life raft,

inflatable soft bottom,

inflatable hard bottom RIB,

solid dinghy unsinkable,

solid dinghy with some buoyancy.

 

All have advantages and disadvantages with costs and stowage as major factors.

 

I think it was the Baileys who survived 108 days with both a life raft and a solid dinghy.

Time to re-read their book.

Personally I rather like a last resort step UP into a liferaft option, even if from the solid dinghy :thumbup: but I don't want to have to that at all, at all, EVER :!: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

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Yes on a Multi. Probably not on my boat though cus its too expensive!

Only takes a multi to cross with a Stewart 34 and that raft looks pretty bloody good! :lol: :lol:

 

Hopefully if you are rammed by another boat, they will at least pick you up!

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The only reason you need them recertified is Cat1 as well Squid. So if you left Cat1 out of it, then you could leave inspecttion and recert out as well.

If Cat1 was not in the question, then I would modify the Inflatable to double as a liferaft. That is not a simple issue though. You need a watertight canopy of sorts that is tough enough to handle roll overs and waves breaking over. I doubt it would be as stable as a Liferaft, but it could keep you afloat and you have some options of rowing or even sailing it. You can't do either with a lifraft, due to the water ballast bags most have fitted these days. As for all the stuff normally packed inside a raft, you can have that in a grab bag and take to the Dingy.

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If you have one use it, if knot don't.

 

Would I take one given a choice?? Yes probably.

 

While Evans does put up a reasonable argument it does have flaws. I totally agree that anyone heading into the deep blue should do so with the mind set they are out there by themselves and have to fix whatever at the time so knot having a raft will make sure that happens more often but what about the 'sh*t happens' events.

 

Sailing alone quite happily with no raft... BANG.. a whale takes your keel off or maybe a container off a Rena. It's a catastrophic boat issue. What is Evans to do now? Jump over the side and screw the keel back on while Beth makes a cuppa or just sit on the boat thinking 'f*ck it, in 10 mins I'll be drowning, wish I had a raft'.

 

I know their and Mr Squids thinking and it's knot bad thinking but in saying that are all 3 100% happy they can deal with EVERY situation that may happen out in the deep blue?

 

Who above said dump EPIRB's? I agree with that for sure and would leave that behind before I left a raft behind. EPIRB's are making it way to easy for people just to give up.

 

If I had a raft, it would be a last option call. There are times when as self-sufficient as you'd like to be that still ain't gonna stop your boat sinking out from under you. In those few scenarios I think most would prefer the raft option over the only other option, which is certain death.

 

And don't forget CF is inhabited by a lot of armchair cruisers and being mainly US people tend to blindly follow 'names', Beth and Evans being high on that 'names' list. So I would suggest many of the non-raft posters are only non-raft as B&E's have stated their opinion which is non-raft. If push came to shove I bet many voting no would take a raft.

 

Since this is hypothetical, let's ignore the Cat 1 requirement, we'll assume it is your choice.

MM Reasons consider going with out a raft

1) can the money be better spent elsewhere - Sure can look that way until your keel falls off but then what would you have prefered to have spent the coin on, a new headsail or a raft??

2) they have a less than 100% success rate when asked to inflate - Correct but is it a 'some chance' rather than a 'no chance' situation? There is a higher chance you will die in a car crash yet you still hope in one each morning

3) they need constant recertification -Yes a pain in the arse that is but everything has a lifespan I suppose

4) is there a better option - In cases yes but in NZ we aren't allowed those options

5) examples of people jumping into a raft never to be seen again and the boat drifts to shore (best known in the 79 Fastnet) - uncommon but those that had boats sink and didn't get into a raft are equally dead..

It's always an interesting topic this one.

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A family three days out from Hawaii had a whale hit them. Yes it was that way around. The Whale smashed it's head through the Hull and the yacht went down in just 60secs. They all got into a Liferaft OK and drifted for weeks. They were finally picked up in the shipping lanes along the California Coast. Another day and they would have washed onto the beach.

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KM - you are assuming there is no alternative to the raft. Most if not all that don't have one do think it through and have another solution.

 

Wheels, that report sounds weird, you don't drift from Hawaii to California.

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My cat 1 inspector didnot require me to have a liferaft,(the fact that i had 2 onboard did not matter). He was quite happy for me to have an inflatabbl with cover(to keep the sun off the unlucky occupants). Both my rafts were in need of repacking. His attitude was due to our boat being a multihull.

In awnser to the thread , NO i wouldnt carry a raft if given the choice(i have inflatables),but i would carry an epirb......

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