Guest shane Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 looking for a 2-3 man life raft any suggestions on a good one. thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 The guy at Northland Sea Safety in keri keri is worth talking to. He sells one that has a 3 yr maintenance period instead of 2 - worth it for that alone. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
southernman 73 Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 Shane, go talk to the guys at Navel Point Yacht club they have one they lease out for use. Navel Point quite close to your new yacht right? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest shane Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 Yep i will talk too tim about it. Good idea hireing one. Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Myjane 40 Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 You don't know if there any good till you need to use it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 000 Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 True. I remember the RFD salesman telling me with a straight face that should I find myself in mid ocean and with a serious need to board the liferaft, and should it fail to deploy, I could just bring it right back and get a refund! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Yep done that. It was fun. It was 10yrs over it's inspection date. I was going to have it serviced by the guys on base, but had a wee hickup. They had another identical to mine and they inflated it only to find they didn't have the correct fitting to deflate and repack it. Which was surprising seeing as they were RFD and I thought RFD rafts all used the same fittings. Anyway, they decided not to inflate mine. Seeing as it was now 10yrs over service, I expected it to probably be perished and so I pulled the cord myself at home. It inflated and stayed up for several days. It was good fun and interesting to see what stuff was packed inside and where. I even tried to eat the cakes of high energy biscuit things. Won't do that again. You will have to be reaaaaally hungry to eat that revolting stuff. I took all the goodies and put them in my grab bag. the Raft went over the fence to the neighbours. He had a heap of Kids that used it as a paddling pool and I didn't have to dump it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ex TL systems 63 Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 I nave 3 rafts in the garage , 1 must be 20 years out of date, might pop one up to go down the local river one day, do they have valves like inflatables for pumping up and deflating. A drift down the wanganui river perhaps? Although it might cause a few false alarms. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,235 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Be careful of that. A life-raft has water pockets/bags underneath for stability. In a river, these could very easily be snagged on a submerged object and then pull the upstream side under. Both the bags and the canopy very dangerous in a river - even an apparently placid one like the whanganui. Don't underestimate the power moving water! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 A special fitting known as a marlinspike? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pumbaa 9 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 IT made some good points about the water ballast bags underneath, blow it up in the garden or river bank and then cut the bags off with a knife. And the fittings are similar to an inflatable boat and they are easy to deflate. You've probably scored yourself a 20 year old waterproof torch (which won't work), a foot pump that looks useful but isn't, a blunt nosed knife and maybe some interesting charts and paraphernalia. All of which you'll dump in the bin eventually . Also if you're going to go down a river in it take the bottle off as well, Two ten inch crescent wrenches will probably take the hose off at the brass valve on the raft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ex TL systems 63 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Yes I,ve got a couple of workmates that are keen to float down the Wanganui river but I think I,d rather take the big boat out to the barrier with the stove fridge surfboard etc etc. The risk with the liferaft down the river would be it falling apart halfway between nowhere and having to walk out or get a lift in another boat, would probably need to take another one as a spare, could also be a pretty slow trip if you had to go against the wind at any stage. Don,t think it would look good if we had to get rescued. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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