A factoid for your pocket

[Sea-Fever]

When I acquired my boat in 2018 it came with an out of date 4 Person Seago liferaft.

Emptying the garage today I found it languishing in a corner in a sorry state.

For fun I got the kids in the garden and pulled the cord.

It may give someone somewhere some reassurance that a Seago liferaft with an expiry of 2007 inflated and appeared to be in good order save for a slightly dim light on the top - probably due to a failing battery. Apart from that is really is in good order. Nothing broken or falling apart from age, nothing perished, gas canister was fine, fluorescent colour still bright etc. I was quite impressed.

Just for info, nothing more.

 

[NormanS]

When I acquired my boat in 2018 it came with an out of date 4 Person Seago liferaft.

Emptying the garage today I found it languishing in a corner in a sorry state.

For fun I got the kids in the garden and pulled the cord.

It may give someone somewhere some reassurance that a Seago liferaft with an expiry of 2007 inflated and appeared to be in good order save for a slightly dim light on the top - probably due to a failing battery. Apart from that is really is in good order. Nothing broken or falling apart from age, nothing perished, gas canister was fine, fluorescent colour still bright etc. I was quite impressed.

Just for info, nothing more.

Mine was of similar vintage. I realised that if I ever needed to use it, I would first have to throw the Avon Redcrest, which is stowed fully inflated, over the side. For coastal cruising, I reckoned that the dinghy would be better than the raft. Eventually, I began to feel guilty about having an out of date life raft, so pulled its string, and it behaved the same as yours. I gave it someone to use as a wee paddling pool for his children.

 

[superheat6k]

A few boats ago I had a similar way out of date life raft so I carefully unwrapped mine and inflated it with a compressor. It was all fine so I checked the cylinder which was weight perfect, and completely clean and dry.

Informal discussions with a raft tester suggested an older raft from the 1990's was likely better quality than a new from ~2018 but no test house would put their name to it.

Anyway I re-packed it, except no matter how I tried it would not return to a size small enough to properly fit within its original valise !

I figured a raft that might and indeed probably would work was better than no raft at all, although I would not have used it offshore.

 

[Mister E]

Mine was of similar vintage. I realised that if I ever needed to use it, I would first have to throw the Avon Redcrest, which is stowed fully inflated, over the side. For coastal cruising, I reckoned that the dinghy would be better than the raft. Eventually, I began to feel guilty about having an out of date life raft, so pulled its string, and it behaved the same as yours. I gave it someone to use as a wee paddling pool for his children.

He had his children paddle in wee?

 

[William_H]

Reminds me of a funny story about a children's program in Oz. Playschool. They had got hold of an out of date life raft and decided to inflate it in the show. it did inflate beautifully but they had not counted on the noise of infaltion. Shocked them all. ol'will

 

[pandos]

I did the same thing with one that was also some 20 years out of date it also worked perfectly.

Another that was just out of service, which had been serviced twice and was much newer and more expensive would never have inflated because the valves were incorrectly fitted...

There are many tales of serviced rafts not firing properly.

I have two Seago rafts both from 2018 each is in need of service and I am debating whether to spend hundreds of euros on servicing one of these or spending the money on a ais/plb to put into my lifejacket, and carry both rafts on board. ( I sail a 32 foot boat solo so plenty of room)

 

[Neeves]

To participate in a RORC race in HK we needed an 'in service' life raft. We had our raft serviced by a company who serviced life rafts for passenger aircraft like Cathay or Dragonair. There are, were, 2 or 4 such companies catering for commercial aircraft and merchant vessels. The service came with an invoice, which we paid, and a certificate.

After the series of RORC races but not much later we exited to Australia.

We had Josepheline built and had a life raft 'cage' secured to the transom, to carry the still in service raft.

Later we put the raft in for a further service.

The raft failed miserably.

There were no flares, there was no water and the raft had holes (it was a valise raft) sufficient that it could not be repaired. I'm a cynic - most LR servicing businesses know full well that LRs are never used in anger.


The holes.....??

But the absence of flares and water (its hot on the China Sea) was a worry. Most people never use their life raft, they have no idea if it has been serviced, at all. If it is used in anger, but fails - no-one will know. How many members here have used a LR in anger, how many here know anyone who has used a LR in anger - how many yachts 'lost at sea' have been found still afloat (but maybe with out a keel (or in the case of multis), capsized - but no sign of crew.

Observing your raft being serviced seems educational and re-assuring.

My father was plucked from the, North Sea after 3 days and December nights in a LR - so I don't knock LRs but......my father was the motivation for our carrying a LR.

Jonathan

 

[rogerthebodger]

It does make me wander how many items that have a service interval recommended by the manufacturer is more based on over servicing

I had my 4x4 services some time ago and the agent told me my brakes pads and discs needed to be replaced, I checked yesterday and found still more than enough pad thickness available for the brakes to still work correctly.

The issue is that the authorities seem to agree with the manufacturers who just want to make money in servicing.

The example of this is printers where the cost of toner or ink jet cost as much as a new printer same with EPIRB batteries from the manufacturers where on mine the batteries for my EPIRB cost a fifth of the manufacturer and of the same spec

 

[Daydream believer]

. I gave it someone to use as a wee paddling pool for his children.

Disgusting. Would not let my kids paddle in wee.
Mind you, It would take me a month of Sundays to fill it.