Arimar liferafts + a weighty question

[rog]

1. Arimar liferafts - are they any good as they seem a lot cheaper than the others. I would appreciate your advice and comments as of course I would prefer not to find out at the wrong time! They meet SOLAS IMO 1983/521/13 and DM 2/12/77 but I've absolutely no idea if that's good, wonderful or bad.

2. Looking for a tender I see that for example the Plastimo P240 is rated for a maximum of 3 persons "or" maximum load 417kg. If my maths is right (?) this in English is 65 stone which seems an big weight to me.
So what's the weight of a likely outboard and can I put in as many people as make up the balance or is it not safe for other reasons?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Rog, you have to make sure you're comparing like with like. There are different categories of liferaft - coastal, cruising, offshore, ocean. Then you have to compare service intervals as servicing is costly and its also a good idea to actually look at each raft and compare features - eg how many bouyancy tubes, 1 or 2, what sort of floor, has it got a ladder
Lastly, you have to ask yourself whether saving £200 is worthwile when you're talking about something on which your life could depend
Re your dinghy, a typical 4hp outboard weighs 25-30kg plus say 15kg of fuel in a remote tank so that still leaves you plenty of spare carrying capacity although I would'nt want to carry more than 3 people in a tender that size anyway for stability reasons

 

[tcm]

Don't have specific experience of Arimar, although not sure if anyone complains about liferafts: the only serious complaint would arise due to being dead.

There are loads of liferaft sites. Unless you are going a long way offshore, you need something to keep afloat on (and hopefully "in") for a day or two, rather than for several weeks. SOLAS ratings are easily good enough for this.

I think that many would be better with two or more smaller cheaper rafts, rather than one blimmin massive thing. This is because if there a cock-up (and there are other sites which detail the cock-ups) with launching liferaft one, theres always another.

Note that it is not necessarily the case that you "step up into the liferaft" if the boat somehow catches fire, andeven amongst sailyboats, fiore apparantly cause 50% of sinkings, I hear. So you may have to be able to chuck the thing out pretty quickly.

As for the tenders, hocus pocus reigns: you'll be able to getat least 65 stone (yes, your maths is correct) on the thing ina flat marina but praps not towards waves, frexample. Our old tender was rated for 4 people and 8 hp, but actually fine (though wet) with five or six onboard and 15hp, so long as not too many waves. The ratings of people and power (i believe) is set at a level well below what it can actually manage, probly for legal reasons.