Bought new liferaft

[Guest]

I bought a new Viking liferaft - thought my choice might help others in deciding.
Decided against Plastimo: cannister is plastic, not fibreglass and prone to breaking. Spares are bespoke and difficult to get hold of. Gas bottle has to be replaced every 5/6 years.
Others: Some manufacterers get the shape of the liferaft by pinching the tube to form the corners, rather than cutting and sticking 4 lengths of tube to make rectangle. Lots of advice received to avoid PVC.
Viking's core business is commercial craft where quality is regulated. This quality appears to be reflected in their leisure part of the business where regulations are very lax and can be taken advantage of. i.e. Commercial craft are required to have a minimum area per person. A leisure liferaft has no such requirement so a liferaft claiming to be 4 man could in fact be closer to 3 man.
Price of Viking was reasonable, more than Plastimo but not so much more as to make it unreachable.
Also, design of Viking liferaft is fairly recent incorporating lots of features off commercial liferafts i.e. Large opening, separate tubes with baffles, large ballast pockets. In addition, other items are standard where some manufacturers charge extra.
At the end of the day it is a liferaft I can have confidence in.

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[yoda]

While I'm not in the market for a new liferaft your post is food for thought and shows the sort of research effort and clarity that I would like to see more in yachting magazines. Thank you for passing on your findings.

Yoda

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[Guest]

Just had cause to go back to Viking to test out service side of business.
The liferaft was only one week old when crew member cut through the strap that holds the two halves of the canister together in the belief this was for packing.
Viking collected the liferaft, fitted a new strap, and delivered it back at no cost. Excellent service and again made me glad I had bought direct from the manufacturer. Five ***** star award to Viking.

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[vyv_cox]

Good post. In many instances Plastimo are built down to a price, especially in the competitive areas like dinghies, where I'm not at all impressed by their materials of construction. The liferafts seem to be made of the same stuff. Do you know the materials of the Viking version?

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[roger]

Re: Small Print

When looking for a liferaft you must look as the originalposter did at the small print. Weight and size, double bottom, boarding pillow etc. Some o the chaeper rafts dont even have lights or reflective patches.

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