choice of life raft

C

cloud7

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looking at purchase of a new raft for off shore sailing , any opinions on seago , quality
and service.
thks
 
Recent group test in ST showed serious flaws in all of the cheaper ones (Seago, Plastimo, etc). From memory, the ones priced at double this were thought to be much better. The test was quite harsh and they thought the cheaper rafts were unfit for purpose, which was very sobering given how many people have them.
 
Ibought a new lb a couple of years ago and discussed openly with a reputable supplier. response to Seago was 'not chinese rubber!?' spoke for itself really
 
I suspect like many things you get what you pay for. If you want a raft for survival, which your "offshore" leads me to believe, rather than just sitting in until the RNLI or nearest boat arrives, then you need to consider the design and contents carefully. ISO9650 defines material standards, double floor (I think), water ballast minima, righting devices, minimum contents (including flares, seasickness pills, etc.), lighting, entry step(s) and I'm sure a lot more. Solas A & B defines raft contents for survival which is ISO 9650 + water, rations, etc.. All that costs money and if you are looking at £499 rafts, you are wasting your time.

I would suggest you go to the boat show and see what is there, probably your best chance to see the insides before you use it. Ask questions as to what standards they meet and, quite important, ask about servicing facilities, costs, availability of parts, and anything else that you want to know. If you work out the life time costs of purchase and servicing you may find that yearly rental is cost effective, especially if coding or offshore racing your boat (requires yearly service).

I have a Seago ISO9650 6-man raft that I know worked (don't ask how!) and I am more than happy with the facilities and support provided by Seago. A possible caveat is the take-over of Cosalt's servicing business (they are my local Seago service agent) by Survitec who have their own range of rafts. I have 2.5years before I need to worry about this.
 
If you are going offshore, go for the best you can afford. We have cruised extensively, happy in the knowledge our liferaft has a double bottom, folding gate for easy access from the water, regularly serviced, etc.

rickym, you only need to use it once or hopefully never. I reckon, do the job properly.

CS
 
rickym said:
But how many rafts actually get used?
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It's nothing more or less than insurance read the small print ( read the spec) you get what you pay for and hope never to use it but as said you dont want to be sitting in one thinking a double floor would be nice;).

If you are buying for the first time go and do a survival course and experience what is invoved in getting into and surviving in a life raft then make your choice.
 
life raft

Appreciate all the points , the raft underconsideration is a seago 9650 > 24 hours , priced at £980 ( 4 person ).
thks
 
rickym said:
But how many rafts actually get used?
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Virtually none, so very difficult to determine what is good and what is not. Of those that have been used (in a leisure boat context) there have been "successes" and "failures" with both cheap and expensive designs. However, there have been so few that it is difficult to find any meaningful pattern, except that "failure" can be failing to inflate (often service issue), inflating incorrectly (upside down), difficulty of boarding and structural failure while in use.

Many of the failures have been addressed, particularly boarding and stability by imrovements in design, but there are so few cases that it is difficult to determine whether the improvements work in practice. Much has to do with the circumstances of deployment - inevitably most are in extreme conditions where there is a wide range of factors that affect performance. On the other hand there are examples of "text book" deployments where the liferaft has performed exactly as expected. Two recent examples involved boats slowly sinking and orderly evacuation. In both cases the weather was benign (one was after a collision in fog, the other a steady failure of the vessel's integrity leading to sinking) and there was sufficient time to inflate the raft and step aboard. Unfortunately in neither case did they have a VHF or EPIRB, so in one the rescue came hours after the sinking, in the other days. The latter raft was a Seago, and the report was very complimentary about the way it performed.

However, if you read all the reports (mostly MAIB) you find that such cases are rare and most deployments have problems - not just to do with design, but more to do with the circumstances surrounding the deployment. This makes it very difficult to make an informed choice about what raft to buy - if you are basing your decision on "evidence" rather than a comparison of the theoretical properties of each alternative. The chances of you actually having to use your raft are virtually zero and on the evidence the outcome might be "good" or "bad" - independent (almost) of the raft you have.
 
Tranona said:
most deployments have problems - not just to do with design, but more to do with the circumstances surrounding the deployment.
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Which makes sense - if the need for the liferaft was driven by conditions (as opposed to, say, fire) then it's asking a hell of a lot of a small inflatable rubber bag to survive in circumstances that a solid fibreglass/wood/metal boat couldn't cope with.

Pete
 
FWIW I have an Ocean Safety Forties 6 man raft with the Solas pack and never expect to use it, it has a PLB packed inside to compliment the EPIRB aboard. The problem is nobody can comment on how good they are as the use is too infrequent to have any data.
 
We have a fairly old, but regularly serviced XM, which was about £800. My reasoning for getting an economy one was that our Channel and North Sea sailing never puts us more than 24hrs from land and we could reasonably hope for rescue within a 12 hour period if a mayday is sent. If I were venturing further, say Azores, I would be looking for the best that money could buy.
 
life rafts

[Just had a good look at the viking they have a link to nov 2011 sailing test on 5 rafts
shocking difference in performance , seago very poor test result , thanks for the post.

UOTE=Robih;3281576]I had a good look at Viking at SIBS and it seemed a good deal better than the "budget" examples and likely worth the 50% cost increase. See here: http://www.viking-life.com/viking.nsf/public/yachting-rescyou.html I'll be investing in the spring.



rob[/QUOTE]
 
I am sure you knowledgeable chaps here have all done the RYA sea survival course.

For those that haven't, I would recommend it and say it was by far the most useful of their courses I have done and a good investment to compliment your new life raft....which hopefully will never see the light of day, whatever the make!
 
life raft choice

[Excellent advice , we did the course last year well worth he money , i had hoped to get some specialist advice on various ratfts on the course but the general opinion was buy a ISO 9650 part 1 , the choice within that is quite extensive with the viking being rated tops in a recent magazine , any opinions from the forum. thks

QUOTE=xyachtdave;3282086]I am sure you knowledgeable chaps here have all done the RYA sea survival course.

For those that haven't, I would recommend it and say it was by far the most useful of their courses I have done and a good investment to compliment your new life raft....which hopefully will never see the light of day, whatever the make![/QUOTE]
 
.
We bought the cheap (non-certified) Seago because we saw some guys on TV being picked up in the Irish Sea after four and a half days aboard one.

Even when we were planning an Atlantic crossing, with an EPIRB and a satphone we weren't planning on spending too many days in the raft so were happy with our choice.

Of course, if we could have afforded a more expensive one we would have, but then we would have liked a bigger boat as well . . .

- W
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
Obviously you have not seen the post by Sabreman on 20/04/10 regarding this very issue with Seago liferaft; do a search; you will be astonished!!
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From my memory, I have read of a Viking raft not inflating, Sabreman's Seago, a Premier rental raft not working, a PBO review that praised Seago, a Sailing Today review that didn't and a variety of opinions, some well informed and some jingoistic. As always with liferaft threads there is also the simple truth that very, very, few get used and thus there are very few 1st hand accounts.

One of the reasons I chose Seago over other "budget" rafts was my knowledge of the company's actions in the past when faced with a life jacket problem and the way they went the extra mile in their recall and replacement. My raft was serviced after 3 years and repacked after I managed to lose it overboard shortly after the servicing. I know what's in it, I know it inflates, and did it the right way up when towed behind the boat (it would have been a lot easier if it hadn't - though perhaps worrying), I know it stays inflated (well over 2 weeks while waiting for a new box) and, on the basis of what I have experienced, I am happy to have it as my back-up of last resort together with my grab bag. My only criticism is that a lanyard connecting both halves of the box would have prevented the loss of one half and a delay in repacking it.

I wish the OP luck with his choice of raft and hope the confidence he has in it is never tested.
 
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