Do people bother with liferafts for coastal & cross Channel?

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SolentBoat

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'cos I don't.

Admittedly, 90% of my sailing is within the Solent but I do stray from time to time - sometimes across to France.

In fact, I was chatting about going this summer and the person I was chatting with was amazed that I had never had a liferaft on board. Am I exceedingly reckless? I work on the basis that I've got a tender in the event that I ever need to abandon ship and that'll I'll do all in my power to ever arrive at such an eventuality.
 
I doubt anyone ever intends to use their liferaft... I never sailed with one, but then we never went out of sight of land, or more than about 5 miles off for that matter (also coastal sailors). I would think that if you're doing the sort of sailing you're talking of, you have VHF, a phone, a tender and that sort of thing, they're of more use than a raft, which really is your last resort.
 
I'd be reticent about crossing the channel without a life raft. A dinghy wouldn't be of great use unless in calm weather since it offers no protection from the elements.

That's not to say your wrong though. If your comfortable with how you do things then who's to criticise?
 
Some do, some don't if the boats in my marina are anything to go by from what I can see. I wouldn't think it's reckless if folks don't carry one, or absurd if they do. However, the statistics certainly imply that they are a waste of effort. I sailed with a bloke as a boy and he just had a dinghy which he lashed to the deck for emergency purposes - Firth of Clyde. When we crossed the North Channel to Ireland he always hired one. At the time I never thought anything of it.
 
Woodlouse said:
I'd be reticent about crossing the channel without a life raft. A dinghy wouldn't be of great use unless in calm weather since it offers no protection from the elements.

That's not to say your wrong though. If your comfortable with how you do things then who's to criticise?
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when i first raced across the Southern North Sea all that was req was a 1/2 inflated dinghy on deck.
i have done it a few times without dinghy or raft. It feels better nowadays to have one, a bit like seat belts i guess
 
armchairsailor said:
I never sailed with one, but then we never went out of sight of land, or more than about 5 miles off for that matter (also coastal sailors).
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I assume you think you can swim that far :) :) :rolleyes:

I have a life raft and hope I never get to see whats inside of the case. IMHO if your out at sea you should have a life raft. I will however say that I cant remember the last time I wore a Lifejacket :confused:

Tom

PS Im an ex long distance swimmer.
 
Currently our sailing is coastal with never more than 4 aboard so we don't have one. But I do have a 2.7 large tube RIB with outboard in davits with quick release falls and keep a grab bag with the essentials and handheld at the ready. If we were going offshore I'd rent a liferaft I think.
 
My boat (an Etap) is unsinkable, but I still have a life raft. Because I understand although unsinkable they still burn.
 
We have a liferaft, and I'm glad of it, and I have put together a grab bag with the care of someone who expects to have to use it :)

However, as BoB says, the odds of needing it are tiny. Plus ours is stowed below deck (though next to the companionway) so of limited use in a fire or unexpected catastrophic collision - exactly the two situations that logic suggests are most likely to require it!

I prefer to have one, but I wouldn't consider someone reckless who does not.

Pete
 
And don't think of this as hijacking the thread but widening the discussion but...

..what is the current deal with french authorities checking liferaft service dates? To answer the OP, yes I do have a liferaft. I don't like having the tender inflated on long passages, and as others have said, wouldn't fancy the dinghy in any kind of nasty conditions. The liferaft (theoretically) takes seconds to deploy: no struggling to get it over the guard rails.
To my additional question...my liferaft is due a service. By the time I get the boat back in the water there's only going to be time for one significant trip before the end of the season. I'd prefer to wait til next year to get the liferaft serviced but have heard anecdotes about french authorities not requiring that you have a liferaft, but if you do have one having the certificate to say it's in date. I prefer the out of date liferaft to none, but would find a friend's garage to stash it in if I'm going to be done for possessing an out of date one in France

Having said that, never even had to show my passport sailing to france so far...
 
I can see the appeal of having one aboard now I think about it. As someone who only rarely ends up out of sight of land, you do feel intensely *alone* when there's nothing visible - no ships, no land - from horizon to horizon. And on previous trips I have got a bit paranoid: "what was that noise?", "is that watery noise inside or outside?", "where TF am I?"[1] etc.

Can't say I'm yet convinced to rush out and buy/hire one. When it comes to leaving the protective shelter of the IoW, I still think my safety is best assured by being so scared that only perfect weather and vis will suffice to entice me past the Needles.

[1] I now own a GPS so, hopefully, the fear that I've somehow misnavigated to the mid-Atlantic while en-route to Cherbourg will in future diminish.
 
SolentBoat said:
I can see the appeal of having one aboard now I think about it. As someone who only rarely ends up out of sight of land, you do feel intensely *alone* when there's nothing visible - no ships, no land - from horizon to horizon. And on previous trips I have got a bit paranoid: "what was that noise?", "is that watery noise inside or outside?", "where TF am I?"[1] etc.

Can't say I'm yet convinced to rush out and buy/hire one. When it comes to leaving the protective shelter of the IoW, I still think my safety is best assured by being so scared that only perfect weather and vis will suffice to entice me past the Needles.

[1] I now own a GPS so, hopefully, the fear that I've somehow misnavigated to the mid-Atlantic while en-route to Cherbourg will in future diminish.
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Well you can now give the CG Lat n Long rather that the tried & tested "Bearing & distance from Owers ". I guess the geezer in North Shields CG Stn would know where Owers was
 
You carry a liferaft to make you feel better, statistically your chances of using it are lower than winning the lottery. I do the lottery and carry a liferaft, I feel lucky and unlucky :D
 
Chap who taught me Day Skipper a few years ago, was crewing in a small racing yacht in the 1970s that sank off the Dutch coast.

They took to the liferaft.

Anyone want to hear the rest of the story?
 
In answer to the OP,a massive no for the Channel or the N Sea. Or the Baltic,or Biscay. Or the Azores either. I will gamble with the killer whale attack,and I reckon I would bounce off a box awash without major ingress. If I was overwhelmed by breaking seas,stay with the yacht is the hard earned reccomendation. Cheers Jerry
 
galadriel said:
My boat (an Etap) is unsinkable, but I still have a life raft. Because I understand although unsinkable they still burn.
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With determination, unless smashed on rocks when a life-raft may not help, if you're on board a boat is unlikely to sink. Yours even less likely.

A liferaft has 2 main potential uses IMO:

the first, as you say, is if you are on fire.

the second is in case of a MOB. All these gadgets are all very well, but on many boats getting someone back on board may be impossible. I have a 6ft plus freeboard, and no mast to use as a crane - the ladder is right astern where it will pitch most - if someone goes over in a lumpy sea, they will be swiftly followed by the life-raft.

I've done many channel crossing without one. But I chastise my younger, more reckless self.
 
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