Entering a liferaft

I tried to get into a raft wearing foulies and boots when I was in my forties when at a life raft demo.

I only JUST made it without using the ladder. A ladder is essential IMHO and it MUST continue across the inside of the raft..

We also practiced righting the raft. Make sure your raft has stabilising pockets.
 
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dancrane said:
Hmm. I never understood the urge to abandon ship just because she's leaking a fair bit.

I wonder how practical or impractical it must be, using the latest closed-cell foam, to fill all unused hull-cavities with buoyancy - prohibiting the flooding of such spaces and preventing or substantially delaying foundering.
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i remember a discussion about a leaking yacht and letting off the liferaft in the cabin to prevent sinking, or maybe have an old spare one for that ?

Getting in with water proofs on is way way harder than you ever imagine it could be and that was in a flat pool.
 
With a lot of offshore mileage planned this year, a new liferaft was unfortunately a necessary purchase. Having done the sea survival course a couple of years ago I was shocked at how difficult it was to enter a liferaft whilst wearing an inflated lifejacket. If you cannot get in, then there is b****r all point in lugging a liferaft around all the time. So top priority was for the liferaft to have the best ladder and inflated entrance step arrangement. Distinctly un-cheap, but good for peace of mind.
Having said which, at my age and with my likely survival time in the water, I am definitely staying put on the yacht until there is no alternative.
 
This reminds me of a picture in the Daily telegraph some years ago of a Vendee entrant stood in the cockpit of his sinking yacht. The boat was almost submerged, with little more than the winches sticking out of the water. He was looking up at the aircraft overhead.
 
Storyline said:
A question aimed mainly at those who have entered a liferaft from the water on a sea survival course.

I have just bought a budget coastal raft (crewsaver) but according to the recent review in pbo it has nothing inside to grab hold of to help pull yourself in.

I have had a thought which is to glue some pads onto the floor when it has it's first service so I can attach a rope or something similar to pull on.

Does that sound sensible (and any other tips from people who have actually tried to enter a raft from the water) ?

Many thanks
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Why not go on a sea survival course & try it yourself?
 
Thanks for the replies. The Crewsaver raft has been recently redesigned with larger stability pockets as the previous model had come in for some serious criticism and I am relying on the brand name to reassure me that this has been done properly. Surprisingly there is no information online as to what exactly are the specs of this new version and the only reason I think there is no internal ladder is because of the pbo test but they tested the 6 man version which was an early new production model.

I think I will just wait until the first service and then see what system I can rig up to have some kind of internal hauling line. Maybe I could make a couple of holes in the canopy and then lead a line/ladder from the tubes on the opposite side which I assume must have some hand holds. Suppose the danger is that I could just end up pulling the raft over upside down which is why I intially favoured some pads attached to the floor.
 
It is bloody difficult from the water wearing foulies and an inflated lifejacket. On my sea survival course it took quite a while for all 8 of us to get in, though there was a lot of laughing and joking going on. If we had to do it for real I guess it would be quicker. I do remember us all sitting in the raft pretty tired afterwards when the instructor said "I want everybody back in the water and we'll do it again, this time we'll assume I have a broken leg". One of the younger lads said what we were all thinking, "you're going to drown mate".....
 
dancrane said:
I wonder how practical or impractical it must be, using the latest closed-cell foam, to fill all unused hull-cavities with buoyancy - prohibiting the flooding of such spaces and preventing or substantially delaying foundering.
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You need to fill a hell of a lot of volume with foam to provide positive buoyancy for a ballasted boat. 0.9 cubic metres per tonne of displacement.
 
snowleopard said:
You need to fill a hell of a lot of volume with foam to provide positive buoyancy for a ballasted boat. 0.9 cubic metres per tonne of displacement.
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Indeed; very problematic, and ultimately a costly reply to a question which, God willing, will never be asked of a yacht - in fact it seems to be so problematic & costly that almost no builders/designers have accepted the challenge...but it has been achieved, so it surely could be done again. And isn't anything better than ultimate reliance on the liferaft?

Tony Cross said:
I do remember us all sitting in the raft pretty tired afterwards when the instructor said "I want everybody back in the water and we'll do it again, this time we'll assume I have a broken leg". One of the younger lads said what we were all thinking, "you're going to drown mate".....
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That's a sobering and alarming prospect. Hence my exploration of the idea that solving the problem of keeping the yacht from going down, however problematic, beats a terrible cold struggle to climb into a tiny, tented raft for an indefinite period of nauseating purgatory, hopeful of eventual rescue.

Liferafts aren't cheap, or a dead-certain guarantee of survival, but yachtsmen buy them rather than risk ending up swimming. I s'pose ETAP owners bought their boats, rather than risk ending up in a liferaft.
 
The one I used had a tape, starting at the bottle, across the bottom, round the tube and through the door, and across the raft inside. When you stand on the inverted raft, on the bottle which is naturally nearest the water, you hold the tape and fall back, keeping hold of the tape and haul yourself along it to get the raft off you and then haul yourself up through the door. In theory. We all managed it though.
 
Storyline said:
....I think I will just wait until the first service and then see what system I can rig up to have some kind of internal hauling line. Maybe I could make a couple of holes in the canopy and then lead a line/ladder from the tubes on the opposite side which I assume must have some hand holds. Suppose the danger is that I could just end up pulling the raft over upside down which is why I intially favoured some pads attached to the floor.
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Best not to make holes in the canopy.
 
Don't think any posters here have been in a liferaft in anger.
I posted my experiece here a few years ago so won't go into detail.
We capsized an Atlantic Proa,Lillian, designed by Derek Kensall in Oct 1975 at 50 40 North 7 01 West,(I had just qualified for the 1976 OSTAR in her).
Trust me,once we launched the life raft there was no problem getting in.....maybe they should put a few sharks in these survival course pools.
Will post the full story when I have time,
 
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Tradewinds my apologies pressed the wrong button before finishing.
I'm not very tecchy,but if anyone want's to read about it PM me your email and I will send you a scan of the article I wrote published in 1975.
The Publishers titled it "What's it like to spend 20 hours in a liferaft ,80 miles off Land's End -the kind of situation any cruising yachtsman could find himself in on a passage across channel"
 
I wonder what proportion of liferafts sold for use on coastal and offshore sailing yachts, ever see action? And what proportion of those occasions are genuinely 'all is lost' situations when staying with the yacht isn't an option?
 
Fortunately the proportion of rafts ever actually used is tiny.
I have one and hope to never use it. I have one because I was sailing in a remote area and intend to do so again so its the full offshore variety. 6 man for our 5 person family didn't want to ever be drawing straws.
 
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