How many coastal cruisers have a life raft?

[RupertW]

The amount of times a sailing boat has got into trouble but survived thanks to the life raft is too small to measure compared to the number of sailing trips made. We have one that came with the boat but haven’t had it serviced since 2013 including doing a number of multi-day open sea trips - it satisfies foreign port police by being there.

There are probably more stories (although still few) of people losing or risking their lives by trying to transfer to a life raft while their boat stays afloat for weeks afterwards than of them being a benefit.

 

[LittleSister]

My liferaft is in the shed. Should the shed ever sink with me in it, I might stand a chance!

I could never afford a new one. I inherited this one with the boat, and it appeared that it had been put below when new by the previous owner in the plastic bag it was delivered in, and hadn't moved since. It takes up too much room on my small boat and is very heavy. I keep intending to put it on e-bay or the for sale section here.

Should my boat ever sink at sea or catch fire, I will wish I had it, but these, while entirely possible, are very unlikely. If I was to be best prepared for every possible contingency, I would never be able to afford to go boating at all. A balance has to be struck - safety precautions versus cost and practicality - and for me a liferaft doesn't get near the top of the list. Others will have different priorities, budgets, cruising grounds and boat sizes.

 

[Gary Fox]

I used to but I gave it away. Huge, heavy, obstructive and expensive to maintain, after 5 years of carrying it on the coachroof, faced with another massive bill from Ocean Safety, I was glad somebody took it.

 

[Daedelus]

Mrs D insisted we have one as we did fairly frequent cross channel trips and our first return from France started in light mist which turned imperceptibly into thick fog; we could hear the big ships and "see" them on radar but that was it for a large part of the passage and this convinced her she was right.

Last year (2019) I realised the raft needed a service and was told that it was now so old that it needed an annual rather than 3 year service and the cost would be high as they would inflate the thing each time. I asked about alternative options (like buy a new one- and this worked out at near £2000). To my surprise they hired out the things. This meant for a price which matched the annual service charge (less in fact) and avoided the capital outlay I was able to have a recently checked raft for the period when I actually needed it. Best bet in my view is get one but hire it for the summer or whenever.

 

[Bristolfashion]

Mrs D insisted we have one as we did fairly frequent cross channel trips and our first return from France started in light mist which turned imperceptibly into thick fog; we could hear the big ships and "see" them on radar but that was it for a large part of the passage and this convinced her she was right.

Last year (2019) I realised the raft needed a service and was told that it was now so old that it needed an annual rather than 3 year service and the cost would be high as they would inflate the thing each time. I asked about alternative options (like buy a new one- and this worked out at near £2000). To my surprise they hired out the things. This meant for a price which matched the annual service charge (less in fact) and avoided the capital outlay I was able to have a recently checked raft for the period when I actually needed it. Best bet in my view is get one but hire it for the summer or whenever.

Ah, THAT'S what they mean by "inflated prices"!

 

[Stemar]

No room for a liferaft on a 24 footer, even a tubby one. No room for a flubber on deck, so I tow it everywhere. If we're going any distance, the OB lives on a bracket on the stern, which may not be ideal if we have to leave in a hurry, but plan A is to notice a fire in time to try and put it out, then leave in decency and in order if I can't. Should plan A not survive first contact with the enemy, at least we should be afloat and, I hope, we'll have the handheld and a mobile or two. I think that's reasonable for a boat that's rarely out od sight of land.

Were I going transatlantic, an EPIRB and a liferaft, both in date, would be on my essentials list

 

[ashtead]

I have one we first bought a good few years ago when we were preparing for first channel crossing . It sits in the valise under the stern walk through in summer and in the loft in the winter but has been serviced so far via chandlery . It is sadly reaching the age where annual service might be needed so might look at rental route for channel crossings as suggested by Daedalus. Ours is just 4 person Seago so if I did replace don’t know what I would go for now though . I assume they might be improved somewhat. Don’t have an Epirb so maybe the money is better spent there than on replacing ?

 

[JumbleDuck]

The amount of times a sailing boat has got into trouble but survived thanks to the life raft is too small to measure compared to the number of sailing trips made. We have one that came with the boat but haven’t had it serviced since 2013 including doing a number of multi-day open sea trips - it satisfies foreign port police by being there.

There are probably more stories (although still few) of people losing or risking their lives by trying to transfer to a life raft while their boat stays afloat for weeks afterwards than of them being a benefit.

There is also the opportunity cost to consider. I sail on a budget, and the money I got for my liferaft paid for my AIS, which I believe gave a significantly higher boost to my safety.

 

[Sea Devil]

So I've been sailing for 30 plus years, mainly racing and coastal hopping on the east coast, and I've never had a life raft. When I started, there was no GPS, vhfs weren't digital and flares (fashion and handheld) were the thing. If going far I'd sometimes have an inflatable on the cabin top.

Many of the boats that I know on the east coast still don't have a life raft.

However, this season I'm hoping to go further than I have for a while, channel and southern Brittany. As a practice run for keeping her in my house in southern Brittany in a couple of years.

So I am thinking of getting an epirb and a liferaft. The epirb is a no brainer and I should have got one years ago.

I'm still in two minds about the liferaft. I don't sail in extreme conditions if I can avoid it, and with modern forecasting it's rare to be completely caught out.

So is an inflatable on the cabin roof good enough backup to stepping off the sinking boat? I know there have been threads about this but what do others actually have? Have I been an irresponsible minority coastal hopping without a liferaft for 30 years, or is that the norm.

Plus any suggestions for which one.

I'm going through the same decision process... Had life rafts on all my previous boats but then most of the sailing I did was off shore or ocean and the boats were bigger than my present Beneteau 323... At dinner a couple of years ago I said 'never in all my life had I ever met anyone who had actually got into a life raft..' The fisherman opposite me said 'well my mate was really pleased to have his when the boat caught fire and sank'.
I have thought about a coastal one as sailing between the channel ports as far as Brittany I am seldom/if ever out of VHF or mobile phone range but I have also been thinking about longer passages so I have started looking at offshore life rafts for a few hundred more... Not sure if I can spot the difference other than built in grab bags and flares....
I think your confidence in EPIRB is slightly misplaced.. 95% of all alarms are false - accidentally set off or fallen overboard etc and the CC is loath to do a lot more than ask vessels to keep a sharp look out if in the vicinity.. Even after contacting nearest and dearest on your contact form...

 

[Gary Fox]

I'm going through the same decision process... Had life rafts on all my previous boats but then most of the sailing I did was off shore or ocean and the boats were bigger than my present Beneteau 323... At dinner a couple of years ago I said 'never in all my life had I ever met anyone who had actually got into a life raft..' The fisherman opposite me said 'well my mate was really pleased to have his when the boat caught fire and sank'.
I have thought about a coastal one as sailing between the channel ports as far as Brittany I am seldom/if ever out of VHF or mobile phone range but I have also been thinking about longer passages so I have started looking at offshore life rafts for a few hundred more... Not sure if I can spot the difference other than built in grab bags and flares....
I think your confidence in EPIRB is slightly misplaced.. 95% of all alarms are false - accidentally set off or fallen overboard etc and the CC is loath to do a lot more than ask vessels to keep a sharp look out if in the vicinity.. Even after contacting nearest and dearest on your contact form...

Hi Sea Devil, I'm not doubting you, but where does that figure of 95% come from?

 

[Sea Devil]

Hi Sea Devil, I'm not doubting you, but where does that figure of 95% come from?

Can't remember... I read it in some 'official' paper and accepted it as gospel because I was seeing so many 'keep a sharp lookout' on Navtext... but...
I just googled it and US Coast Guard official sites states 96% are false alarms!
85% Resolved by RCCs with registration and good detective work''

 

[Resolution]

I chose to get a couple of PLBs instead of a single EPIRB. IMHO the chances of someone falling overboard at night (even though we clipped on most times) are higher than a cataclysmic sinking.

 

[Kukri]

I did without a raft or an inflatable dinghy from 1970 to 1984. This included crossing the North Sea a couple of times without the towed dinghy, because you never need one in Holland.

1984 to 1991 fully inflated Avon on coachroof.
Bought first VHF in 1987.
Bought first liferaft in 2002.

 

[mainsail1]

I have a Seago life raft which is vacuum packed from new. I trade it in for a new one every 7 years and ignore the 3 year service intervals which I believe can cause more harm than good. On that basis it costs me less than £100 a year to have it onboard. To me that is a good enough compromise. We are told the sea is a dangerous place you know.

 

[Petertheking1982]

I dont sail with one (english channel). In my mind it comes down to how long will you have to wait in the water for rescue after calling for help, and the risk of that happening. The further away from other boats i am, the more i want one (ironically i enjoy sailing away from other boats

 

[CLB]

I can recall a couple of instances of leisure boaters taking to a liferaft in British waters. In both cases it was a fire that prompted the evacuation. It is for this reason that I carry one. Once a boat is on fire, you are almost certainly going to have to get off. I tend to cruise offshore quite a bit and cannot rely on a quick rescue, certainly not quick enough to stay onboard a burning boat while I wait. Even when I am coastal, I boat in quiet waters where there isn't always other boats around and lifeboats are not a few minutes away.

I don't worry about the one year service intervals and stick to 3 years, despite my raft being of a certain age. I may take Mainsail1's approach next time a service is due and just chop it in for a new one. I also carry a fully inflated dinghy, so do have a second option.

I just see it as another form of insurance. I have been boating for a few decades now and have never: claimed on my boat insurance, fired a flare, used the DSC emergency function on my VHF, used a lifejacket in anger, used a liferaft, used my personal PLB, used my little pack of wooden bungs etc etc. I could have saved a fortune over the years buy never buying any of this stuff, but you just never know. If cub scouts taught me one thing, it is to 'be prepared'

 

[RupertW]

There is also the opportunity cost to consider. I sail on a budget, and the money I got for my liferaft paid for my AIS, which I believe gave a significantly higher boost to my safety.

And that has been exactly my thoughts on risk reduction. Even things like getting solar panels and a decent MPPT don’t look directly safety related but have allowed us to sail from Northern Morocco to the Canaries in a cloudy week without needing to start the engine and with enough power to keep the autohelm running in lumpy seas and therefore the two of us well rested to make difficult decisions in the right frame of mind.

 

[Beelzebub]

I know three people who have used their liferafts in anger.

The first person hit rocks in fog off the N. Brittany coast and quickly sunk.

The second was delivering a boat across the Atlantic and the keel fell off, causing the yacht to invert.

The third was dismasted to the north of Jersey and the deck-stepped mast drove down through the hull, creating a void that was unable to be staunched before the boat sunk.

 

[johnalison]

I did without a raft or an inflatable dinghy from 1970 to 1984. This included crossing the North Sea a couple of times without the towed dinghy, because you never need one in Holland.

1984 to 1991 fully inflated Avon on coachroof.
Bought first VHF in 1987.
Bought first liferaft in 2002.

Very similar but slightly ahead of you. Abroad with half-Avon ‘78-87, then Sadler 29 possibly unsinkable. First VHF ‘87. Liferaft bought 2000.

It may be that with Epirbs, GPS and modern life jackets with spray hoods, the need for a life raft in local waters is greatly diminished. With an effective distress call, you would be unlucky to be in the water for even an hour or so. The situation in winter water might be different.

 

[westhinder]

When we bought our first boat, the kids were 1 and 6 years old and always came along, so it felt the responsible thing to do to buy a liferaft.
Since then, our horizons have moved out a bit and the liferaft has remained. It is a valise and normally lives at the bottom of a lazarette, but for a Biscay crossing e.g. I put it on deck.
It is very much a last resort, I do agree with the view that things like AIS add much more active safety, but somehow I would feel more vulnerable without one.
If all your sailing is coastal within easy reach of a performant rescue service like the RNLI, I accept the balance is different.