Is this feature negligent?

Dyflin

Dyflin

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At the boat show I came across this fine looking boat, the stern locker opens outwards and looks like it can be accessed from the cockpit.

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But the liferaft sits very snugly into the bottom. But in an emergency (sinking/fire etc.) it's not really the best place to access vital lifesaving equipment. Especially as the locker will never be this empty and the other gear will undoubtedly be lying on top of the liferaft.

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I know some people choose to stow a liferaft in a cockpit locker because there really isn't anywhere else to put it but on a boat of this size, are the manufactures putting safety at the bottom of their list?
 
May be not negligent but a stupid design. The pictures seem to indicate that there is room for a moulding to be in the rear deck for the lifraft leaving the space in the locker for useful items (junk!). Thing to do is to show interest in purchasing and then withdraw due to to the poor design ....
 
Possibly a loop of webbing strap would enable you to pull it out from up on deck. But as you say there will inevitably be other junk piled on top.
 
The negligence is on the part of the skipper who does not restow it in a sensbile location when at sea. It's just a secure area for when the boat is in a marina.
 
Don't it make you want to spit. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen recommendations that new boats are manufactured with a "float free" location for a liferaft - somewhere where a liferaft may be stowed from which it will float free of the main structure automatically and inflate, should the boat sink. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Isn't it now a requirement of the RCD that all new boats have a secure location to stow a liferaft that is readily accessible - i.e. is an appropriate location for keep the liferaft when at sea.

Since one assumes that the boat is RCD A it must have passed the RCD inspection on that point.

Probably okay provided there is a paragraph in the owners manual saying "storing things on top of your liferaft may impede access" /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Maybe not negligent, but certainly a gimmick. I can't see how the locker door fastens but I can imagine that it might be vulnerable to a breaking wave from astern. I don't like to think what would happen if the flap was forced open and the locker filled up. Mind you, that's not likely to happen when you're tied up to a marina pontoon in the Med.
 
Downright dangerous liferaft stowage. Given that the boat has his and her's wheels it is probably a six person or larger raft which will not be an easy weight to shift between there and a proper sea going stowage.

I tend to agree with Talbot that the designer has probably never been to sea. What happens to all the other items that will inevitably accumulate in there when the back door is opened?

Imagine running in open water (say comming back from St Kilda) in a F8 on a dark night and an urgent need to locate one small but important item that is known to be "in there somewhere"?

And should you ask I have twice had delightful stays in St Kilda only to run back to Barra at the end of the settled weather in F6 to F8 winds.
 
The location is definately stupid. There is quite big gap between where the bottom of the locker and the hatch you would need to lift it out of. At any type of heel the raft will not be directly below the hole and will not pull out clean assuming you haven't allready droppped a pile of fenders and warps on top of it.

What is interesting is if you look at Knox-Johnson's open 60, the life raft is in a slot halfway up the stern. I have seen some smaller boats with this feature which is actually quite sesible. A tug on the correct line and the whole thing slides out behind the boat. No risk of it going off down below, or being fouled in fallen rigging/trapped under a broken mast.
 
I don't entirely agree it is dangerous. It is clearly designed as the permanent storage location and as such it has a number of benefits.

It is clearly secure, both from being stolen in the marina and from accidental damage in heavy weather. It is stored close to the side of the boat and there is only a small lip that you have to lift it over before dropping it in the water. And the locker has a huge access hatch so things should not get jammed as you try to get it out.

I would not worry too much about storing things on top on the grounds that in an emergency it is would be simple just to dump it all over the stern before deploying the liferaft.

What would be of concern to me is how practical it would be to access that locker in heavy seas - having to get over the cockpit coamings, open that large hatch when the stern might be tossing about.
 
The stern door appears to be power operated. If the reason for abandoning ship were an engine room fire would power still be available? Only the calmest of seas would allow its opening without a risk of flooding.

If on the other hand the liferaft were stored suspended immediately beneath the deck hatch it could perhaps be quite easily used.
 
Based on the adage that you should only use a liferaft if you are stepping up to it (i.e. sinking) how the hell do you access it when it's below the water line? And even if you didn't stow heavey stuff on top, any weather or calamity likely to require the liferaft will have shifted all sorts of stuff on top of it. As for it being secure marina stowage only - that's just inviting people to not bother relocating it on anything but long coean voyages - do they provide a secure above deck stowage point?
 
[ QUOTE ]
that's just inviting people to not bother relocating it on anything but long coean voyages

[/ QUOTE ]

So what? Why is it the fault of the boat designer if a skipper thinks that the stowage of a piece of safety equipment is not safe and but then does nothing about it?

If you like the boat then buy it. Use the storage for an inflatable tender, nice platform there to pump it up on, and store the liferaft on the pushpit - fit longer pushpit and reposition transome ladder if necessary. Problem solved. No negligence, nice and safe, get on with sailing.
 
No!

Who is to say the space is for a liferaft anyway. Just because it is a good fit and the manufacturer or delivery agent chose to stick it there tells more about them than the designer.

The dividers may be simply that, or to add strength to surrounding mouldings.

Anyway, who would intend a liferaft to be stowed in a closed locker with no auto deployment and at the end of the yacht that sinks first!
 
[ QUOTE ]
So what? Why is it the fault of the boat designer if a skipper thinks that the stowage of a piece of safety equipment is not safe and but then does nothing about it?

If you like the boat then buy it. Use the storage for an inflatable tender, nice platform there to pump it up on, and store the liferaft on the pushpit - fit longer pushpit and reposition transome ladder if necessary. Problem solved. No negligence, nice and safe, get on with sailing.

[/ QUOTE ] Flippin eck, I was only giving my opinion!
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