Life raft do you carry one

[Bandit]

I don't see how a hand held Led flare can replace a pyro technic hand held or a parachute flare, I will stick with pyrotechnics for a while yet.

Pyros or Led flares are only any good if there is someone there to see them.

My Epirb is a Jotron Tron 60s/GPS. Auto transmission of a Mayday to satellite, as well as GPS fix as well as homing signal

Flares, liferaft and Epirb are all equipment of last resort and I reckon these give as good a chance as is possible without staying on land.

 

[NormanB]

I feel that anyone who has experienced a real fire at sea would always want to have a life raft option available.

Learning from the experience of others is a 'Win Win'.

 

[Greg2]

Bit late to this. We don't have a life raft for coastal cruising but do have a 3m RIB so, in theory at least, we have a means of escape if we have time to launch and the conditions are conducive. Worth saying that launching and boarding in a seaway can be a whole different ballgame to launching in the marina or a sheltered anchorage so carrying a RIB may create a false sense of security. For longer passages (e.g. across the North Sea) we hire a life raft from a local supplier.

Been around the sea long enough to know that when it goes wrong it can happen very quickly and it whilst likelihood may be low the consequences can be high. For coastal cruising we currently take a risk assessed approach and rely on the RIB but my preference would be to carry a life raft permanently.

Worth asking yourself how would you actually cope in a crisis, possibly in life threatening circumstances? Getting an honest (testosterone free ) answer may be tricky but it is important. I would suggest that many leisure boaters have not had comprehensive training in seamanship and safety at sea and may not have the skill set or temperament to deal effectively with a crisis. Don't mean to be contentious but, for example, many are surprised just how difficult it is to get into a life raft, particularly from the water and many would not know how to right an inverted life raft. How crew/passengers might cope is also a factor.

Thats my tuppence worth anyway

 

[Portofino]

The Op thread is about if you have a life raft .
Fire and sinking seem to me the two reasons why one would abandon the boat .
Sinking --- hmm has your boat got seperate water tight compartments .If the P brackets or shafts get ripped out ( striking an underwater object ) -- could it survive ?? Was it designed to survive .Is it built to a classification ?
Was that a question you asked the man in the blue blazer and cream slacks @ the boat show ,or you more interested in the flat floor of the mid cabin ,or the size of the flat screen Tv ?

boat came with this --- but also
We carry a life raft and ERIPB ,s too ----- as well as a inflatable tender .

Re pyrotechnics and seemingly folks " opting out " -- do you take your car ( which I assume you spend 10 x or 100 x hrs in )
Do you ask the dealer to remove the air bags ?? ----- just a thought trying to join up the anti pyro thinking -- help me out P's !

 

[ash2020]

I don't see how a hand held Led flare can replace a pyro technic hand held or a parachute flare, I will stick with pyrotechnics for a while yet.

Pyros or Led flares are only any good if there is someone there to see them.

My Epirb is a Jotron Tron 60s/GPS. Auto transmission of a Mayday to satellite, as well as GPS fix as well as homing signal

Flares, liferaft and Epirb are all equipment of last resort and I reckon these give as good a chance as is possible without staying on land.

I know that the flare thing is a very contentious issue. I wouldn't want any crew of mine to have the responsibility and risk off letting off a flare, in the right way, at the right time. I certainly don't want to. A parachute flare lasts for, say 2 minutes? An LED flare goes for hours.

But then, how many people, on November 5th give their small children a burning magnesium stick to hold (aka sparkler)!

EPIRB's the thing, but then my last one went off and no-one responded, because it was on the boat - underwater!

 

[prv]

I wouldn't want any crew of mine to have the responsibility and risk off letting off a flare, in the right way, at the right time.

I'm always curious whether people with this view have actually tried it. Of course it's difficult to safely and considerately set off a parachute flare for training purposes, but there are plenty of recently-expired hand flares floating around with nothing better to do. It really does demystify the whole thing.

Pete

 

[Portofino]

I'm always curious whether people with this view have actually tried it. Of course it's difficult to safely and considerately set off a parachute flare for training purposes, but there are plenty of recently-expired hand flares floating around with nothing better to do. It really does demystify the whole thing.

Pete

Yup -Nov 5 th around 7 pm is a good time .

If you fire a parachute one kinda horizontal @ a cliff or decent wall then in a "From Russia with love " esq fashion it doubles up a basic fire arm .

But I guess thats a very contentious potential use or warm blanket of safety depends on how comfortable you are around firearms and previous ( military ?) experiance with various pyrotechnics .

Reminds me of a guy a retired Doctor I used to sail with many years ago .He had crossed the Atlantic a few times single handed .Navigating by stars etc ,no electronic aids that we have today .

Anchoring in bays in the Caribbean often alone , presents a certain set of potential problems -personal safety
One night on his own @ dusk a skiff with 3 blokes came round the headland and at a distance went by .
1/2 hour later when they reccied the empty bay the started to approach him .
He went down below got his very Pistol ( in a wooden box with 6 shells ) and put it on the cockpit comming in full view .
He proceeded to take out the pistol and "clean " it -picked up a couple of shells stud them up on end ,ready to put one up the spout !

The skiff turned around and went away .

Anyhow each to there own .

 

[Bandit]

When I was in the school Cadet force we used white parachute flares and also with an sea survival course many moons ago I remember we did some paras and hand held flares.

I do not subscribe to this Coastguard/Police total ban on daylight familiarisation of being under proper tuition with proper H&S gear for yachtsmen to experience firing time expired parachutes and hand held flares in a well publicised event with Coatsguards etc all informed on a breakwater in say November or December when there are few boats about. Yacht clubs should be able to organise an annual event.

Americans favour very pistols which are probably safer to fire and more controllable.

I recognise the challenge in using a liferaft and yes the idea is to step down in to it, I have done two sea survival courses using liferafts in good conditions, would I fancy getting half a dozen of my crew into my 2.9m dinghy in F6 in a shallow confused sea no! Neither do I fancy the alternative of Swimming in the Channel very much, so I will stick with my life raft.

 

[ash2020]

I'm always curious whether people with this view have actually tried it. Of course it's difficult to safely and considerately set off a parachute flare for training purposes, but there are plenty of recently-expired hand flares floating around with nothing better to do. It really does demystify the whole thing.

Pete

As I said, it is a very contentious issue. I'm not sure why the pro-pyro lobby get so evangelical about it. I totally agree, the chance of an accident with an in-date flare is pretty slight but if it does go wrong, it can be catastrophic. My personal risk assessment says the risk far outweighs the advantage, and that is a perfectly valid argument.

 

[prv]

Yup -Nov 5 th around 7 pm is a good time .

If you mean parachute flares, the problem is that they can come down still burning, whatever date and time you launch them. Maybe ok if you're in the middle of a large area of sodden farmland or something, but otherwise risks burning someone else's property or starting a fire somewhere. There's pictures floating around of the state of someone's cockpit after a flare landed in it on Bonfire Night in Cowes.

Over open water they're safe but risk a false alarm.

Hence why I've fired quite a few hand flares, but no rockets.

Pete

 

[mm42]

Led flares are good for the last mile stuff, e.g. When the SAR assets (lifeboat / helo) are approaching but not as effective, IMO, as pyrotechnics for raising the alert, or in daylight.