Liferaft hire for Transat?

[Kelpie]

In the final stages of preparing to sail off this year. May or may not push on past the Algarve and across the pond.
Our elderly coastal LR isn't looking quite up to the task. But money is getting tight now. Considering sticking with it for just now and if and when we commit to an ocean crossing, we can upgrade.
Questions:
- where would be the best place in S Spain, Portugal, or the Canaries to source a suitable raft at a good price? (and yes would prefer to have it before leaving mainland Europe, it's not as if the Canaries are a day sail away themselves)
- what options are there for hiring a raft on one side of the Atlantic and returning it on the other? I'll be surprised if it works out to be cost effective but if you don't ask...

Thanks

 

[Graham376]

I bought from here, best price at the time - Marine Safety (Gibraltar) Ltd (marinesafetygibraltar.com) I wanted make with decent service network.

 

[BurnitBlue]

I have always considered a liferaft to be for coastal use only. Dying a slow death of thirst in a dinghy with 2mm of pvc full of nothing but air is a nightmare of pure stress and agony. Then there are the barnacle encrusted sea creatures abrading the pvc leaking the air out.to remind you how foolish you were to set sail across an ocean in a coastal cruiser. It says a lot when the owner of a ten ton yacht built with modern materials approx 15mm thick would carry a thin ballon like object because he really does consider that this flimsy fabrick thing is more robust than the mother boat when the chips are down. Coastal, OK. Ocean. No way.

You asked about renting. Wow, such trust. You could rent a known defective liferaft. If you do not need the thing then you must ship it back at your expence and it can be rented to the next hopeful skipper. Win for the renter. If you do need it, and it does not work, who will know? Win for the renter.

Think about an unsinkable dinghy with a short mast and jib. Or watertight bulkheads in the mother boat. Or buy another boat. Believe me your mother boat is a thousand times more robust than a rubber dinghy. Ensure she will survive a dunking, many do this. Plywood and grp resin will do this. I mean buoyancy chambers for diy work. I have never carried a liferaft but I do have a unsinkable dinghy.

 

[Graham376]

I have always considered a liferaft to be for coastal use only. Dying a slow death of thirst in a dinghy with 2mm of pvc full of nothing but air is a nightmare of pure stress and agony.

I think this guy would disagree - (61) This Man Survived Over 2 Months Lost At Sea | 76 Days Adrift | I Shouldn't Be Alive S4 EP6 | Wonder - YouTube

 

[BurnitBlue]

I think this guy would disagree - (61) This Man Survived Over 2 Months Lost At Sea | 76 Days Adrift | I Shouldn't Be Alive S4 EP6 | Wonder - YouTube

I hesitate to get involved with the story of this guy. Apparantly all is not what it seems. Nothing can be proven so I am willing to give him the benifit of the doubts other skippers do have. I don't think I was in the Caribbean when he drifted in but I did hear from other skippers who were, including the medic who treated him. I always thought there was something not quite right. He sailed his boat (I think it was called Napoleon Solo or something like that) across the Atlantic West to East without a liferaft. He sailed to the Canaries where he bought a 6 man liferaft and assembled a very good grab bag of writing materials. He set sail for the Caribbean. Some where on the route his boat sank. He has no idea why. When this 6 man liferaft arrived in the islands he was met by a group of fishing men who calmly continued fishing because the guy showed no urgency to be towed in. The medic who he saw (immigration?) said that there was no way this guy showed the effects of a long time in a liferaft. The general opinion was that it was a staged stunt. He has been living off the lectures and book for years and now a video?.

I really do not like bringing this up but it was galling you should use this example to prove the effectiveness of a liferaaft. A recently purchased six man liferaft for a solo sailor in a 25 foot boat (?) On a milk run. For goodness sake. I repeat, i give him the benifit of the doubt but along with many others there is a doubt mainly with his attitude, state of health, and state of the liferaft. This event followed the highly successful books by The Robertsons and one other I cannot recall, near the Galapogas.

Btw, I honestly did know personally two skippers who did survive a liferaft ordeal in mid Atlantic.They attributed their survival to pure luck and not any claimed heroics.

 

[Kelpie]

I bought from here, best price at the time - Marine Safety (Gibraltar) Ltd (marinesafetygibraltar.com) I wanted make with decent service network.

Thanks, have contacted them.

 

[Graham376]

Thanks, have contacted them.

Although we take raft there for servicing, when we purchased the new one (SeaSafe self righting) he had it delivered to Portugal for us.

 

[john_q]

It was a while ago but we rented a life raft from these people for our 1 year atlantic circuit see Premium Liferaft Services.

Any longer than 1 year and the maths does not work for renting when we looked at it, in which case check services agent along your route. Our Viking life raft serving agents are USA (No way), Panama or Trinidad

 

[Kelpie]

Although we take raft there for servicing, when we purchased the new one (SeaSafe self righting) he had it delivered to Portugal for us.

He replied very promptly with a pretty reasonable quote. Price works out a smidge cheaper than I can find it in the UK. Delivery can be a killer for us in the NW of Scotland so picking up en route could make a lot of sense
Interestingly, I don't think the raft he suggested was self righting. I'll look in to it a bit deeper.

 

[Kelpie]

It was a while ago but we rented a life raft from these people for our 1 year atlantic circuit see Premium Liferaft Services.

Any longer than 1 year and the maths does not work for renting when we looked at it, in which case check services agent along your route. Our Viking life raft serving agents are USA (No way), Panama or Trinidad

Thanks, that was more or less what I expected. We are unlikely to complete a circuit in a year so hiring is probably off the cards.

We've been looking at Viking as well, they look excellent. Not cheap of course but some things are worth it

 

[Bajansailor]

@Kelpie would it be feasible to have your existing old liferaft serviced before you leave?
Commercial vessels are required to have their liferafts inspected / serviced every year, and there are many service stations in existence.

This event followed the highly successful books by The Robertsons and one other I cannot recall, near the Galapogas.

Here is a link to the Robertson's book -
Survive the Savage Sea: Sheridan House Maritime Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Robertson, Dougal: 9781493049387: Books
They abandoned ship into a liferaft and a 9' rigid dinghy; the liferaft did not last very long, and then they all ended up in the dinghy.

The other book was by the Baileys, whose Golden Hind 31 sank in the same area, again after being attacked by whales.
117 Days Adrift: Amazon.co.uk: Bailey, Maurice, Bailey, Maralyn: 9780713659306: Books
Fortunately their liferaft lasted the full 117 days of their ordeal.

 

[DownWest]

A young couple sailed their 20ft ply Muscadet from France across the pond, through the canal and on to Tahiti. They rented a LR, but it cost a lot to ship it back to France.
Prob cheaper to buy new and sell over there.

 

[geem]

Plastimo transocean >24hr was our choice. There are service centres in the Caribbean French Islands. I bought mine in St Martin cheaper than I could buy in the UK.

 

[Kelpie]

@Kelpie would it be feasible to have your existing old liferaft serviced before you leave?
Commercial vessels are required to have their liferafts inspected / serviced every year, and there are many service stations in existence.

That's certainly one option, but when you dig in to the specs there's quite a difference between a coastal raft like ours and a good ocean rated one. Self righting, more space per person, higher freeboard, multiple independent flotation chambers including the floor.
I've been speaking to the UK distributor for Viking and they said that for their rafts you can upsize without affecting stability. It's commonly accepted that you don't want a raft that is too large for the number of people, but it appears that this isn't always true nowadays.
Normally there will just be two adults and a child aboard but we will probably look to take one or two extra adults for a big ocean crossing; Viking have recommended a six person raft for us, which surprised me. The cost difference is marginal and being pushpit mounted the extra weight shouldn't matter for deployment either.

The only downsides for the Viking are the cost and the lead time- they've quoted seven weeks, by which time we should be on our way south.



Oh and as for the "what's the point in a LR" argument, unless you can show me some reason why carrying one is actually harmful,
I'm not sure what it is you're trying to say.
(Edit- that comment not directed at Bajansailor!)

 

[BurnitBlue]

@Kelpie would it be feasible to have your existing old liferaft serviced before you leave?
Commercial vessels are required to have their liferafts inspected / serviced every year, and there are many service stations in existence.


Here is a link to the Robertson's book -
Survive the Savage Sea: Sheridan House Maritime Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Robertson, Dougal: 9781493049387: Books
They abandoned ship into a liferaft and a 9' rigid dinghy; the liferaft did not last very long, and then they all ended up in the dinghy.

The other book was by the Baileys, whose Golden Hind 31 sank in the same area, again after being attacked by whales.
117 Days Adrift: Amazon.co.uk: Bailey, Maurice, Bailey, Maralyn: 9780713659306: Books
Fortunately their liferaft lasted the full 117 days of their ordeal.

Thanks for the reminder. Yes it was the Baileys I was thinking about. Lucky the Robertsons carried a sensible unsinkable dinghy as a liferaft for their rubber liferaft.

 

[penfold]

Oh and as for the "what's the point in a LR" argument, unless you can show me some reason why carrying one is actually harmful,
I'm not sure what it is you're trying to say.
(Edit- that comment not directed at Bajansailor!)

Content deleted.

You are a charmer, offering quite hysterical opinions about liferafts being effectively deathtraps yet you offer gutter language when people disagree.

 

[Kelpie]

I've had BurnitBlue on my ignore list for several months now, I don't think I'm missing much by the looks of things.

 

[Kelpie]

So after a bit more digging Seasafe looks very hard to beat at the lower priced end of things. I haven't been able to find out what the freeboard is like and I don't expect them to be quite up to the standard of Viking... but the money is getting very tight this close to departure...

 

[Graham376]

So after a bit more digging Seasafe looks very hard to beat at the lower priced end of things. I haven't been able to find out what the freeboard is like and I don't expect them to be quite up to the standard of Viking... but the money is getting very tight this close to departure...

We saw ours inflated at last service and it seemed well made, certainly as good as the Plastimo Offshore it replaced but, don't know how it compares with others. One of the Ocean Safety rafts is a re-badged SeaSafe and we don't hear many complaints - maybe because no-one has had to use them

 

[john_q]

Service interval for Viking is 3 years