Liferaft or inflatable dinghy

[frauboot]

I do not think that I can carry a liferaft and an inflatable dinghy on my Albin Vega. But looking at Yacht Havens in Newport they do not seemed to be priced for more modest boats. If I have to anchor or pick up a buoy somewhere I will need a inflatable dinghy to get ashore.

I am not that worried about not carrying a liferaft, just if I am to buy one I will do so this year. I am quite happy to try and fit a CO2 cannister to my inflatable dinghy to use in emergencies.

Can anyone let me know about mooring in Newport?

 

[Gargleblaster]

That's a hard question. In my experience you will need both depending on how long you intend staying in Newport and where else you may wish to go.
I find the liferaft is a psychological comfort rather than a practical item and it does take up a lot of space and is quite heavy. I assume you haven't considered attaching it to your pushpit or the deck in a frame? I wouldn't as while I don't know anyone who has deployed a liferaft in real life I do know a few people who have lost them over the side in really bad weather. I keep a valise inside the cabin as close to the centreline as possible where I trip over it constantly reminding myself how much mental comfort it is giving me.

I didn't even consider the Marinas at Newport, although that said I used the Goat Island Marina to do my customs clearance and they were very kind and allowed me to tie up on their fuel berth for two hours and use their phone for free. The Newport Yacht Club will allow you alongside for short periods, I filled up with water there before my departure - which was a lot of 2 litre bottles. They also run a club ferry service out to the boats and there is a dockmaster who seems to be there constantly who will send the ferry out to you. You are expected to tip the ferry skipper. I moored a long way from the Newport Yacht Club and only used this service to deliver all the supplies I had bought for my return journey. When I anchored near the Ida Louis [or Lewis - I can't remember] Rocks I asked a neighbour in a much bigger boat to me where he landed and he told me the Anne Street Wharf. Later in the day he woke me up and invited me to go into town with him and have a meal which he insisted on paying for. I'm sure if we could have co-ordinated it he would have ferried me around quite happily for the 3 days I was there.

However I did find my inflatable Avon dinghy was invaluable to get ashore when I wanted to have a shower or have breakfast at the Seaman's mission. It was quite a long way to row from the anchorage but well worth the effort. A compromise might be to buy one of those kiddies inflatable boats and row that in. I know the first time I went to the Baltic in a 23 feet boat that was what I used to get ashore or to visit friends and it worked perfectly and takes up no more room deflated than a couple of bottles of water.

 

[stevenhumphrey]

there are 45 pound 3 man kiddies on e bay now, am will be using this along with by inshore liferaft with a bulk up grab bag,
and yes you will need the raft when and if you jump ship in mi of the pound, sun, rain, wind, dry, etc.

 

[Noddy]

Its the cold wot kills ya!

In the event of a sinking I believe people die of exposure. Perhaps a little tent that can be rigged over the inflatable might be a practical compromise.

Of course if you had a multihull you wouldn't have all that heavy led dragging you down. No sinking. A capsize would be the worst that could happen and you would still have somewhere to stay alive while cuddling your EPIRB.

I took a six man liferaft because a friend lent it to me for free. I thought of it more as a marine tent than a flotation device.

P

 

[Scillypete]

Don't want to pee on your parade too much, but when our catamaran sank, yes sank, we were well glad to have our six man liferaft, fourman would have done, in fact anything we could be sure would stay floating. Admittedly it was fairly slow (I have nothing to compare it with though) or so it seemed, but although we tried we did not have time to pump up the tinker traveller fully.

 

[Jake]

Hi Frauboot

Good point. My own boat (21ft) is technically too small for a tender, but I bought a fold-up dinghy at a jumble which will lie alongside the stanchions of the deck without getting in the way. (I've a junk rig, so don't need to run up and own the side decks anyway.) For a liferaft, I have an ex-RAF ejector seat inflatable (one man, well - we are single-handed) which takes up surpisingly little room.

The kiddies inflatables are great, by the way. Just don't tear them - they're usually polythene ( or similar) and very hard to repair.

As a compromise, how about a hard dinghy with an inflatable collar which can sit over your main hatch, and act as a hatch protector as well as a tender/lifeboat? When I was with PBO, we had some great ideas in about dinghies that could double as lifeboats. With built in buoyancy, and the ability to sail into the shipping lanes, the 'lifeboat' was a popular choice with the bluewater brigade as they had dual functionality. (One design had a sealed hull, with a skirt that could be raised up to give the freeboard. The thing would still act as a sealed raft if needed in a hurry.)

There are also designs such as stackable dinghies, which - a bit like Russian dolls - have one section that fits inside the other and stand on the pushpit, out of the way. Google 'stow-away dinghies' for more.

What happened to you, Scillypete? Sounds a bit terryfying. Liferafts deploy in about 1 minute, so if even that seemed slow, then the sewerage plant must have really hit the Chinook!

 

[Scillypete]

[ QUOTE ]
Liferafts deploy in about 1 minute

[/ QUOTE ]

If not quicker, but I also wanted anything that would float and carry stores, preparing for worst case scenario as we were so far from land.

 

[PacketRat]

My liferaft solution caused me a great deal of grief - figuring out where to put the thing and ultimately building a sealed locker aft. Having decided I ought to have such a thing, that it should be on deck and accessible from the cockpit, the rest of the nightmare followed. Whilst I don't see in my wildest dreams any prospect of the boat breaking up or sinking, the experiences of people like Scillypete help me counter such complacency, besides which there is the certain benefit that, like John, I find comfort in the knowledge that such a device is aboard. And of course my family and friends too.
I was particularly interested to hear people extolling the practical advantages of PVC tenders. I had planned on leaving the rubber tub behind in favour of some sort of beach boat, but was a bit shy about it.
Your remarks about marinas got me on the web. I'd assumed that having got that far, I wouldn't concern myself about the cost of marina fees. But ouch! $4.25 per foot per day? Time for a rethink.
Thanks for raising the questions, frauboot. Food for thought.
Robin.

 

[andlauer]

Bonjour
At Newport RO, there are many watertaxis....day and night. I was on a mooring near the Newport Yacht Club. It was very convenient to abuse of the NYC facilities including the tender. The tender works from early in the morning to 20H00. You may come to the NYC ponton for a short time (tipically 1/2 an hour) to board the food...
JC's were invited by the town and the mooring was for free.

For the return there is an alternative in giving the boat to the single handed museum of Newport. It might be less costly than bringing back the boat.
Eric

 

[Noddy]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't want to pee on your parade too much, but when our catamaran sank, yes sank, we were well glad to have our six man liferaft,

[/ QUOTE ]

Parade now slightly damp.

What sort of cat was it? My Iroquois is mostly solid glass and would probably (hopefully) achieve just above neutral bouyancy. This has been the case with others that have gone over. This is why I went for the marine tent idea.

A modern cat with foam sandwich construction should / will not sink! In fact people have lived aboard inverted cats for significant periods of time.

Although to (roughly) qoute LeSeour in 'Multihull Seamanship' "A fast multihull hitting a whale at high speed will not sink... It just breaks up into lots of small pieces."

But seriously: What happened? What type?

P

 

[Scillypete]

The boat was a Prout Quest 31, I also thought it would not sink and only bought and carried the liferaft under sufferance but glad we did.
We were dismasted and holed by it before we could get rid of it. Although she was filling faster than we could pump it was a slow losing battle which gave us time to plan for the longer term. The problem with any cat when filling with water is not whether it will sink or not it is the lack of stability with all that free surface and that was more worrying.
An inverted cat has an enormous amount of trapped air and is generally more stable inverted than right way up, odd that.

 

[Noddy]

Thats a solid glass cat isn't it?

Thinking about it, I wouldn't be sure that mine would stay afloat if holed from underneath. If it capsized then the air trapped in the hulls would keep it up.

I suspect a modern foam sandwhich cat would stay afloat no matter what the problem as long as it stayed in one piece.

Even inverted they say that you can't live on an Iroquois because it floats too low so I guess that some sort of liferaft is in order. Surviving on an upturned hull in rough, cold seas is unlikely.

I did some training in sea survival and feel the need to reiterate that it is the exposure that will kill you rather than drowning. Insulation and warmth are paramount.

P

 

[PacketRat]

[ QUOTE ]
Bonjour
... JC's were invited by the town and the mooring was for free...
Eric

[/ QUOTE ]
Bonsoir
I'm liking these people already! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I'd like to sail back, but it's quite a thought if you're a wage slave and can't get the time off. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Do they really take any old tub? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Must have quite a collection, I should imagine.
Robin.

 

[andlauer]

Bonjour

-----------
Do they really take any old tub?
Must have quite a collection, I should imagine.
-----------

I've seen a few outside, but I didn't had (or took) time to visit the museum! When I tried it was shut.

Do you realy think that it is such a common will to cross the North Atlantic Westward on "old tubs" ?

Only Jester's would have such an idea !

Eric /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Tahitibelle]

If it is a choice between tender or liferaft - go for liferaft. There are plenty of water taxis in Newport RI. In the ocean if it comes to the 'crunch' it will happen very fast, it will likely be very rough and you will be very wet. As Paul said hypothermia is the killer and you may not have time to pump up the tender. Best to have both + EPIRB + Hand held back up VHF. Try googling 'The Loss of Tahiti Belle' if you fancy a bit of a laugh.

 

[Noddy]

Hello Nick!

You made it then!

Tahiti Belle was solid glass hulls and balsa coachroof wasn't she?

Did she sink?

 

[PacketRat]

---
Do you realy think that it is such a common will to cross the North Atlantic Westward on "old tubs" ?
---
Vraiment /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I fondly imagine Sir Fred will be sneering at me from the bridge of his superyacht when (!?) I arrive. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
It adds a little frissance, n'est pas? (Or similar.)
Robin

 

[Gargleblaster]

I have recently read 'A Speck on the Sea' by William H. Longyard, published by McGraw Hill in 2003. In that he documents many of the improbable journeys in small boats and not just across the Atlantic but around the world and across other oceans. For instance in the 19th century men and women were successfully crossing the Atlantic in 18 feet boats. [my favourite story was of one young couple (the Crapos would you believe) crossing from west to east in a 19'7" dory in 1877. He would not allow his wife to have any part in the handling of the boat or even in watchkeeping. According to the book this made her the first woman recorded as having completed an ocean voyage in a small boat). Tom McNally in the 3'11" 'Vera Hugh II' attempted a crossing of the Atlantic in 1998 but got caught in fishing nets and damaged his hull.

Blondie Hasler had to intercede with the RWYC to allow David Blagden sail the OSTAR in his Hunter 19 in 1972 and managed to place a respectable 10th out of 59 competitors.

In comparison with some of the voyages attempted, as Jester Challengers we sail in large luxuriously appointed boats. It's all relative. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Noddy]

19'7" ??? Where did he put the deep fat fryer? Or the ice cream maker??
(note to self: resist the woman / dishwasher joke).

When I was in the army and we were sleeping in muddy holes in the ground, some squadies were better prepared than others. I attempted to mock the wimps who had brought various bits of kit to keep out the cold and wet. The retort both shut me up and is now one of my treasured bits of wisdom:

"Any fool can be uncomfortable."

P

 

[NickiCrutchfield]

Are there any thoughts on using a little Avon (the tube all round one is it a Redstart/crest?) as a liferaft and tender. With a TPS, sensible grab bag and a small CO2 cylinder to inflate would that do or am I just dreaming of the luxury of not lugging a very bulky 30 kgs of liferaft around? It's not so much the weight, but the bulk which really puts me off.
Nicki