Liferaft or use the dinghy?

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Definitely a canister liferaft transom mounted for me.

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......and if the yacht had been hit in the aft 1/4, or the mast and rigging had fallen backward over the stearn?
 
Agree

A liferaft is the most useless piece of kit and a complete waste of money ............until you need it.

If the value of your life is important to others take out life insurance, if your life its important to you .. get a life raft!
 
Then the hydrostatic release would have released the life raft and caused it to inflate.

This debate is similar to all the stupid tales I heard about seat belts when they made them compulsary. "If my mate had been wearing a seat belt in his crash he would be dead now" etc etc all self justifying particular prejudices.

When you have limited funds by all means sort out your priorities but I have never needed my lifejacket, buoyancy aid, liferaft, EPIRB or seat belts BUT my crash helmet has saved my life and at a time before they were compulsary. Now how silly am I buying the things I have never needed......YET!
 
As a Prout 37 owner I would agree. It would take a pretty big disaster to make me abandon ship for the security of a rubber raft.... I carry a 12ft rib with 10 HP outboard and figure this gives me a pro-active alternative to a passive raft. On a monohull with a gert big heavy keel however I might be persuaded to carry one....
There is an old adage. Only ever step up into a liferaft, never down....
 
How are you going to get to a dinghy if the boat is inverted?

A liferaft should still inflate and hopefully any entanglement, although if released with the boat upside down anything (either dinghy or liferaft) could easily be trapped.

I would think that a stern mounted canister liferaft must give the best chance of survival, as if you have to abandon the mother shp for whatever reason a days' sailing must turn into a survival situation?

Donald
 
IMHO, circumstances for taking to a life raft usually arise when conditions are poor. Bad Viz, big sea, pitching boat etc. A canister liferaft is ready to deploy instantly, where as many cruisers carry the dinghy semi inflated on the coach roof with the oars stowed in the cockpit lockers. I would imagine the panic that occurs in a situation necessitating abandoning the boat could cost valuable time in getting the crew off safely.
Without being over dramatic, I would consider it a piece of “life support equipment” Having a liferaft can only increase chances of survival.
 
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Then the hydrostatic release would have released the life raft and caused it to inflate.

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The question I was raising was if the rig had fallen backwards, the rig and the sails would have stopped the life raft from being deployed, then the argument would be to always have the LR on the fore deck.

Are there any statistics around with data recording the events necessitating the launch of a LR?

I do agree with the main thrust of your post, I was wearing seat belt years before they became legal requirement, I'm here to write this as a result!
 
FWIW, my sea survival training in the RAF (OK, yawn!) has convinced me to get a liferaft. Covered, relatively stable, means a lot to me out there, even close to land. We are also considering tying our dinghy painter to the liferaft one, with another hydrostatic ropecutter on the string that keeps the dinghy on the transom. That way we might have our own "tow" if the conditions are good enough.

That wasn't necessarily an answer to your post, Galadriel, sorry.

Pops

PS I would appreciate any reasons why we shouldn't do that, if anyone can think of any.
 
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I would appreciate any reasons why we shouldn't do that, if anyone can think of any

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Might not be such good idea to have the dinghy being blown around whilst tethered to the raft? Maybe think about how to get rid of it in a hurry if needs be
 
Tome

Good point. It also suggests the use of a dinghy AS a liferaft might not be viable in strong winds, possiblity of blowing over all the time, praps.
 
Pops

I'm not against carrying a LR, in fact I have thought about it and if I didn't own an Etap I would for sure. But one of the reasons people buy an Etap is because of their ability to float when flooded.

Now if I'm right I believe the advise is you step up into a LR not down to it, in other words the boat is going down. Not a situation that would be experienced with an Etap. Now all the sceptics are going to say "who says it wont sink?" Well there is more evidence in existence that it will float than there is that a life raft will inflate and that you CAN get into it when it is inflated.

Also look at the terrible experience of the 1979 Fastnet race, people sadly died after leaving boats that stayed afloat, for the dubious safety of a life raft.

If I buy a life raft to back up the one that surrounds me, then all others should buy two life rafts, because until you need to deploy it you cannot be sure the first will work.
 
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..1979 Fastnet race, people sadly died after leaving boats that stayed afloat, for the dubious safety of a life raft

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If you read the accounts, several people were injured by being thrown around violently inside boats, others by flying gear. Those who suffered injuries in this way felt the liferaft would be safer for this reason alone

Liferaft design now is much better than the stuff they had in 79
 
I think there are no statistics of how many times a liferaft has failed to deploy but I have faith that a liferaft on either the coachroof or on the stern rail will inflate once immersed and find its way to the surface.

I bought an additional 4 man cannister liferaft to sit on the stern rail for additional security. I also have to have an 8 man one for charter coding but personally feel these are too heavy for one person (possibly injured) to deploy from a cockpit locker.
 
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I have faith that a liferaft on either the coachroof or on the stern rail will inflate once immersed and find its way to the surface.

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Does it not concern you at all the poor way in which some liferafts performed during the Yachting monthly tests a couple of years ago? Those tests were closely followed by the sinking of Megawat, where the life raft failed to open.

Dont get me wrong, in most cases you have to have a life raft, with any other boat I would as well. But to hell with the expense if my life depended on it I would want to throw it into the sea to test it and then be there as it was repacked. When the guy in China put it into the valaise, did he realy care enough? Are you sure?
 
I dont carry a liferaft but I tow my Zodiac dinghy where ever I go. It sits behind the boat and behaves no problem. Should a catasrophic happening occur she will be there ready to step into........liferaft OK for long Ocean voyages but would you really put all your trust in it being there for you when the [--word removed--] hits the fan!!!

Mind you the 2 crew from the fishing boat lost off Portland yesterday owe thier lives to it and its hydrostatic release.

Paul.
 
Re my thoughts earlier re liferafts, I had a feeling that these might elicit some responses - no doubt telling me what a effing idiot I am, and telling me what I should do - but I was pleasantly surprised to find (so far) that this didnt happen, and that other posts appeared to be more controversial than mine!

I would not want to put my ultimate (and only) faith in a liferaft - rather, I would prefer to have this faith dissipated in a variety of other ways first, including :

a) Ensuring that the yacht is prepared as best she can be against such a situation arising - eg with appropriate fire fighting and communications equipment, and trying to always keep a proper and effective look-out, and having as much additional watertight subdivision as is feasible down below, and

b) Ensuring that the dinghies are capable of being using in a survival mode - including having a gas canister hooked up to the Redcrest if this is possible (hopefully it should be - can anyone advise?)

I should have mentioned previously that we do have an Avon liferaft which is about 11 years old now - if I can get it re-packed feasibly in St Lucia before we go I shall take it. But if we can't get it serviced and re-packed properly, then I wont worry about it.
It was inflated by a 'barsteward' who broke in to Phoenix about 8 years ago, while she was on her mooring in Carlisle Bay with the raft canister down below for 'safe' (ha!) keeping - except it didnt inflate when he pulled the cord..... not much use then if it had been needed in anger..... in theory all liferafts should be serviced every year (as per big ship practice), but in reality this is very expensive, and often not practical / feasible.
 
I would be very wary of having my liferaft serviced by the ex-pat Brit in St Lucia. He did a dreadful job repairing my dinghy. Very expensive and it had to go back as he hadn't done the job properly.

In his workshop I saw a liferaft being repaired. In my opinion the life raft ought to be condemmed. The arch tube had broken away from the lower tubes and the lower tubes were seperating, amongst other faults.

His attitude was "stick it back together, it'll be all right. No one uses them anyhow".
 
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