Liferaft Question

[dslittle]

Once a raft gets to "service every year " phase - the costs of doing so rapidly eat into the cost of a new one with 9 years of 3-year service intervals. I think if you get to 9 years maybe it's time for a new one - unless you are comfortable doing it yourself.

I always took my Liferaft to Seago outside Eastbourne for its service. The last one was only for 12 months and at the time I discussed getting a new Liferaft from them. They offered me a new 4 man ISO canister at a VERY good price and discounted servicing for the next nine years which will give me 12 years use (although the raft is good for 18 years) Apparently they are offering the discount on servicing to encourage owners to take them in for service as ONLY ten per cent of their rafts get serviced as required !!! Even before any discounts their service costs make me feel it is worthwhile for the peace of mind.

 

[rszemeti]

Shrug ... Our raft is well built, I was happy with it before it ran out of service, I'm happy with it now.

Personally, I would recommend servicing any raft yourself rather than having a service centre do it, as I am not convinced they either

a) do anything special or
b) do it better than a competent individual who is going to use it will.

It boils down to carefully unpacking it, inflating it with a compressor, checking for leaks, checking the glue is not letting go, weighing the cylinder, checking the contents of the bag and repacking it exactly as it was before.

Ours had been service by an authorised service centre, the little card/checklist/service record was all signed off and stamped, yet the paraflares were missing, and the first aid kit was nowhere to be seen. I read of one chap who had his raft serviced in the USA and crossed the atlantic, when he had it serviced in the UK they found the deflation plug was completely absent.

On balance, I'll take the associated risks that I may make a slight deviation from standard when re-packing and offset them agaisnt the risks that the servicing company may simply do a half-assed job. If iI was to buy a new raft, I would not buy from a company that did not provide full servicing instructions and sell spare parts.

I look at it as having the same importance as a parachute. Would you jump out of a plane with a parachute someone else has packed? There is a reason parachutists pack their own chutes.