Liferaft servicing- I can't belieeeve it!

[Chalker]

Several replies have mentioned grab bags.
From my recent experience of choosing a liferaft they are only available with a "<24 hour" spec packed internally, including our very expensive self righting Viking.
As the "> 24 hour" spec requires a grab bag, why does no one provide a lanyard to attach the grab bag to the liferaft?
The problem of getting into a liferaft alone is bad enough, trying to do it with a grab bag would result in large number of lost grab bags. Using a clip to attach it to the liferaft pull line is fine if you remember to recover it before cutting the line! Good chance of forgetting that in the 'heat' or 'cold' of the moment!!
As ours is currently being repaired and serviced I plan to have a short line added.

Our liferaft (as above) decided to abandon ship between New Caledonia and New Zealand. It inflated the right way up perfectly and was very re-assuring. Getting it back onboard was a different matter!! It involved reverse engine to slow us down, RIB lift block and tackles from the arch and a spinnaker halyard to get it aboard, and a sharp knife to deflate the two tubes and the arch. Only took the two of us a couple of hours!
Repair and service will be a little cheaper than a new one, but not a lot.

 

[capnsensible]

Interesting thread, and one near to my own position, because:-
My valise had its three-year service last year, but now needs one every year.

So what is different from the initial 3 or 5 year pack and what "goes off" in subsequent one-year periods?

Think of the car MOT.

 

[prv]

Have you ever considered spending 24 hours in your dinghy in a storm

Very unlucky to have had a fire or a collision when there's also a storm...

Pete

 

[prv]

Is repacking it, so that it will inflate safely, straightforward?

Yes, but getting it packed tight enough to fit back in the valise/bag can be a pain. The two most important tools for the job are a big & clean tarpaulin to put on the ground under you the liferaft whilst doing the job and a digital camera - take at least one picture as you make each unfold and record exactly where each safety item is stowed within the package - to go back down to size, you'll need to get it all back in the right order/position.

So how do you re-seal and vacuum the inner bag?

Pete

 

[JumbleDuck]

View attachment 48266See attached article.Mad Pad

The only bit I can read is "80 miles of Land's End", which is hardly "UK Coastal Waters".

 

[JumbleDuck]

Interesting thread, and one near to my own position, because:-
My valise had its three-year service last year, but now needs one every year.

So what is different from the initial 3 or 5 year pack and what "goes off" in subsequent one-year periods?

The Seago one I sold "needed" two three-year services and then annual ones. Like you, I wondered why.

 

[snowleopard]

How do you vacuum and re-seal the inner bag?

Mine, and many other types which are sealed in an inner bag require only a 3-year service and intermediate 'inspections' just consist of opening the canister and checking the seal. Others have no inner bag and need a service annually: if buying new I would avoid those like the plague.

Mine was a year old when I took part in the ARC. At the time their scrutineering required an annual service certificate so I took it to the big-ship liferaft agents in Las Palmas. Instead of doing the quick inspection they claimed to have done a full service and charged accordingly. They told me that as they were not agents for my brand of raft that the warranty was now void. At the next service the British service depot told me they hadn't replaced the inner bag so the raft had been sitting in salt water and the painter had been re-packed in such a way that it would have jammed and not fired the CO2 cylinder. Not as bad I suppose as the cruisers who opened their raft some months after a 'service' in America to find no raft, just a load of old sails.

My raft service outfit in Lostwithiel was happy to open my raft with me present and showed me exactly what was in it. I trust them to do it properly.

p.s. if a raft doesn't have an inner vacuum bag, is there any reason why one shouldn't be added at the service?

 

[KAM]

Is repacking it, so that it will inflate safely, straightforward?

I thought it was pretty obvious. You can always take pictures. Mine was in a canister and just wrapped in a slippery plastic film. I did it 3 or 4 times over a period of 10 years. It always looked like new when inflated. The first time I did it I found several things wrong. The automatic light lanyard was incorrectly attached and did not work. Several items were not secured and would have been lost. Its quite challenging getting it back in. I used a vacuum cleaner to deflate and put all the loose items into a grab bag. Much more useful to have them easier to hand and its probably better for the raft not to be so tightly compressed. Its easy enough to check the inflation mechanism is free and in good condition. The gas bottle should have a weight stamped on it so it can be check weighed. As well as seeing the raft inflated and learning where everything is it also means that you are familiar with opening the container so that in the unlikely event it does not inflate automatically you know how to open the canister or valise and give the inflation lanyard a good pull or pump it up manually. Its not as hard as it sounds. Most people viewing this do much more complex maintenance tasks every season.

 

[maxi77]

Very unlucky to have had a fire or a collision when there's also a storm...

Pete

Shit happens as they say, and many conditions causing abandonment are caused by bad weather. Even so it is your choice so don't let me stop you.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Shit happens as they say, and many conditions causing abandonment are caused by bad weather. Even so it is your choice so don't let me stop you.

But ... as the standard thread asserts itself ... how many is that? Without mentioning That Bloody Race, can you give me six examples of yacht crews abandoning to a liferaft? Three? I reckon the money is far better spent on a gas alarm, an AIS transceiver and a RTE, which together come to about the same cost as a decent liferaft.

 

[GrahamM376]

The Seago one I sold "needed" two three-year services and then annual ones. Like you, I wondered why.

You get what you pay for, it is alleged that most Seago stuff is lighter weight and not as well made than competitors. Rafts have to go to annual servicing after 12 years in some countries. We had our Plastimo Offshore repacked every 3 years until the 21 year was due and service agent suggested it was then replaced although no faults found. It did have a bad repack at one authorised station, later found (next service) to have 2 broken inflation valves so, it wouldn't have worked.

 

[pvb]

So how do you re-seal and vacuum the inner bag?

I've seen a liferaft service centre using an ordinary Henry vacuum cleaner to get the air out.

 

[prv]

I've seen a liferaft service centre using an ordinary Henry vacuum cleaner to get the air out.

Out of the raft, or out of the vacuum-pack bag?

The bag is heat-sealed to close it, like a supermarket leg of lamb. Even if you can apply the vacuum using a hoover, how do you seal the bag up?

Pete

 

[JumbleDuck]

You get what you pay for, it is alleged that most Seago stuff is lighter weight and not as well made than competitors.

It's cheaper, so i wouldn't be surprised. I would still like to know, though, what deteriorates faster after six years? I suspect the most stressful thing to happen to a liferaft is being repacked ...

 

[GrahamM376]

It's cheaper, so i wouldn't be surprised. I would still like to know, though, what deteriorates faster after six years? I suspect the most stressful thing to happen to a liferaft is being repacked ...

Just possibly it's a sales strategy. After 6 years most owners will look at annual service costs and buy another. Their service stations around Europe are few and far between and, as they informed a mate with one, who was supposed to send it several hundreds of miles to another country for servicing, if it was 1 week over the due date the warranty would be void.

 

[dom]

It's cheaper, so i wouldn't be surprised. I would still like to know, though, what deteriorates faster after six years? I suspect the most stressful thing to happen to a liferaft is being repacked ...

I opened an obsolete but regularly serviced 12 year old Bombard raft last year - fired perfectly and looked to be in perfect nick. Saw a Seago one in the boat show and thought "You've got to be joking". However, reading what peeps on here have to say about Seago rafts and tenders made me realise that I was being far too generous!

 

[pvb]

Out of the raft, or out of the vacuum-pack bag?

The bag is heat-sealed to close it, like a supermarket leg of lamb. Even if you can apply the vacuum using a hoover, how do you seal the bag up?

I saw the air being taken out of the vac-pack bag. Didn't see the heat sealing process.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I opened an obsolete but regularly serviced 12 year old Bombard raft last year - fired perfectly and looked to be in perfect nick. Saw a Seago one in the boat show and thought "You've got to be joking". However, reading what peeps on here have to say about Seago rafts and tenders made me realise that I was being far too generous!

I carry no torch for Seago - I sold the liferaft of theirs I had, remember - but I gather that the ISO ones are moderately respectable while the budget ones are a bit Happy Shopper, to put it mildly.

I think you have to spend a very large amount of money indeed to get a liferaft which comes close in desirability to a floating yacht, no matter how knackered it is.

 

[SailorBill]

Unless you're there when they service it how do you know they have actually done anything ?? You don't. You just have to trust them. Over 40 years in the marine world has taught me to trust very few. Hence I do my own servicing & falsify the paperwork as necessary.

Sandyman, would you be able to describe, step by step, how you go about servicing your liferaft?

 

[GrahamM376]

I saw the air being taken out of the vac-pack bag. Didn't see the heat sealing process.

Glaslyn Marine at Porthmadog used a sealing compound on our Plastimo, as close to the edge as possible so the vacuum bag could be used again after the sealed end was cut off at next service.