Liferaft Servicing

[bendyone]

Can I have it serviced but without putting in any of the extras. IE I can chuck it in and it will inflate but be empty.
Where I sail I am never more than a couple of miles from land and probably never more than a mile from another boat. ( Calais ).

 

[prv]

I assume you can, but don't understand why you'd want to.

Have you checked what's actually in it at the moment? Most cheap rafts have little enough of any use already - the grab bag is essential.

Pete

 

[sarabande]

I'd be tempted to put in some very basic items (flares, survival bag, etc) and keep a comprehensive grab bag shackled to the Liferaft.


Items in the grab bag can be changed or inserted at will, e.g. car keys, spare specs, gin...

 

[john_morris_uk]

I watched my liferaft being unpacked and inflated recently. It was very interesting to see what was inside. We bought it new and have never seen it inflated until now. Always a good thing to see what the thing is like...

I am not sure what I would want them to leave out? Possibly the flares but there's only three of them so its not a big deal financially.

Apart from the flares, there were some sea-sickness tablets, a sponge, a repair kit (the glue needs replacing every few years but I wouldn't want to be without it...) a torch (the batteries needed replacing but ditto about being with out it even when two miles off land in the dark...) There were some paddles and a bailer. Pretty minimal and we have a grab bag as well to supplement this stuff with a hand held radio, spare batteries etc etc...

 

[prv]

keep a comprehensive grab bag shackled to the Liferaft.

Comprehensive grab bag is a good idea, but not sure that literally fastening it to the raft is a good idea. You could only fix it to the cannister or the valise, and when it inflates both of these will be detached from the raft and float away. So you'd need to stop and detach the bag from the raft before launching it; you might as well not fix them together in the first place and just keep the grab bag in a handy and well-known place.

Pete

 

[prv]

a repair kit (the glue needs replacing every few years but I wouldn't want to be without it...)

Not sure about that - I'm sure I read a comprehensive liferaft test where most of the repair kits were practically useless in a raft at sea. Glues that needed a bone-dry surface to bond to, etc...

The mechanical clamps are much better, but probably cost more and of course most of these things are built down to a price

Pete

 

[sarabande]

I'd thought of 'shackling' as being a solution for attaching the grab bag while one is on board. When leaving, it is unclipped and stowed below out of the sun and other harm's way.


Sudden thought. What about forming an eye in the 'pull cord' of the liferaft at a convenient point, and then attaching the grab bag to that the bag is part of the freed liferaft. I seem to remember that when I fired a 12 yr old Arimar, that the pull cord remained attached to the liferaft. Is that always the case , or is the cord only (relatively) weakly attached to the CO2 trigger ?

 

[prv]

I'd thought of 'shackling' as being a solution for attaching the grab bag while one is on board. When leaving, it is unclipped and stowed below out of the sun and other harm's way.

Confused here. I wasn't talking about leaving the boat (except as it sinks )

Sudden thought. What about forming an eye in the 'pull cord' of the liferaft at a convenient point, and then attaching the grab bag to that the bag is part of the freed liferaft. I seem to remember that when I fired a 12 yr old Arimar, that the pull cord remained attached to the liferaft. Is that always the case , or is the cord only (relatively) weakly attached to the CO2 trigger ?

Hmm. You'd hope that the painter is attached fairly securely to the raft, otherwise it's liable to blow away after being inflated in a gale. Also supporting that is the fact that Hammar releases include a weak-link for the painter to separate the raft from a sinking boat, which wouldn't be needed if the painter had its own weak-link. But I don't know for sure.

Problem with a cannister raft is that most of the painter is inside the cannister, so to attach the bag you'd have to pull most of it out (and how do you know how much?) before tying your loop. You'd then need to stow 20-odd metres of line in a way it can still deploy when needed but won't come loose, get caught, and unexpectedly inflate the raft on your deck .

When you came to launch it, you'd have to chuck the bag over with the raft, which might be more difficult than raft alone. After inflation, the bag will be hanging in the middle of the painter, which seems like it might complicate matters when trying to bring it alongside for boarding. Having got on board, you then can't just cut the painter (as the instructions state) to get away - you need to pull the raft upwind until you reach the bag on the painter, pull it on board, and only then cut yourself free.

Still think the grab bag is best stowed near the companionway, or ideally in a shallow deck locker where it won't get lost, and taken on board by hand.

Pete

 

[bendyone]

My view at the moment is that I would only be likely to use the raft in case of fire or sinking.
With the type of sailing I do it is very unlikely that I would be out after dark or very far from help.

 

[maxi77]

My view at the moment is that I would only be likely to use the raft in case of fire or sinking.
With the type of sailing I do it is very unlikely that I would be out after dark or very far from help.

I think very few would use their life raft other than in case of fire or sinking. Also you can drown quite easily in daylight s not going out at night is perhaps not that important in the grand scheme of things. Distance from help is not so much the problem but time, how long do you have to survive for before some one comes to fish you out.

 

[prv]

I still can't figure out what the purpose is of removing the minimal amount of kit from the raft. Attempting to extend service intervals by not having to open up and replace out of date flares? The service is mostly about the condition of the raft itself, so you don't want to stretch it too long. If the flares packed inside are left until they're expired, how is that any worse than having none at all?

Pete

 

[JackFrobisher]

Liferaft Contents

When I got mine serviced I added some more flares (3 only supplied), some non-alcoholic drinks (incl. water) and replaced some of what was in it with higher spec stuff - the torch for example was rubbish so I replaced it with a waterproof one and some additional batteries in a waterproof container. I also put in a spare pair of glasses and a small (waterproofed) first-aid kit.

I have a grab bag with more in it but if I failed to grab it on the way into the liferaft we'd have enough to make the first few hours more comfortable.

 

[Tranona]

There used to be basic single tube no equipment rafts on the market designed to meet the then current requirements in France. However the general view was that they would be of limited use and when the standards were revised (ISO 9650) the basic specification that is sold as "coastal" became the minimum. The old Plastimo catalogue had a very useful summary of the standards and lists of equipment - no doubt there are other sources.

Difficult to see what would be gained by leaving out the very sparse minimum equipment.

Without wishing to go over the "do I need a liferaft" arguments again, the fact is that the vast majority of the (very small) number of deployments from yachts are in extreme conditions. The stepping off a slowly sinking yacht in benign conditions close to shore scenario is almost unheard of.

 

[prv]

When I got mine serviced I added some more flares (3 only supplied), some non-alcoholic drinks (incl. water) and replaced some of what was in it with higher spec stuff - the torch for example was rubbish so I replaced it with a waterproof one and some additional batteries in a waterproof container. I also put in a spare pair of glasses and a small (waterproofed) first-aid kit.

I'm surprised there was room!

If my cannister had space for that kind of stuff I'd be asking why they didn't just make it smaller, so it would actually fit where I want to put it

Pete

 

[john_morris_uk]

I'm surprised there was room!

If my cannister had space for that kind of stuff I'd be asking why they didn't just make it smaller, so it would actually fit where I want to put it

Pete

Having seen the size and the quality of the torch that comes with my liferaft then I am very tempted to replace it with a mini-maglite with spare batteries that would take up LESS space.

In a bizarre twist in the story, the last time I had the liferaft serviced it was in Plymouth and was sent to the local Plastimo agents (Ocean Safety) by Yachtparts. This time I took it myself to Ocean Safety in Greenock where the man who checked it over found his signature from the last time. It had been sent to Scotland from Plymouth last time it was serviced...

No wonder the service cost so much.

 

[prv]

Having seen the size and the quality of the torch that comes with my liferaft then I am very tempted to replace it with a mini-maglite with spare batteries that would take up LESS space.

Sure, but extra flares, water, other drinks (presumably bottles), a first-aid kit, etc - that's a lot of volume that I'd want to remove from the raft pack if I could. My grab-bag is already a non-optional part of the process, as it contains the PLB and VHF without which we could be facing a very long drift in an under-equipped floating tent.

In a bizarre twist in the story, the last time I had the liferaft serviced it was in Plymouth and was sent to the local Plastimo agents (Ocean Safety) by Yachtparts. This time I took it myself to Ocean Safety in Greenock where the man who checked it over found his signature from the last time. It had been sent to Scotland from Plymouth last time it was serviced...

Heh - I had similar with the new boat's rigging, which saved us a lot of expense. No info forthcoming from owner or broker as to when or if it had been replaced; the boat is from 1998 so it was quite possibly the original. It's a fractional rig so quite a lot of stress on the cap shrouds, and has been heavily used in charter, so I would have wanted to replace it. Having a quick look with the local rigger, he spotted some felt-tip marks on the fittings that looked like the way he marked things while measuring. On going back to his office and searching through the files, we found that he had completely re-rigged the boat three years previously. No new work needed!

Pete

 

[john_morris_uk]

Sure, but extra flares, water, other drinks (presumably bottles), a first-aid kit, etc - that's a lot of volume that I'd want to remove from the raft pack if I could. My grab-bag is already a non-optional part of the process, as it contains the PLB and VHF without which we could be facing a very long drift in an under-equipped floating tent.

Pete

Possibly true - except water in liferafts is usually not in bottles but in foil pouches and the first aid kit might have been nothing more than a few asprin and some sticking plasters and a couple of bandages.

The extra space does add up though and it would be very frustrating if you knew that a very slightly smaller canister would fit the space you have available.

 

[prv]

water in liferafts is usually no in bottles but in foil pouches

I know, but JackFrobisher said he added "some non-alcoholic drinks (incl. water)", which sounds like a trip to the shops to me rather than special liferaft kit.

My grab bag contains "official" liferaft rations, but also some ordinary slabs of Sainsburys chocolate and a packet of mint imperials

Pete