Liferaft

[stretch33]

An RFD 4 man liferaft came with the boat, valise type, theres a tag on it marked 96 - will this still be any good and if so where best to get it serviced East coast, Cheers All

 

[Gaffer]

Get it serviced anyway if only for peace of mind. You never know, your life may depend on it one day.......

 

[Guest]

Chances are it's OK, mine was. COSALT in Southampton are the boys to talk to and they may have a branch near you.

Bernie

 

[Avocet]

I bought a boat with a very old liferaft a while back. I phoned up the manufacturer who asked for the serial number which I told him was "6". "Weren't there any other numbers"? he asked. "Only a load of Zeros" I replied. "Blimey, you've got a collector's piece there"! he said.

Anyway, the upshot of it all was that he didn't think it would be worth trying to service. Apparently very early ones were natural rubber reinforced with natural fibres and would almost certainly turn themselves into "beach balls" if inflated as all the reinforcements snapped. I very gingerly tried opening it on the lawn and sure enough, nothing happened. It was dead as a doornail. We did blow it up manually and the baby used it as a wendy house for a few days but the smell of old rubber was a bit overpowering!