Out of cert liferaft usefulness

[NickRobinson]

I've bought a boat and it came with a properly sealed hard cased life raft. Never had one before. I only do coastal sailing.
I have no plans to replace and I think it's too out of date to service.
Question:- Keep onboard as 'better than nothing' or dump as a false safety net?

 

[MoodySabre]

Mine ran out last year but as I was expecting to do any long trips I’ve kept it on the boat. I would expect or to keep working for years. If I was doing a long trip where the safety of other people was a priority then I’d have it serviced again. I don’t think that it will be unserviceable just because there is a break. Some life raft companies do seem to put a length of service limit on rafts. Check with yours.

 

[Antony Collis]

Well...... I would keep it unless it ran out on the 80's
I have seen a good few people 'testing' their life raft that they are about to dump and it all worked perfectly, However the food, water and batteries were a bit manky. If i were in your position i would service it as gold standard but keep it if you really were not going off shore.
This is also how i feel about flares. I would always have in date flares but i would keep the old ones too.

 

[duncan99210]

It’s not that difficult to service yourself. Look on YouTube and you‘ll find plenty of how to videos. Bit of a challenge getting it repacked but not that difficult. Take the out the stuff with expiry dates (sea sick pills, flares, torch etc) and put those in a grab bag attached to the raft, then you’ll not need to reservice it for some time.

 

[PetiteFleur]

We had a liferaft with no paperwork when we bought our boat years ago - took it to the local liferaft service centre and inflated it outside with staff to say wether it was still serviceable. It inflated ok but most of the seams were beginning to peel apart, discovered it had been made in 1980 so on the advice of the experts it was skipped after slashing it so could not be used again. I have not replaced it.

 

[Rocksteadee]

Well...... I would keep it unless it ran out on the 80's
I have seen a good few people 'testing' their life raft that they are about to dump and it all worked perfectly, However the food, water and batteries were a bit manky. If i were in your position i would service it as gold standard but keep it if you really were not going off shore.
This is also how i feel about flares. I would always have in date flares but i would keep the old ones too.

I think carrying out of date flares is illegal

 

[LittleSister]

I think carrying out of date flares is illegal

Not in the UK, but I have read they can attract a fine in France.

 

[sailor211]

If you can identify the make and model have a chat with a liferaft service organisation and see if it is likely to be ok. My liferaft was very high spec when we purchased it. Would cost £2k if bought today. It is still going strong after many years, although it did have a new cylinder due to age. Over the top for your type of sailing but worth having if it is there.

 

[colind3782]

Not in the UK, but I have read they can attract a fine in France.

And Spain

 

[Beneteau381]

I've bought a boat and it came with a properly sealed hard cased life raft. Never had one before. I only do coastal sailing.
I have no plans to replace and I think it's too out of date to service.
Question:- Keep onboard as 'better than nothing' or dump as a false safety net?

Ive just written up an article for PBO about old liferafts. Here is a Youtube vid of it not blowing up! It is a 2007, from the bottle date, it has never been serviced. H Roberts of Liverpool can reset the trigger and refill the bottle. The rubber base and top were in perfect condition. The flares were well out of date but all fired ok. If I was doing it for real, I would take the raft out of the cases, pop it, check it, refill and reset it at H Roberts and keep the consumeables in an attached grab bag.

 

[NickRobinson]

Ive just written up an article for PBO about old liferafts. Here is a Youtube vid of it not blowing up! It is a 2007, from the bottle date, it has never been serviced. H Roberts of Liverpool can reset the trigger and refill the bottle. The rubber base and top were in perfect condition. The flares were well out of date but all fired ok. If I was doing it for real, I would take the raft out of the cases, pop it, check it, refill and reset it at H Roberts and keep the consumeables in an attached grab bag.

Useful- thank you. N

 

[Beneteau381]

I've bought a boat and it came with a properly sealed hard cased life raft. Never had one before. I only do coastal sailing.
I have no plans to replace and I think it's too out of date to service.
Question:- Keep onboard as 'better than nothing' or dump as a false safety net?

Part of the research I did, using data of manufacturers websites, is that if you service it every 3 years, at circa £300 to 9 years old, then every year till its 18 years are up, plus a hydro test of the bottle every 7 years, it is cheaper to buy a new cheapie at £690 ish every 3 years and flog the 3 year old one on Ebay for a couple of hundred quid!

 

[Arcady]

I pulled The lanyard on a 10 year old liferaft which had missed 3×3 yearly services. It worked fine. As others have said, the consumables might be a bit suspect by then.

 

[pandos]

Ive just written up an article for PBO about old liferafts. Here is a Youtube vid of it not blowing up! It is a 2007, from the bottle date, it has never been serviced. H Roberts of Liverpool can reset the trigger and refill the bottle. The rubber base and top were in perfect condition. The flares were well out of date but all fired ok. If I was doing it for real, I would take the raft out of the cases, pop it, check it, refill and reset it at H Roberts and keep the consumeables in an attached grab bag.

would that raft ever have inflated properly? if I understand the fault it was caused by the co2 freezing etc...

I inflated a 1982 raft a few weeks ago and it fired off perfectly and remained inflated for most of a week...

By proper raft that I bought new 1n 2004ish... and had serviced twice refused to inflate using a compressor because the top tube valve was stuck... I suspect it was assembled incorrectly at manufacture..

 

[superheat6k]

I serviced my 1991 raft last serviced in ~ 1995 last Winter.

The important parts were

1 No leaks - I used an air compressor to inflate it.

2 No perishing - in perfect condition

3 Gas cylinder clean, dry, not corroded and at marked weight.

I replaced the service items and disposed of the flares, in fact I fired these in my back garden and despite being ~ 20 years OOD they all worked correctly (hand held - I wouldn't test fire a rocket flare).

Re-packing it was the hardest part and I never did get it properly back into the valise, but it will do.

However, in regard to reliability I read several reports of professionally packed and tested rafts that could not possibly have worked when needed, but then I guess life raft testers work on a broadly similar principle to Doctors with their mistakes (obviously drown instead of bury !).

 

[pandos]

I serviced my 1991 raft last serviced in ~ 1995 last Winter.

The important parts were

1 No leaks - I used an air compressor to inflate it.

2 No perishing - in perfect condition

3 Gas cylinder clean, dry, not corroded and at marked weight.

I replaced the service items and disposed of the flares, in fact I fired these in my back garden and despite being ~ 20 years OOD they all worked correctly (hand held - I wouldn't test fire a rocket flare).

Re-packing it was the hardest part and I never did get it properly back into the valise, but it will do......

I repacked mine this year... Extract air using vacuum cleaner... Then pack in vacuum storeage bag from homeware store...shrunk it into perfect size...

 

[Beneteau381]

would that raft ever have inflated properly? if I understand the fault it was caused by the co2 freezing etc...

I inflated a 1982 raft a few weeks ago and it fired off perfectly and remained inflated for most of a week...

By proper raft that I bought new 1n 2004ish... and had serviced twice refused to inflate using a compressor because the top tube valve was stuck... I suspect it was assembled incorrectly at manufacture..

I did inflate it with the foot pump, but you have made a point there, I used the pump on th top tube direct. The manufold I assumed had frozen. If the one way valves were faulty?

 

[pandos]

I think the service place that serviced mine also used the top up valves...indeed afaik generally there is no real testing of the primary inflation valves...

 

[peter gibbs]

I've bought a boat and it came with a properly sealed hard cased life raft. Never had one before. I only do coastal sailing.
I have no plans to replace and I think it's too out of date to service.
Question:- Keep onboard as 'better than nothing' or dump as a false safety net?

I think you will find that a reputable service co will be prepared to open it and advise you on its condition - serviceable or not. A charge is normally only raissed when work is undertaken.

As to whether it's wise to have a sound raft on board, even for local sailing, that's a question of how much you value your skin. I would carry one and have no regrets.

PWG

 

[Solent sailer]

We needed to change our very out of date raft, the service engineers couldn't service it due to its age and it was an 8 man raft too heavy for just the 2 of us, no was my wife could have launched it!
We fired it off and it all worked fine, we then left it in the school playground for several weeks the kids loved it until it went a bit soft and someone nicked the pump! They are still using the emergency water for "cold packs" just the right size and free.