Seago Liferafts

[Andy_H]

I'm looking to buy a liferaft and these seem to be good value at the moment. Our sailing is mainly around the solent, but with occasional cross channel and west country trips when time allows.
Any opinions / experience of these liferafts, or any other recommendations would be much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[webcraft]

See the incident below . . . the liferaft in question was a 4-main SEAGO - I saw this on TV and the raft appeared to be in perfect condition. It certainly made me feel good about ours, purchsed some five months earlier . . .

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RESCUE OF SURVIVORS FROM LIFERAFT AFTER EIGHT DAYS AT SEA

At 9.18 on Wednesday September 15, 2004 Falmouth Coastguard received a mobile 999 telephone call via colleagues at Brixham Coastguard reporting the location of five survivors on board a liferaft from the Irish 60 foot converted ketch INIS MIL.

The vessel had been unreported for five days and was on passage from Ireland to France via the Isles of Scilly, but upon recovery it transpired that the survivors had been in the liferaft for eight days.

The `INIS MIL’ had been the subject of a lengthy investigation after having been reported overdue to the Irish authorities. UK, Irish, French and Channel island search and rescue authorities had been involved in the search for the past five days. Brixham Coastguard had also been involved in searching for the survivors during the past few days.

The liferaft was located off Trevose Head by a rescue helicopter with the five survivors on board. Falmouth Coastguard co-ordinated Coastguard rescue teams from St Merryn, a Naval rescue helicopter and lifeboats from Padstow and Newquay to initially search for the liferaft.

All the survivors have now been transferred to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske.

Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager Martin Bidmead said:

“Considering the weather conditions over the past week we consider these survivors to be very lucky. No distress alert was received from the vessel prior to the mobile telephone call.”
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- Nick

 

[aidancoughlan]

I bought one of these at the London boat show - checked out a few of the liferafts, kicked the tryes etc. , and it seemed as good as other more expensive ones. I've heard that the seago people are ex XM or Plastimo (dont remember which now), have the manufacturing contacts and are trying to develop the brand. They did me a v.good deal, so I'm happy with it (although havnt used it yet .
If you want the name of the guy who did me the deal, PM me and I'll send on his details, still have his card.

ps. webcraft, checked out your website the other day & see you've re-wired your boat - I'm going to use the same components etc. , I'll try to PM you to see if you've any comments or pointers to pass on.

 

[FullCircle]

I bought my 6 man Canister Offshore Seago at the Boat Show in January. I got a really nice deal buying the raft and a MOBY system at the same time, he threw in the deck mounting bracket. All organised theough Mailspeed Marine, an delivered on time.
I liked the build quality and the entrance was well thought out. It also had a lot of feature more common to ISAF (mucho dinero, hombre!) rafts. Add to that a decent grab bag, and we feel as safe as we are going to.
Long service intervals at 3 years, and a 12 year warranty overall.

Notice: I have no intention of using this, except on occasional training firing every third year, just before the service.

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


Jim

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Notice: I have no intention of using this, except on occasional training firing every third year, just before the service.

[/ QUOTE ]Check with the service people before you do that. Firing causes a lot more stress than gentle inflation; on services they use an air line. Could be that they might refuse to re-certify it after an actual firing? Do check!!!

 

[webcraft]

Re: rewiring

Aidan,

Got your PM, but I'm very confused.

I haven't rewired my boat or published anything on BM of this nature . . . are you sure it wasn't the 'Cruiser Reference' blog on YotBlog ? That's a Canadian, Gord May, and he seems a bit of a boat electrics guru. You'll find his e-mail in his profile.

- Nick

 

[Piers]

Try John of Nationwide - 07885 631 066. Very helpful to forumites and good prices.

 

[FullCircle]

////////// check with the service people before you do that. Firing causes a lot more stress than gentle inflation; on services they use an air line. Could be that they might refuse to re-certify it after an actual firing? Do check!!! ///////////////

Good Lord!!!!!!
A one time can't recertify life raft? I will phone the manufacturuers tout de suite and give them the rough end of my design pineapple. I am not putting to sea in anything which remotely will not survive being inflated. What a concept.

Can you name specific makes which will not be recertified if used once? I think we should all be aware of this.

I used to fire my old 4 man Avon coastal every year or so with a pile of mates, just so we knew what happened when you fired it. That was before very natty shore based courses were available at reasonable cost to the public.

 

[Anonymous]

I had my Zodiac serviced by Ocean Safety this year and was present when they unpacked it. They carefully opened the canister and vacuum bag and inlated it by air line, stopping to help it unfold as the air went in.

The point is, the liferaft is maybe only likely to be used in anger once (if ever) but it may be serviced many times during its life. You don't need a degree in engineering to realise that the forces in an emergency inflation will far exceed the forces of inflating it in a controlled manner.

Whatever the manufacturers said, I wouldn't want my liferaft to be test fired at every service. Inflated, yes, but fired, no. But in any case, as I said, ask the manufacturers for their advice and make up your own mind.

 

[BlueMan]

I too bought a Seago (6 man valise) in January after the London Show. My logic was that I couldn't afford a more expensive product so it was Seago or nothing. The publicity over the Irish Sea incident certainly made me feel better about the decision as did chatting to the ex-XM guys at the show.

If you are buying for the long term see if you can find anyone who has stock left from last season. I (by happy accident) bought the last one from a south coast retailer which was dated May or June '04 at 20% off the normal £649 price tag. I figured that it was enough of a saving that I wouldn't worry about the 6 month reduction in warranty period or having to service it in 2.5 years time rather than 3. It was still in the box so no worries about having been bashed around. Worth a try but I doubt that anyone else will have any left now. Could be a good policy to try looking at the end of each year if you want one.

 

[Andy_H]

Thanks for the info everyone.