Yacht crew rescued between Fiji and NZ - liferaft falls apart

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pohopetch

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Interesting thread on a New Zealand yachting forum about a Beneteau 430 which lost its rudder after being hit by a big wave a few days ago heading to NZ from Fiji. Crew spent 30 hours trying to rig jury steering but were defeated by 4 to 6m seas and remains of rudder flapping about. A container ship diverted to them and they inflated the brand new Zodiac 8 man liferaft to transfer the 200 metres to the ship and after 100 metres with 4 of them in it the whole bottom fell out of the raft and they swam and pushed the raft the rest of the way.

Thread with posts by two of the crew is at
http://crew.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15333&sid=76498ef039de6804309d89ba1a438546

And NZ TV news story and video of raft is at
http://www.3news.co.nz/Sailors-resc...t-sea/tabid/309/articleID/184737/Default.aspx
 
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Link to NZ TV film clip is HERE - you can clearly see the floor is missing from the raft.

Pretty alarming - Zodiac aren't cheap rafts and have a good reputation - possibly undeserved?

- W
 
It does rather beg the questions; "When & where was it last serviced?" and "How has it been stored since its last service?"

An illusion of security is just a reassuring as the real thing. The only time it becomes a problem is if, & when, you need the real thing. :eek:
 
Also happened to one of the Winston Churchill's liferafts in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart, and three men died, though I don't think that it was a Zodiac.

I was in Oz three years ago and the litigation was still making its way through the courts at that time.
 
Probably slightly off thread but when I was in Bermuda Customs & Immigration a few years ago, there was a notice issued by the US Coastguard warning boats about a US liferaft service station which had replaced the actual rafts contained in canisters with bags of stones. Owners of liferafts serviced by the company were warned to check their liferafts!

Presumably that would have been a disgruntled employee - but whther it's a disgruntled employee or lax quality control, it does make my skin creep to imagine someone firing up their liferaft in anger only to discover it's defective.

Cheers, Brian.
 
IIRC this is not the first time Zodiac have had trouble with their liferafts, during a test in YM (?) the Zodiac failed to inflate properly. Then there was the Zodiac that failed when deployed from Megawatt when it sank in the Irish sea a few years ago.
 
flobbergob said:
it does make my skin creep to imagine someone firing up their liferaft in anger only to discover it's defective.
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Anecdotally, it does seem to be less rare than one would hope. Only the other day I was reading of the wreck of the Endeavour II, in which they pulled the painter right out of the raft and the canister drifted away still unopened.

If I were going blue-water on a reasonable-sized boat I probably would have a liferaft on board (as much to keep nosey foreign authorities happy as anything else) - but I would also look seriously at making the hard dinghy survivable (collar, canopy, grab bag). At least you know that will float.

Pete
 
This must be a case of shoddy QC at the manufacturer's or bad adhesive.

I witnessed the activation of a 20 odd year old liferaft with a 15 year out of date certificate. It inflated well, and provided a good beach toy for some kids. The liferaft service centre was apparently not prepared to re-certify it.

Frankly I'm saddened but not surprised that crews are still abandoning yachts that have rudder failure. Are Benny's so unmanageable that no alternative could be fabricated?
 
TradewindSailor said:
Frankly I'm saddened but not surprised that crews are still abandoning yachts that have rudder failure. Are Benny's so unmanageable that no alternative could be fabricated?
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According to the thread elsewhere, posted here, they tried for a couple of days to steer the boat. The remains of the rudder were jammed in place and made it harder to jury-rig a working replacement. They tried with a board on the end of the spinnaker pole, but the loads were so large that the pole broke. The only means that worked slowed them down to 0.5 knots (they could make 1.5 knots, but only in the wrong direction) and at that rate they were concerned about running out of food and water before making landfall. With the ship alongside offering the option to abandon, they decided that was the better option.

Pete
 
Friend brought his LR back from the South of France earlier this year as it had to be replaced. He fired it up in the garden, but only after prizing the two halves apart and untangling the painter hat was jammed. Once that was done it stayed inflated for nearly 24 hours.

Thats the life raft we had both felt safe having aboard for the last few years.
 
On boat from Fiji

We did similar route from Fiji to New Zealand last year and I can tell you that we faced some scary stretches of water. I know one thing now as an inexperienced sailor and thats to make sure your boat is well looked after. I can never help wondering whether or not the life raft would inflate if we were ever to need it!
 
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minkysailing said:
And there I was thinking Zodiac Liferafts were of a premium brand..!!!
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Yes, I have one as well! However, when you read the MAIB type reports of incidents that involve the deploymment of rafts, you will find problems with most of them, irrespective of make. Of the small number of successful deployments, the one that stands out as the raft performed perfectly was a "cheap" Seago, but it was brand new and not used in extreme conditions, but over a period of 2 days (IIRC) in the Irish sea.
 
There are those, quite a few of them hang about on this forum, who will insist that the only certain way to get a quality item pretty much guaranteed of performing as specified is to pay more for it.

Incidents like this just go to prove that price is no indicator of quality. Zodiac's page touts the fact that they are ISO 9001 certified as well.

I could accept a partial failure under the circumstances but the entire floor falling out is just unacceptable.

Will Zodiac recall every liferaft out there the way Toyota had to recall cars over a sticky carpet?
 
Tranona said:
Of the small number of successful deployments, the one that stands out as the raft performed perfectly was a "cheap" Seago, but it was brand new and not used in extreme conditions, but over a period of 2 days (IIRC) in the Irish sea.
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If I remember rightly they abandoned in more or less a flat calm, as the boat sank due to dodgy structure and a lack of functioning bilge pumps. They set light to the wheelhouse with a can of petrol as they left, attempting to produce a smoke signal but succeeding only in giving two of the crew minor burns.

Weren't they adrift for more like a week?

Pete
 
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