[Public-List] Liferaft Storage

Mon Nov 25 12:34:15 PST 2013

I guess it's that old thing about girding one's loins to lay out the money.
You will likely never need to use the raft....but man o man if you ever do,
you'd be very glad you bought the very best you could find.  I hope to go to
sea some day myself with SURPRISE and I don't plan to look for bargains in
the raft.

I have a very old Beaufort 'rescue platform' that I bought used from a
friend for not much.  After Beaufort suggested that since it was 26 years
past it's repack date, I shouldn't consider it worth repacking.  After the
Survivorman episode, I was doing a talk about it at our sailing club and
brought the Beaufort to 'pop' in front of my audience.

I called the fellow I'd bought it from to come up and do the honours.  He
yanked the lanyard and up it came.... Perfect.  That wasn't supposed to
happen; it was supposed to be junk.  Worse, it was full of a heck of a lot
of bird seed, which my wife and I assumed was put into it by hard working
mice over the years it was stored in our garage.

Sailing clubs being what they are, a shout went up to the effect that "Laco
uses rat food as emergency rations..."

ha ha ha. Very funny.... Ha ha ha.... Ok, stop laughing, it's not that
funny.... C'mon, guys....

On 25/11/13 3:24 PM, "Glenn" <brooks.glenn at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hi Gordo,  great story.  I bought a raft last spring for the single handed
> transpac and talked to a bunch or raft manufacturers.   Most all the
> manufacturers said the same thing you relate - heat from the  sun,
> particularly in the tropics, cooks the adhesive they use to glue the fabric
> rafts together.  Hence the two year repack requirement.
> 
> Two or  three were made for commercial ocean serve mainly for the fishing
> industry, and appeared to have better longevity and service life.  One
> company, cant remember which, uses rubber rather than  hypolan fabric and says
> the vulcanizing process does not come apart like glued fabric.  Maybe thats
> why the old zodiacs and avons last so long.  These rafts were around $5k and
> up for a four man offshore self righting raft.  The cheaper rafts were around
> $2500 more or less all boat show prices...
> 
> Regards
> Glenn 
> dolce 318
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Nov 25, 2013, at 10:48 PM, Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
> 
>> Good day -
>> 
>> My only direct experience with life rafts was when I served as a consultant
>> on the television show 'Survivorman' in which Les Stroud is sent into
>> various environments and copes for five days with what one might expect to
>> have at hand.  Sometimes he's been in the desert, sometimes a swamp, the one
>> I did with him was assuming he'd had to abandon a yacht at sea and live in a
>> life raft for five days.
>> 
>> The production company made a deal with Switlik for the use of one of their
>> four person life rafts; but they backed out at the last minute suggesting
>> that a five day test of a life raft was unrealistic...their representative
>> said 'in this day and age anyone anywhere should expect rescue in two days'.
>> 
>> I reckon he doesn't read the news nor books much.
>> 
>> We were in a pickle; there we were in Belize about to set Les adrift but
>> without a raft.  I hit upon the idea of renting a raft from a yacht actually
>> on a voyage; there were several yachts around, I knew people would probably
>> be glad of the cash and it would add an interesting story point to be using
>> a 'real' raft in the midst of a voyage.
>> 
>> The first two rafts we tried (and you can guess where this is going) which
>> had both been stored in on-deck canisters, inflated correctly when the
>> lanyard was pulled.  The first literally fell to pieces before our eyes.
>> You should have seen the look on the owner's face.  The glue had perished
>> and the raft sank before our eyes as a bunch of sheets of hypalon rubber.
>> 
>> The second raft didn't quite fall to pieces, but it leaked so badly that we
>> couldn't use it.  You should have seen the look on that fellow's face too.
>> 
>> The third raft blew up and...and.... Stayed inflated.  However, when we
>> opened the emergency kit, we found twice the amount of food in the
>> container, but no water.  You should have seen the look on that fellow's
>> face.
>> 
>> Each of these rafts were by name-brand manufacturers you'd all know.  The
>> first two had been stored in deck canisters and I reckon baking in the sun
>> is what did them in.  The first one was three years past it's repack date,
>> the second one year past, as was  the third.
>> 
>> We gave Les a very old Zodiac inflatable boat reckoning that it was
>> reasonable to assume a sailor abandoning ship would bring his dink.
>> 
>> Les ended up living during the day in the life raft to get out of the sun,
>> but he had to work steadily to keep it inflated and also bailed out.  It
>> leaked through it's bottom.
>> 
>> The ancient Zodiac however, performed flawlessly and he slept in it at
>> night.  Which was fine except when it rained in which case he really
>> suffered.  
>> 
>> So what did I come away from that with?  Always observe the repack dates.
>> And with regard to stowage - most certainly on-deck stowage is best with
>> regard to getting the raft over the side; but beware the effect of the sun
>> baking your raft while you're sailing.  I'd suggest only putting it out on
>> deck when you're making a passage.
>> 
>> Well there's another long message, I hope it's interesting.
>> 
>> Gord #426 Surprise
>> 
>> On 25/11/13 1:23 PM, "gregr at nethere.com" <gregr at nethere.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Folks,
>>> 
>>> I'm in the process of adding a Viking RescYou 4 person life raft to Ayla.
>>> What are the good locations to store it?
>>> 
>>> Aft Lazarette: Fairly easy access. I try to only load the aft compartment
>>> with light stuff like cushions and fenders. Ayla already squats a bit due
>>> to the Yanmar 2GM. I'm not sure that another 60lbs would make much of a
>>> difference but it's going in the wrong direction...
>>> 
>>> Port Lazarette: Battery 2 in here to have it up higher to protect it. Also
>>> used for 5 gal water jug and sails. The battery and water help to balance
>>> the fuel on the Starboard side.
>>> 
>>> Starboard Lazarette: Original diesel tank. Boat maintenance stuff like
>>> bucket, boat brush, etc... Try to not had weight to the ~90lbs of fuel.
>>> 
>>> Cabin top between mast and turtle: Might be tough to launch from here in
>>> truly lousy conditions. Might further reduce visibility forward.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Greg
>>> 
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>> 
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