For owners and purchasers of liferafts

[maxiSwede]

I just watched the Survivorman episode where he is "Lost at Sea" in a liferaft.  Admittedly, I was already against them, but my regard for them has sunk even lower after watching that.  I'll be figuring out my own hard dinghy as a liferaft solution when the time comes, and I'll pack my own food, too, it sounds like....

sounds interesting... is it available on YouTube or such?

[marujo_sortudo]

It would seem to be so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMUmjEWjKec

[CapnK]

Ol' Les sure doesn't seem to like water very much, does he? At least not large expanses of saltwater...  Never seen him seem to be so 'scared' or apprehensive about one of his challenges. But then, I don't have a TV, and have only seen maybe a couple other episodes, or parts of them, so...

One thing stood out: "Stillness Illness" (or: 'sea legs') - and after two days of being ashore? Find that kind of hard to believe...  I've never seen anyone vomit from being *back* on land... 

[maxiSwede]

It would seem to be so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMUmjEWjKec

Seen it. I must admit that the whole TV-show seem a bit ludicrous since it appears it's pretty much a fake from A to Z 

It gives some food for thought regarding life rafts though, and how important it is to have them repacked every 3 years or whatever interval the manufacturer states...

This adds up to serious bucks over the years, and of course it's  personal choice, but:

after had a cruising friend first hand telling me the story of how they hit something 300 miles out from the Canaries, and the boat sank in a few minutes (ply hull). They spent 14 (!) days i their raft before picked up by a freighter. They had practically no food, but managed to get 18 liters of water with them into the raft. What struck me most with their story is that they almost enjoyed it. Yup, seems strange, but he honestly enjoyed the scenery, the nice weather in the trade wind, and of course, due to famine, their mental activity slowed down over the days.

Remarkable stuff. I've read 'Adrift' by Steve Callahan too, but having this story told to me in our cockpit one evening sharing a glass of wine made an even stronger impact.

Unless, there is no way one can afford a raft, I would never, ever, go without.

That said, IF one would find out that the d##n thing doesn't work when, errh...needed, would be devastating.

[marujo_sortudo]

Yep, clearly Les isn't a sailor....

The things that struck me about the episode where largely independent of his performance, though.  The failure of the first raft, the second raft inflating upside down, air leaks, water leaks, and the poor quality and packaging of the supplies that came with the raft.  Then, of course, there's knowing just how easy it is to hole an inflatable on a coral head or some such.

Just to be clear, I am in no way proposing going to sea without a life raft, I'm just saying that I won't trust inflatable, mass-manufactured devices with my life.  I'd vastly prefer a hard dinghy with positive flotation in the form of closed-cell foam packed carefully with survival supplies that I have hand-selected and tested beforehand.  I'd also vastly prefer having sails and oars so I can do something about getting myself to land.  A major plus of this approach is using the "life raft" as your tender, so you will be intimately familiar with any maintenance issues (and hopefully fix them!) long before you need to deploy your life raft.

[maxiSwede]

The failure of the first raft, the second raft inflating upside down, air leaks, water leaks, and the poor quality and packaging of the supplies that came with the raft.  Then, of course, there's knowing just how easy it is to hole an inflatable on a coral head or some such.

Just to be clear, I am in no way proposing going to sea without a life raft, I'm just saying that I won't trust inflatable, mass-manufactured devices with my life.  I'd vastly prefer a hard dinghy with positive flotation in the form of closed-cell foam packed carefully with survival supplies that I have hand-selected and tested beforehand.  I'd also vastly prefer having sails and oars so I can do something about getting myself to land.  A major plus of this approach is using the "life raft" as your tender, so you will be intimately familiar with any maintenance issues (and hopefully fix them!) long before you need to deploy your life raft.

I do agree. In principle. And it's really scary when/if emergency equipment can't be trusted. However I do have my doubts about surviving more than a couple of days in an open dinghy too...unless one 'chose' to be in despair when the sea is dead calm fo a few days like our 'pal' Les. -that's he's name?

[marujo_sortudo]

Well, folks have crossed the ocean in small, open boats, so I feel good about it, provided (!) that the boat is properly equipped.... (which is no mean feat)