Employing or needing a Life boat/raft

[baz]

How many of you find/feel the need for having a real life boat/raft for your boating/cruising events ?

I don't mean a simple dinghy or inflatable that has no ditch bag or emergency equipment -- I mean something close to a properly equipped dinghy or inflatable with all the necessary emergency equipment installed and ready to launch in an emergency where one has to abandon the mother boat. The lifeboat needs to help you + three others to survive in bad weather, low temperatures for at least 48 hours and to have the possibility of reaching land that could be 20 miles away.

 

[doke01]

I have been thinking about it. I saw a small one at the NY boat show that was about $2000 that would be perfect for the R25, as far as size and capacity (it can hold up to 4 people). It was in a hard case and pretty compact. I will try to find the name of the vendor and post it when I do.

Doug

 

[Stella Maris]

Barry,
I personally would be more comfortable in having a dingy or kayak as a last ditch resource than a liferaft for our type of boating. In the event of a complete failure of the hull or worse, an on board fire and you must abandon ship, I would want the option to have some sort of propulsion that I could use to make my way to shore. In the sound, you could easily motor/paddle if you had to. Since liferafts have no means of propulsion, you are at the mercy of the currents and wind. Image crossing the straits, that event occurs that causes you to have to abadon ship. Its getting dark, the tide is going out...... not a good place to be. Hopefully an inbound or outbound freighter would spot you (before they run you over....). But if they don't, you could be headed to Hawaii....

If I were crossing oceans, then yes a liferaft would be the best choice.

As for a ditch bag, we do not have one on Karma. We do have a floating VHF handheld located just inside the door. We also keep the flares handy (lots of them, we learned once already that you cannot have too many of these). Along with these we also have a small personnal size EPIRB that we keep close by. When we cruise up to desolation, we will put together a "ditch bag" as we will be in a more remote location. However, since we will be in close proximety to fellow tugnutters, it will mainly contain our ships papers, our passports, etc. I would hope that in the event that we need to abadon ship on that trip, that someone would come to our aid quickly.

Yours and Gill's safety lies in your hands. What works for me and others may not be what works for you. It is great to hear what others have done/do, but you must make the final decision as to what you are going to do.

 

[baz]

David: Appreciate your feed back and it all makes a lot of sense and rational/logical thinking. 🙂

For Gill and me (and we're not young chickens any more) + possibility of two additional passengers + 2 small Fox Terriers most right-sized inflatable for the R25 or a kayak will not service us in the event of emergency,

As you said, it's a personal thing with personal requirements.

This weekend I'm sure I will be opting to buy the Portland Pudgy for our R25. The expense of the Pudgy, is for me, offset by the comfort it provides us knowing we have a pretty good chance of surviving a nasty accident. It's very easy to take a cavalier attitude approach to boat safety... and I'm not implying you have, OK. 🙂

Life rafts or life boats typically do have oars so propulsion is available.

My primary concern is being caught out in the winter with night time approaching.

 

[K7MXE]

I bought a Boufort liferaft from the factory near Vancouver BC a few years back and never really put it to use so now it just sits out in my garage. Takes up too much space on the R21 but I would recommend one for a larger boat. I set my up with extra fishing gear and a epirb but now the epirb is no longer legal to use. Rafts need to be inspected every so often and the watermaker also needs to be looked at as well. I think mine is a four man with a insulated floor. Lots of options and qualitys out there and some to keep away from as well. Bob Heselberg Eatonville Wa