Life Raft Analysis

[Pelagic]

After reading the rather heated debate about Circumnavigating and offshore survival in Cats it seemed that a lot of us have a very negative opinion about Life rafts. I think we can all agree that transferring to one is a last resort scenario in case of fire and actual sinking. But which one would you choose?

In my research (a few years ago) The Givens Liferaft stood out far above the others in stability and was the default choice of all the offshore commercial fisherman and tugs in the most extreme “Deadliest Catch” kind of conditions. The Coast Guard did extensive tests (I still have the videos) of simulating survival conditions as well as actual at sea tests and survival stories. Givens always came out on top as far as stability without the bodies needed for weight.

I bought them and in subsequent inspections found them to be far superior in design to the more well recognized brand names I saw at the service centres, which were trying to incorporate some of the Givens features without copyright infringement.

Take a look at http://www.marsys.com.au/sandr/testing.htm for some info on the tests or you can Google “Givens liferaft” to read more.

I am interested if anyone has some more up to date knowledge on what is considered the best liferaft for survival offshore as I am out of touch with recent developments

Cheers! Nick