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View Poll Results: do you plan to have a liferaft on your boat when heading out to cruise?
yes 182 65.23%
no 97 34.77%
Voters: 279. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 22-10-2011, 18:25   #166
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by Paul Elliott View Post
You probably saw the "Portland Pudgy". It's heavy for it's size, but has a lot of nice features.

Testing a raft by pulling the ripcord will eventually weaken the fabric (at least that's what I was told about auto-inflate PFDs). The next time I get my raft re-packed, I'm going to have my full crew there so we can climb in and get a little more familiar with the thing. I believe the rafts are inflated with compressed air for the inspection.
Yes. It is the Pudgy. I like the idea very much. Heavy yes but also quite robust and resistant to chafe.

I believe the testing is done by inflating with a blower pump - to avoid condensation as much as possible.

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Old 22-10-2011, 23:42   #167
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by rebel heart View Post
The odds of sinking, then trying to swim to shore, and then being hit by a boat, is very small. I have a strobe in my lifejacket/harness as well as a chem stick, and anything a few miles offshore is probably (hopefully) listening on the vhf. You can throw worst case scenarios out but the reality is most coastal boats don't have life rafts, and if push comes to shove I'd rather have a plan (try to swim to shore) than just sit there and hope something works itself out naturally.
I'm not a single hander...when I sail its with familly and/or friends...these combinations sometimes include children and older folks.
I just don't see it a better choice to ask them all to swim to shore...or expect they would have that capacity.
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Old 23-10-2011, 06:13   #168
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by Mexdon View Post
I believe a yacht without one is not properly prepared for sea.
Then you'd be wrong

It just feels like that - for some, others folks taking a different approach (whether an informed choice or not ) is unsettling.......but at the end of the day you have to do whatever makes you comfortable - and f#ck everyone else
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Old 23-10-2011, 06:41   #169
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

For those who think that swimming to shore is feasible, take a look at the research shown here:

Cold Water Boot Camp
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Old 23-10-2011, 11:11   #170
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mexdon
I believe a yacht without one is not properly prepared for sea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey View Post
Then you'd be wrong

It just feels like that - for some, others folks taking a different approach (whether an informed choice or not ) is unsettling.......but at the end of the day you have to do whatever makes you comfortable - and f#ck everyone else
I completely agree with both of you. This is a personal choice, and everyone should weigh the factors before making a decision. Here are mine:
I do three types of sailing: daysailing in San Francisco Bay, daysailing and weekending nearshore (in cold and occasionally rough water), and long ocean passages. I sail with family and/or a crew. For my passages, where we can be 1000 miles from any land, I carry a liferaft. A raft is also required by the races I do, but I had a raft before I started racing.

For the near-shore sailing the raft is nice but perhaps not essential for me. I usually carry it, but not always. For bay sailing, the raft is often left at home.

The "carry the raft?" decision is based largely on time and distance from help. Others may figure this differently, and I respect that.

For what it's worth, I knew a boat that was rammed by a whale 500 miles north of Hawaii. The boat sank, the crew had a raft, EPIRB and satphone, and they were saved.
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Old 23-10-2011, 11:23   #171
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

I would like to point out that I am not against life rafts, I might actually get one someday, I just will not settle for "bargain survival methods". I have seen quite a few come into the local Marine Exchange (used buy/sell boat stuff), as all had to be serviced/checked anyway they were all inflated when they came in, with only one exception they didn't stay inflated more than a few days. The exception was a top of the line AVON (which by the way had not been serviced in over 30 years), it stayed nice and fully inflated until it sold (about two weeks). If I am going to trust my life in something I want to make sure it is the one that is most likely to work, anything else is a false sense of security and waste on money (possibly my life).
For the time being I can explore other options as to how to survive in case my boat sinks, I don't plan on leaving a void there.
Among types of survival that needs to be prepared for one is what is the boat doesn't sink. If due to damage to the boat or natural and/or political disaster at your destination that prevent restocking supplies...either way causing you to spend far more time at sea than anticipated. Things like extra water and food storage, ways of acquiring water and food (emergency water makers and fishing gear) alternate means of power generation as well as all manual everything that doesn't rely on power and lastly numerous forms of communication.
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Old 23-10-2011, 11:31   #172
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jackdale View Post
For those who think that swimming to shore is feasible, take a look at the research shown here:

Cold Water Boot Camp
I live in the Pacific North West and have been told that the main advantage of a type I life jacket is that they are more likely to find the body, they will all keep you afloat until you die of hypothermia.
A friend of mine does alot of single handed long distance sailing and chooses not to wear a life jacket....his theory being that if he falls over and the boat sails off into the distance with out him, he wants it over as quickly as possible. I am not saying I agree with him, firstly I "clip in" and secondly on long passages I prefer a crew (partly for the safety factor, partly to share the experience).
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Old 23-10-2011, 11:36   #173
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by Paul Elliott View Post
... For what it's worth, I knew a boat that was rammed by a whale 500 miles north of Hawaii. The boat sank, the crew had a raft, EPIRB and satphone, and they were saved.

Here's a link to the story of that boat.

"Be Prepared" Should Be Everyone's Motto | Cruising World
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Old 23-10-2011, 11:57   #174
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

We left Hawaii right after we heard that "XL" had been rammed and the crew were safe. A few days later, while sailing through those same waters, we were pretty nervous when we saw a pod of sperm whales cruise by! Fortunately, they kept going. Just in case, we hauled in all our fishing gear.

"XL" was a lightweight racing machine, and while VALIS is fairly bulletproof, I know who's going to win if a whale wants to sink us.

Two years later we did hit a whale on our approach to San Francisco. It was just a glancing blow and no damage was done to boat or whale, but it sure got our attention. Here's a link to a video of that encounter: http://www.sailvalis.com/Pac%20Cup%2...ages/Whale.mpg

I like having a liferaft.
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Old 23-10-2011, 12:14   #175
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

I have seen alot of prospective world cruisers who wanted to wait until everything on their boat was perfect and they had everything....who subsequently never left. I would rather wait until I get a rife raft than wait until I leave.
Some people seemed to miss the point that the sophisticated life rafts of we are talking about are a relatively new invention (then again so is taking boats too light wieght and not really designed for ocean going to sea)
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Old 23-10-2011, 13:26   #176
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by wolfenzee View Post
A friend of mine does alot of single handed long distance sailing and chooses not to wear a life jacket....his theory being that if he falls over and the boat sails off into the distance with out him, he wants it over as quickly as possible.
Apparently many East Coast fisherman do not know how to swim for exactly the same reason.
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Old 23-10-2011, 14:00   #177
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Originally Posted by wolfenzee View Post

A friend of mine does alot of single handed long distance sailing and chooses not to wear a life jacket....his theory being that if he falls over and the boat sails off into the distance with out him, he wants it over as quickly as possible.
That was Captain Quint's phylosophy too. Drown before the sharks get to you.
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Old 23-10-2011, 15:09   #178
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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Apparently many East Coast fisherman do not know how to swim for exactly the same reason.
That is not the case everywhere as in the tropics unlike the colder areas swimmers have lasted days in the water.
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Old 23-10-2011, 15:16   #179
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

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That is not the case everywhere as in the tropics unlike the colder areas swimmers have lasted days in the water.
I am Canadian, all of our waters are cold. (With the exception of Desolation Sound.)

Cruising instructors here tell our students that swimming is a death sentence. Even the swim instructors no longer teach drown-proofing for the same reason.
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Old 23-10-2011, 15:56   #180
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Re: Liferaft: Yes or No ?

"For what it's worth, I knew a boat that was rammed by a whale 500 miles north of Hawaii."
Memo: Sign on Queeqeg and buy harpoon before buying life raft?
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