Pre-Owned Liferaft

[Capt Phil]

It has been my experience that there is about 2 cubic feet of useable/packable space in a 6 man raft, perhaps more if items are compressible. On our own boat, my wife insisted that we pack at least 3 weeks of dry cat food which I didn't object to as I felt we could always eat the cat when we ran out of provisions... didn't tell her that but when you haven't eaten anything for several days, I bet even Puss Puss looks good! CP

[Weyalan]

I'd be guessing it would be more sensible / efficient to kill the cat immediately and use it for fishing bait and eat the catfood if you can't catch a fish.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

On our own boat, my wife insisted that we pack at least 3 weeks of dry cat food which I didn't object to

If that ain't reason enough to repack a 2nd hand liferaft ASAP then I dunno what is

But could be worse. could have packed the cat

[Capt Phil]

Can't think of a reply that is not going to take this thread in an entirely different direction than the OP intended. Cheers, CP

[Chef-of-the-Sea]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

I felt we could always eat the cat when we ran out of provisions... didn't tell her that but when you haven't eaten anything for several days, I bet even Puss Puss looks good! CP

I think I ate cat in Chinatown, couldn't understand the guy that well. He said cat or rat but it was in a good curry bun and I was hungry so I ate two.

I just watched the Survivor Man where he was in a liferaft, Think I need to add more games and perhaps a sea anchor

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Chef-of-the-Sea

Think I need to add more games

Yeah, I would imagine I-Spy would get old fairly quickly

[Springbok]

If Chinese or Japanese is cheaper, you might not be able to read the survival manual when you deploy the raft.Might not be a knife just chopsticks
Always promote one of the crew to Captain if abandoning ship. This makes a seat for you on the raft as the Captain goes down with the ship
Clyde

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by Springbok

If Chinese or Japanese is cheaper, you might not be able to read the survival manual when you deploy the raft.Might not be a knife just chopsticks
Always promote one of the crew to Captain if abandoning ship. This makes a seat for you on the raft as the Captain goes down with the ship
Clyde

Racial stereotyping aside, (a) do you really thing there would be a survival manual in the liferaft? (b) what do you plan to do with a knife? (or chopsticks, for that matter)

[Chef-of-the-Sea]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Racial stereotyping aside, (a) do you really thing there would be a survival manual in the liferaft? (b) what do you plan to do with a knife? (or chopsticks, for that matter)

If it was a liferaft from Japan it might come with a knife for Hari-Kari after all letting your ship is dishonorable, or making sushi.

[Weyalan]

As a general rule, liferafts do come fitted with a knife (ostensibly for cutting the painter line, so you don't get dragged under by your sinking vessel). However the knife is designed to minimise the chance of accidentally stabbing the liferaft, so no sharp point, just a relatively short sharp section (maybe 1" long) on a paddle-pop stick shaped blade

[PeterJG]

Buyer beware.

I have a 1994 vintage Avon 4 man ocean raft. The raft, itself, is in great condition. I recently brought it to a service company who, in checking it out, found that the cylinder valve leaks and they cannot get a replacement “poppet assembly” to fix it because the valve manufacturer is out of business. The bottom line is that they cannot complete servicing the life raft.

Has anyone heard of this problem?

Be careful about purchasing an older Avon. It may be unserviceable.

[Capt Phil]

The raft we had on our old Transpac 49 was repacked by the bomberos who ran a shop north of Ensenada years ago. Once unpacked, which we witnessed, we found all the instructions were in Japanese and pretty much useless to us gringos. Had a great time setting off all the expired flares on the beach with the firefighters from Ensenada which was a good time to familiarizes ourselves with the setting off of flares and smoke bombs. The repack went well, and there was heaps of room in the cannister for the cat food plus other personal incidentals. The inflation cannister was replaced with a non-standard one that fit and would do the job. That is the beauty of Mexico... they get the job done with what is available and at a reasonable cost. Capt Phil

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Had a great time setting off all the expired flares on the beach with the firefighters from Ensenada which was a good time to familiarizes ourselves with the setting off of flares and smoke bombs.

So, were there any failures-to-light?

L8R

Skip

[Capt Phil]

Nope... it turned in to a full on fiesta with the bomberos wives and girlfriends showing up. We supplied a few cervesas and everyone had a great time... most everyone was lit along with the flares. But those were the good old days when laws made sense and sex was dirty... CP