Go Dutch...
I paid 300 euros to Jacobs Lifesaving in The
Netherlands to service and repack my Givens 6 man
offshore liferaft.
The story gets better when I tell you that when the Givens was 3 days old, it got washed
overboard in the Gulf of
Maine, didn't inflate and floated until we were able to come about and haul it back on board. It had been lying on the
cockpit sole and I thought that was a secure place.
I didn't open it for five years until I delivered it to Jacobs Lifesaving. When they inflated it, the arming device had severe
corrosion, anything
aluminum was turned to oxide and it was all my fault for not securing it to the boat and then not having it service upon my arrival in
Europe from the US.
I know I got a great deal from them as they replaced all the corroded
equipment. They normally service liferafts from commercial vessels. They went through all the
emergency supplies and made suggestions about what I need for the range of voyaging I am currently doing. I don't need
water for 30 days when I am 15 miles off the coast of
France.
All I am trying to say is that there are "good guys" out there, one just has to find them. 50% of replacement cost is a bit much.
The pirates we need to worry about the most are the ones on land.