life raft re-certification costs

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

...this is actually an easier job than putting on makeup and an evening gown and having your hair done up. (There must be some analogy for guys that's similar, I just couldn't think of one at hand.)

How about: "easier than getting a prostate exam," which is what paying that much money feels like.

[a64pilot]

This is the reason I don’t have one yet, and likely won’t.
Unless or until we are looking at that long, major crossing.
I just don’t think they are as necessary for knocking about the Caribbean in warm water.
I do have a Gumby suit for her though.

[model 10]

I don't know about this idea that a dinghy will work in open water. I've tried it twice and it scared me silly. If there is any chance a life raft is better, that's the way to go.

[J.Kitchens]

I'm healthy, I exercise, I eat mostly healthy, I do my best to take care of myself. I also pay $3000+ per year for health/dental insurance. I go to the doctor once a year for a checkup and I go to the dentist twice a year for a checkup. Is this worth $3000+? Nope but I pay it anyway; it's insurance.

A quick search of the internet tells me a Viking RescYou 4 Person Life Raft costs $2350 plus lets say $150 for shipping. Total $2500.

People say maintenance is roughly $1500 every three years and the life raft has a life of twelve years. Total $6000.

Total cost of Life Raft ownership over twelve years = $8500
Total Monthly cost of life raft ownership = $59.03

For the low cost of $59.03 a month you are insuring yourself against having to tread water if you sink your boat.

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Ostinato

I have an 8 person Viking bought in Miami for about $3000 in 2012. I have had it re-certified every three years in Europe for not more the $750 each time. Looks like i'll be getting rid of it when I return to the states. Those prices are shocking and a ripoff. Sorry to hear this.

You can try re-certifying it twice in a row before leaving state-side?

[elandra65]

Last year I paid 3/4 the cost of a new life raft for a service. I didn't know the exact price until they had finished as they don't know the condition etc until opened. Complete ripoff. Charged me $300 just for desiccant!

The raft was in as new condition and about 2years old so that was just for replacement of time expired items and testing. If I had known it would cost that much I would of considered holding off for a couple of years and buying a new one. I don't mind paying a fair price for something but that is price gouging at its worst. Monopoly on servicing is part of the reason.

This is Australia so don't come here to service a life raft.

Andrew

[hellosailor]

JK-
A life raft does have some "moving" parts, in the sense that the pressure bottle may leak, etc. But mainly, it is like a paperweight. There's no reason that a good paperweight can't sit on my desk for twenty years without needing anything more than an occasional dusting. Life rafts?
Yeah, a whole long procedure. A whole long expensive procedure. THAT's the part that just doesn't seem right. We're not in the 1780's any more, there should be a better way to do this.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

JK-
A life raft does have some "moving" parts, in the sense that the pressure bottle may leak, etc. But mainly, it is like a paperweight. There's no reason that a good paperweight can't sit on my desk for twenty years without needing anything more than an occasional dusting. Life rafts?
Yeah, a whole long procedure. A whole long expensive procedure. THAT's the part that just doesn't seem right. We're not in the 1780's any more, there should be a better way to do this.

The rubber and coated nylon degrades over time.

[J.Kitchens]

There are certainly better ways to do it. Here are a few ideas; these are just ideas not my personal opinion.

A. Use a hard tender with built in flotation. One time purchase and low maintenance but lower comfort level.

B. Get some sort of life raft kit for your inflatable tender. Your'e already maintaining your inflatable but a life raft kit may come with additional maintenance and a service life. Again comfort level is decreased.

C. Manufacturers could lease life rafts. You would pay an annual fee, lets say $600, and you would swap it for another one every year or two. Then the manufacturer could handle the servicing and you would always have a fresh life raft. This option doesn't really lower the cost but it would substantially decrease the hassle.

D. Do you really need a life raft full time? You could simply rent one (from a reputable dealer) for your longer passages.

[hellosailor]

Paul-
The material degradation over time is a fact of life, yes. I had a top-reputation heavy rubber antivibration mat on a phono turntable, that literally had turned into goo after a couple of long years on the shelf. And I think we've all seen foam rubbers turn into powder, or goo. And now of course, tire companies tell us that all car tires should be thrown out after eight years because the rubber degrades and cracks.
But oddly enough, WW2 combat aircraft have been recovered from some of the odder parts of the globe, with vintage 1940's buna-rubber tires, which could still be reinflated and used as is!
And the, look at the numbers for how long it takes for plastic bags and milk bottles to break down in a landfill. Some of these plastics are happy to just sit around for 100 years if you keep them out of UV and physical abrasion.
It is indeed possible to make and select materials that will NOT break down when sitting "on the shelf" especially when that is inside a hermetically sealed vacuum packed bag. And that's one reason why I wouldn't even think about buying a "new" brand of plastic raft or dinghy from China: There's just too much cheating by material suppliers over there. That's not exclusive to China--just way more rampant with the "we can beat every price" suppliers.
I would suspect, and hope, that Viking scrutinizes their suppliers and follows up long term, not just choosing the cheapest price. (As they used to say on the space program, you're riding on an assembly of ten million supercritical parts, each one of which was made by the lowest bidder. Hmmm.)

[Capt Phil]

One of the cheapest and best places to get a life raft re-certified and tested on the west coast is just north of Ensenada, MX. There is a shop there run by the ‘bomberos’ firemen from Ensenada who will do it for around $800 which includes the consumables!
They want you to be present when they test the inflatability of the raft so you know what it looks like when filled with air.
We brought along a couple of boxes of dos equos beer and had a party on the beach with the bomberos and their families... shot off the old flares, had a beach barbecue and added cat food to the consumable repack! Fun afternoon with all the kids but ran out of beer and had to make a beer run!
I highly recommend the place just north of the hardware store but past the last highway tolls stop on the ocean side of the highway.
Phil

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

........
I would suspect, and hope, that Viking scrutinizes their suppliers and follows up long term, not just choosing the cheapest price. (As they used to say on the space program, you're riding on an assembly of ten million supercritical parts, each one of which was made by the lowest bidder. Hmmm.)

There are a ton of other criteria in the purchasing/design decisions for the material besides a 25 year life. Weight, reasonable cost, ease of repair, availibility,.......
It isn't like any vendor is going to offer a reasonably priced raft with a 20 year inspection level, no matter what it is made of.

[a64pilot]

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that some agencies, whether government or not require an inspection interval of X, and likely the rafts manufactured align with that

[Chuck Hawley]

I think that $1500 seems excessively high for a four man raft. Every raft will be more expensive to repack on the years when the dated items (food, batteries, flares, water) is due to expire, and of course your raft can't be repacked for a three year interval with flares that will expire in two years. But the bottom line is that you generally pay retail prices for all of the items with an expiration date on specific anniversaries.

Switlik has somewhat changed the rules by having expiring items on the outside of the vacuum pack, they they can be replaced without digging into the vaccum pack, thus extending the time between repacks. This is true on their most recent models, but you have to be aware that some of your safety gear is packed in the valise, and not inside the raft. Don't cut away the valise without stripping it of gear.

While I appreciate the thrifty folks who have the guts to perform their own repacking, I think this is pretty asinine. Life rafts are highly technical devices which require more than just replacing gear and checking for air retention. Life rafts do have recalls from time to time, and can suffer from corrosion and fabric deterioration which may not be easy to detect. I'd just as soon take out my own appendix as repack my own life raft.

Cheers,

Chuck

[Dani-lu]

I just bought the offshore 4 person switlik. Made in USA. Certification every 5 years and $750. Switlik now uses compressed air instead of CO2. There is a visual gauge that I can see, confirming it is full. No worries of did the CO2 leak thru a pinhole. Not very likely, but one less thing to worry about and cheaper cost of ownership.