Dynamic Lifeboat - What Are the Options?

[IolantheSF]

Consider that most life rafts are optimized for compactness and light weight. If you do abandon your still-floating vessel, know that you’ll be spending long miserable hours in a floating vomit bag. Now go plug the leak, get the bilge pumps going, and bail like your life depends on it.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Boatyarddog

Oh, that's not helpful...3 days!

Ha

Boatyarddog

Yes so modern life rafts are designed around that assumption

[hpeer]

Well this should stir some comments.

There have been long threads about the usefulness of life rafts and at least one very experienced sailor has made a good case against them.

I have been leaning in a different direction, towards survival suits or dry suites. It is a phased pproach.

I sometimes sail in cold waters, some very cold. I don't do cold well. I have cold weather work suits, overalls, rated as a PDF. And I have a Gumby and a dry suit.

As things deteriorate you need to keep going to manage the boat. This will likely expose you to cold water and wind. The cold weather immersion suits do a good job of eating you warm while providing buoyancy, they will extend your survival a time in the wter some hours. But the main thing is to keep managing the boat in adverse conditions.

This April I saw my Wife experience near hypothermia on the Delaware Bay, dry and in the cockpit. I have experienced mild hypothermia in the Caribbean; I was exhausted, had 2 rum punch, and got caught in the dink in a cold downpour. It was debilitating and took some hours to recover. The point is even without going overboard you need to take are of yourself to take care of the boat. These worksuits are really well adapted for that role.

In a too high percentage of cases the life raft has failed in some manner. Sometimes they do not inflate, or they are holed in deployment, or the painter breaks and they zip away. While I have no hard numbers those I trust imply they are only about 50% successfully deployed.
Then you have to get I to the damn thing which by all accounts is very difficult ultimately in controlled circumstances. If someone has better numbers I would like to hear them.

In short, even carrying a in date inspected life raft there is a fair possibility it will not work as you imagine.

My alternative is to use a Gumby or dry suit, neither are perfect The dry suit requires someone to help me put it on, the Gumby makes you pretty immobile. But you will survive even in cold water a fair amount of time. And you have a much higher chance of actually having it perform its intended purpose. I suppose a Gumby over a immersion work suit would be pretty good if you can float face up.

Here in the Carib I have a Gumby for my wife and wet suits + PFD for myself.

Hopefully we never use any of this stuff.