Liferaft inspection and recommendations
The following is a post from Scott Strickland that I have forwarded
for the interest of the PUP. Thanks Scott.
As I get ready for our departure for the Galapagos in (about 6
weeks), I had my life raft repacked yesterday. I learned a lot,
much of which was not as positive as I had hoped. I spent 8 hours
at the factory and watched them work on 4 rafts of which mine was one.
Our life raft was made 6/2003. I had it serviced 9/2007. When the
lift raft was ready for inspection (6/2006), I was not near the US
so I delayed the inspection till I got to the US. The raft has
been stored inside the saloon since I got it.
Basically our raft was useable, (there is a little question if the
line attaching the raft to the boat which was showing signs of wear
was strong enough to hold the raft to the boat) I have since
learned how to manually trigger the life raft if you are in the
water. The way rafts are packed is if you pull the rip cord
looking at the bottle there is a good chance the bottle will hit
you in the face when the raft opens! You need to be at the end of
the raft with the bottle 90 degrees away from the face.
You should learn which side of you raft the rip cord is and how to
safely deploy it from in the water, (ours is on the side with the
big red waterproof label I added to the handle!)
EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DEPLOY THE LIFE RAFT IF THE ATTACHMENT
LINE FAILS. ALSO THE LIFE RAFT SHOULD NOT BE DEPLOYED UNTIL
EVERYONE IS READY TO JUMP INTO THE WATER IN CASE THE ATTACHMENT
LINE FAILS. If you read about the sail boat race disasters, you
will find that the attachment line failing do occur more often than
you would think. If the line is too strong the raft will sink when
the boat sinks, so it has to break at a light load, yet in rough
seas the line will get jerked-and surprise it breaks before you
are in it!
The second problem was the vacuum packed bagged had a hole in it.
Ours had a hole on the bottom where the weight rested on the bottom
of the boat. they suggested and I now have a rubber sheet I placed
under the life raft. While the vacuum packing increases the water
tightness of the raft, it does not guarantee it.
EVERYONE WITH A VACUUM PACKED LIFE RAFT SHOULD PROTECT THE BOTTOM
OF THE LIFE RAFT CASE WITH SOMETHING SOFT.
On the outside stored life rafts they were repacking the survival
gear was a soggy unusable mess. I was sure this would not be the
case with our inside stored life raft. Well it was better but not
perfect!
I had one 4 oz emergency water packed break and it damaged an
amazing amount of stuff. For example the water activated lights
(ours came with two) were of course used up. More stuff was then
damaged by one AA battery that leaked. When they repacked my life
raft I asked and they agreed to pack the water in a second sealed
bag. Put the batteries and Sun Screen in a third sealed bag, and I
had them pack the EPIRB and Water Maker in a fourth sealed bag.
Then seal everything up in the last sealed bag. This will limit
leaks, and also provide extra protection for the two critical
items, EPIRB and water maker.
EVERYONE SHOULD SEAL STUFF IN DIFFERENT WATERPROOF CONTIANERS. I
suggested this should be standard on all rafts, but I do not think
they will do this.
The quality of some items was lower than I expected.
There raft comes with two flashlights. One a double AA waterproof
light that is good. The second is a Disposable Lite retail $3.49
at Amazon. It is not waterproof and was dead when tested. I told
them to not ever bother with replacing it, the chances of it
working when needed were 0%.
The raft comes with 3 USCG approved flares and 3 USCG approved
aerial flares. I had them replaced with SOLAS rated parachute and
hand flares. I have tested the flares that came with the life raft
(on the Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally we got to test flares)
and they are really poor-SOLAS approved flares are much much
better. In daylight a USCG approved flare can be seen about a mile
away (if you are looking right at it), they do not go very high and
are not very bright and stay in the air about 5 seconds-the SOLAS
flares can been seen from several miles away and stay in the air
much longer. On an ocean going boat where the closest vessel will
almost never be within a mile USCG approved flares are not very
useful.
The leaky AA battery trashed the knife that came in the raft. The
old one was sharp, the new one is not very sharp.
IF I WAS TO BUY A NEW LIFE RAFT TODAY I WOULD INSIST ON WATCHING
THEM PACK THE RAFT TO INCLUDE SEPERATING LEAKABLE ITEMS FROM THE
REST OF THE ITEMS and EXTRA PROTECTION ON THE CRITICAL ITEMS.
IN ADDITION I WOULD UPGRADE THE JUNKY FLARES AND FLASHLIGHT AND
KNIFE etc. I WOULD BRING MY OWN STUFF TO PACK. IF I COULD NOT
WATCH I WOULD REQUIRE DIGITAL PICTURES OF WHAT THEY DID.
What makes this so troublesome, is when I talked to someone who
lost their boat, they said they did not have time to grab their
grab bag.
There are some cases where there is no time to grab the grab bag-so
you have to depend on just what is in your life raft.
One of staff who repacked our life raft freely offered that he
wished that life rafts did not come with hydrostatic releases. He
brought up a interesting point: while the release is activated
somewhere around 18 feet below water level the life raft will not
inflate until the attachment point to the boat is 35 feet below
the water level. Because the life raft basically floats just at
the surface, the raft is not visible to someone in the water until
the life raft inflates. But the time the top of the boat (where
most rafts are mounted) is 35 feet below water level you are way
too far away to swim up wave to get to the raft. Remember you
will drift away in the direction the waves are moving.
He said the dirty fact is, while about 50% of the life rafts have
hydrostatic releases, they make up far less than 50% of the number
rafts successfully used in a sinking situation. He gave a bunch of
qualifiers, like excluding the life rafts dropped from helicopter
rescue crews to sinking boats, navy and cruise ships where 50 rafts
deploy around a ship and you are supposed to swim to a nearby one,
which make more sense because they open when deployed--not after
the sinking boat is underwater.
ANYONE WITH A HYDRO RELEASE RAFT SHOULD DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO
GET TO THE RAFT BEFORE WAITING FOR THE HYDRO-RELEASE.
THE ODDS OF SURVIVAL ARE BEST IF YOU DO WHATEVER TO GET TO THE
RAFT-- THEN WAITING FOR THE HYDRO-RELEASE.
He said because all hydrostatic release cases are designed to open
automatically, none are anything but water deflecting, and he said
they find the percentage of rafts that are usable in this storage
environment to be much lower. He says he wishes they would outlaw
them. He said anyone with a hydro-release should just switch to a
water tight box.
After reading the instructions three times and playing with our
life raft door I could not get it to the water tight
configuration. They had to show me the two tricks. I am not sure
I can explain them in well writing. Basically the right door (from
the inside) has a plastic clip on the end of the vertical zipper
that needs to be attached to the upper raft tube at the door.
The second tricky part is that it is difficult to closed the doors
three seals from the inside. This is much easier to do from the
outside! You have to attach the Velcro a little, more the zipper a
little, and repeat. About 1 inch at a time if it is heavy
weather. But in the center you have to screw around with the
plastic clip from the inside, then the Velcro, then the zipper.
You have to attach the Velcro from the inside for the last bit. I
am sure I could not figure this out in the dark in rough weather.
Know I know the correct way I think I could do it. It could easily
take 10-15 minutes to seal it up. The reason the door is sealed
this tightly is they learned just a Velcro and zipper closure would
fail in rough seas. Glad I was not on the life raft that learned
about this problem!
Ours raft packed in a press with a pressure of 2,300 lbs on the raft.
The trip was well worth it. I am much more realistic in what to
(and not to expect from the life raft.).
Brand information might be helpful. It would be nice to know what brand uses
that door closure method. Is Winslow the only manufacturer to vacuum pack?
Ron Rogers