[PUP] Liferaft inspection and recommendations

[Philip Eslinger]

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.).