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I have decided to buy a life raft..am I nuts?

mike cunningham

mike cunningham

Freedom 30 "Jacqueline"
I have been pondering a liferaft for awhile. Actually I have been pondering just about every SHTP upgrade for several months now but the beauty of a liferaft is you just get one and you're done. Other than than writing a check and watching your money disappear, it is the easiest ponder on the list.

But I refuse to accept easyness. The accountant in me wants to calculate the pluses and minuses of renting vs buying. I found a 4 pers Viking Rescyou Pro liferaft with the required approvals and pyrotechnics for $3000 delivered. If I compare than to a rental from Sals which is $300 a week with discounts for longer term, say $1000 for the trip to Hawaii and back. I figure if I buy in May I can squeeze out two SHTPs and one Longpac before recert thus saving $2300 before I have to pay to recertify. I spend $1000 to recertify and sell the raft for $2000 (f I wanted to) and wind up $300 to the good and I don't have to keep schlepping the raft back to Sals every time I rent. Not only that I have a liferaft aboard the rest of the time I am sailing. And... since I bought it, I gotta financial incentive to keep doing these damn races.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

BTW I get a laugh out of the marketing. "our raft has a copious 4 square feet of space for every survivor" Four square feet is the size of the floor of my home refrigerator. Two heads would be snug, four heads and a day or two after boarding the raft, someone is going bye bye. Good thing we are singlehanders!
 
There's an accountant in you? Then from one accountant to another let me give you some advice: Do not, under any circumstances, record the costs for this activity. Use different credit cards, cash, checks, barter, etc.- keep it mixed up. Don't think about it, just blindly spend. Otherwise you'll end up in the nut hatch.

Regarding the raft - sure, buy the thing. If I ever get the Solo Tahiti Race off the ground you'll be all set.

You're welcome!
 
First rule of sailing, never add up your annual expenses and divide by number of hours spent actually sailing. Never.
 
I was at the Miami boat show last weekend and looked at three different life rafts and the Viking life rafts seemed like a good buy. One company, I think Datarex, custom builds the life raft per order where Viking has the sitting and ready to ship. I also liked the equipment pack that Datarex has over Viking. Price wise, I think Viking is cost less and the money saved could be used to make the equipment pack better.

When you decided on what you're buying, I'd love to to know what you bought and why.
 
bizirka said:
I had a similar conversation with my self last week.

Anything wrong with the Revere Offshore Commander 2.0. I don't think the pyrotechnics fit the bill but can those be separate - in a ditch bag?

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|135|2290100|2290102&id=2695035
Click to expand...

I was going to buy a used - well pre-owned- Revere Offshore Commander. At the last minute I had another look at the equipment requirements and saw that the requirement reads

"A boat shall carry an inflatable life raft designed for saving life at sea with designed capacity for containing the entire crew. The raft shall
be SOLAS, ISAF, ISO 9650-1 or ORC approved. The raft shall be stored in such a way that it can be brought to the lifelines within 15
seconds. The life raft may be stowed in a deck mounted rigid container, stowed in a watertight or self-draining purpose-built rigid
compartment opening adjacent to the cockpit or the working deck, or stowed in a valise not weighing over 88 lbs. secured below deck
and adjacent to the companionway. The life raft shall hold a current certificate of inspection."

I saw no mention of any of the approvals on the Revere website and subsequently called them. To their credit they were very responsive but did confirm their rafts are recreation only and no approvals. As I read the rules you have to have at least one of the ones mentioned. The Viking I am considering has the ISO 9650-1. I have no idea if any inspectors will be anal enough to actually check this technicality. But it would suck to have an expensive raft and find out it did not meet the requirements.
 
In 1984, I was preparing to enter the SHTP and needed a life raft to meet race requirements. I made numerous requests of the race committee for a description of type required...off shore, USCG certified, coastal...What??? Never could get an answer so bought an offshore Viking raft from Defender. It was monster that weighed 90 ponds or so. When I made it to SFO for the race start, I discovered that there really was no standard for the SHTP. Much as thru 2014, "suitable for saving life at sea" was it.
Next race, one competitor had what she called a "helicopter raft". I checked it out and saw that it was a parachute seat-pack one man raft...no cover, but would float one person, which it was designed to do. Then the next race I entered required a cover for the life raft. So I had a pull-over cover made for a parachute raft that I had brought home from Vietnam and entered the 1992 race. The inspector passed my raft as meeting the specs, but in 1994 the requirements were changed to require a "self erecting canopy.
Sayonara the parachute raft which weighed abt 12 lbs. Next race and all subsequents done in Harrier, I had an English 5 man raft which met SHTP specs...still have it. I guess I'd need a new one for this year since mine never met the ORC, SOAS or whatever specs...except for equipment requirements of flares, etc. I, for one, am glad to see the requirements finally spelled out...but maybe that's because I don't have to meet them! See ya'll in Hanalei...I hope. Checkout my 33 lb raft.
 
Maybe this belongs in Philpott's "Sailing Music" thread, but this thread's title is the theme song for doing SHTP prep:

I have decided to buy a <life raft>
I have decided to buy a <life raft>
I have decided to buy a <life raft>
No turning back, no turning back.

Then you just substitute EPIRB, side band, chart set, etc. as you sing it over and over until the money runs out.
 
mike cunningham said:
I was going to buy a used - well pre-owned- Revere Offshore Commander. At the last minute I had another look at the equipment requirements and saw that the requirement reads

"A boat shall carry an inflatable life raft designed for saving life at sea with designed capacity for containing the entire crew. The raft shall
be SOLAS, ISAF, ISO 9650-1 or ORC approved. The raft shall be stored in such a way that it can be brought to the lifelines within 15
seconds. The life raft may be stowed in a deck mounted rigid container, stowed in a watertight or self-draining purpose-built rigid
compartment opening adjacent to the cockpit or the working deck, or stowed in a valise not weighing over 88 lbs. secured below deck
and adjacent to the companionway. The life raft shall hold a current certificate of inspection."

I saw no mention of any of the approvals on the Revere website and subsequently called them. To their credit they were very responsive but did confirm their rafts are recreation only and no approvals. As I read the rules you have to have at least one of the ones mentioned. The Viking I am considering has the ISO 9650-1. I have no idea if any inspectors will be anal enough to actually check this technicality. But it would suck to have an expensive raft and find out it did not meet the requirements.
Click to expand...

shoot - I am literally going to be broke.
 
jakmang said:
I have a Revere that is approved. I think it is an offshore model. I would call them and double check.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I know the elite (more expensive model) says it has 'approved pyrotechnics' but it doesn't specify on their site if the raft its self is approved. I will give them a call and try to figure it out.
 
bizirka said:
Thanks - I know the elite (more expensive model) says it has 'approved pyrotechnics' but it doesn't specify on their site if the raft its self is approved. I will give them a call and try to figure it out.
Click to expand...

That is the key. Somewhere on the manufacturers website you need to see the word "approved" Take a screenshot and tape it to the raft so the inspector can see it. That's a great idea!!

You just saved me $1500. I love this forum.
 
Oops! I just read the race requirements. The life raft doesn't have to be SOLAS, ISAF etc....Did I miss something? So in order to qualify for this years' race, Harrier would only have to add a tricolor at the masthead....all academic tho. It is another hoop!
 
Harrier said:
Oops! I just read the race requirements. The life raft doesn't have to be SOLAS, ISAF etc....Did I miss something? So in order to qualify for this years' race, Harrier would only have to add a tricolor at the masthead....all academic tho. It is another hoop!
Click to expand...

Aargh!! I went to look at the SHTP equipment requirements and sure enough, they do not include the raft approval requirements which were contained in the equipment requirements reference for the LongPac (2015 LongPac Minimum Equipment Requirements (LPMER)).

Ye gads, this is worse than taxes. I guess I could go for the less expensive raft so long as they don't change back for the next LongPac. Although I doubt anyone is checking.

Sorry, I assumed SHTP and LongPac raft requirements would be identical. I take back everything I said about approvals.
 
mike cunningham said:
Aargh!! I went to look at the SHTP equipment requirements and sure enough, they do not include the raft approval requirements which were contained in the equipment requirements reference for the LongPac (2015 LongPac Minimum Equipment Requirements (LPMER)).

Ye gads, this is worse than taxes. I guess I could go for the less expensive raft so long as they don't change back for the next LongPac. Although I doubt anyone is checking.

Sorry, I assumed SHTP and LongPac raft requirements would be identical. I take back everything I said about approvals.
Click to expand...

hallelujah! To be clear - is it a-okay to have the pyrotechnics in a ditchbag vs packed into the liferaft?
 
bizirka said:
To be clear - is it a-okay to have the pyrotechnics in a ditchbag vs packed into the liferaft?
Click to expand...

It's actually preferred to have them in the ditch bag (assuming you aren't talking about the ones we used to put in people's mailboxes.)
 
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