Once and Future
2011-02-16 16:09:58
Ideally, I'd like to choose one in person. Here are some of the decisions I am facing:
1) If I go to the expense of buying a life raft, I really would like to get one that would help me survive an emergency, rather than one that just makes me legal. IE: I would like one I can actually drag my lard ass into, and not have it rip if I "sneeze". Having an adequate sea anchor that might keep it in my general vicinity would be huge. I am not a fan of "survivorman" but I did watch one show where he was in a life raft, where he was simulating a survival of a sinking. The life raft he brought would not deploy, as I recall. He bought a backup one on location, and was thoroughly disgusted with how cheaply built that one was, as well.
2) Unless they changed the law, we have to get the rafts repacked every year to the tune of several hundred dollars plus shipping.
3) I believe the "offshore" rafts, which are more robust, cost even more to repack, more like $800 annually.
4) I would like to buy locally. While you would think the techs would take their job of repacking seriously, I have heard stories about how they get sloppy on the little things like putting in fresh drinking water, etc. Plus, there was the story of the life raft that was repacked in Seattle but mysteriously did not deploy on one of the larger boats a few years ago. So I would like to be able to look my serviceman in the eye.
5) I see this "egg" thing by Ovatech, I think? This is a good idea if you have the room because it is a hard shell that does not have to inflate. It's always ready for you to climb right in. I cannot imagine a more lonely feeling than if I wasn't able to deploy the raft before I left the boat. And I would have to bob there in the water hoping all the mechanisms work and the damn thing rises to the surface. So this egg would eliminate that suspense, plus you save the annual repacking cost. I know a guy who paid 6 grand for a 4-man when the exchange rate was favorable. I checked last year though, and they wanted over 9 grand now.
So in summary, anyone have any good suggestions? For one thing, I saw an add somewhere for an independent study made by some sailing magazine where they tried about 30 life rafts out. I never did buy the review as it was quite expensive. Anybody else seen that? If I go ahead and buy that review, I will share some info here about it.
Oh, and if anybody wants to buy that hard bouyant apparatus I bought last year for $1,000 which is now obsolete, let me know.