Life Raft Storage Locations

[Montenido]

Hi folks,

I just purchased a life raft for my boat in anticipation of motoring south to Baja. I have a variety of locations available for mounting, but I wanted to see what others have done. I have a 52' CPMY with flybridge. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers, Bill

 

[O C Diver]

Is it self deploying or a stowable bag?

Ted

 

[Montenido]

The life raft is self-deploying, and held in a cradle.

Thanks, Bill

 

[O C Diver]

Number 1 concern is to locate it with maximum clearance from overhead objects and rigging. While there is buoyancy before it's inflated, you don't want it getting hung up when the boat sinks. Mine is on the top deck.



Ted

 

[ksanders]

We put our liferaft, which is in a hard case in the cockpit. It's not taking up needed room, and it is immediatly deployable in a location that would make boarding as easy as possible.

No it is not in a float off cradle, it's upright against a bulkhead held in by a bungee cord.

 

[Montenido]

Thanks for the replies, Any other ideas? I will be installing it this week.

Thanks, Bill

 

[MYTraveler]

Mine is on the boat deck. If you look at my avitar, you will see a green kayak on the port side of the boat deck -- the raft is in a cradle on the starboard side, opposite that kayak location.

While not as convenient as the cockpit location could be would be (at least if I were deploying it before there was a lot of water in the cockpit), it is not in the way and I can still easily throw it in the water from its location on the boat deck, and if the boat is halfway submerged, the boat deck is a better location. Hopefully, I never have to put the theory to the test.

 

[Lepke]

Best if the lanyard is attached to a part of the ship structure and activated by a hydrostatic release. That way in a catastrophic sinking, if you get out the raft is inflated and waiting. Also the vessel name, number and nationality should be on the raft so finders know who to notify. Nice if you tie in an epirb.

 

[caltexflanc]

Ours was up top as well, mounted on top of the fiberglass "awning" over the side decks.
I believe you want it high up so you can stay with the boat for as long as possible waiting for help to arrive. And as noted, you do not want any structure over it. Many a boat has not sunk by the time help arrives.
On the other hand, I had some qualms about a sinking boat heeling and what issues that might entail, though we'd likely be in PFDs and ready to go in that situation. Ours was designed to deploy without human intervention.

 

[psneeld]

Actually high on the boat is not a bad thing altogether.

I have seen boats with hydrostatic releases where thd boat has rilked and the release isnt far enough underwater to release it, and forces someone to shallow dive,voften in a tangle of stuff, very dangerous, to release it.

Like auto release EPIRBS, there are no right answers sometimes, only best guesses, and thinking out of thd box is required.

 

[OldDan1943]

Hmmm, where to put it. Look overhead for obstructions.
My 6 person, off shore is in a canister and auto release along with the auto released EPIRB, on the boat deck, centerline and aft of the dock box containing spare dock lines and a number of PFD. Yup screws up the boatdeck a little but, too bad. The dock box makes a pretty good table too. The pilot house roof is populated with two solar panels and a number of antenna.