This short article in the current Soundings, by a former USCG rescue swimmer, offers some clear-eyed advice:
Staying with the boat and other safety myths | Soundings Online
Staying with the boat and other safety myths | Soundings Online
I am pretty sure the rescue swimmer disagrees with the step up to the life raft theory.In my opinion the answer is simple, You "step up into a liferaft"
It's a well known fact that once you enter a liferaft your chance of survival has diminished incredibly. Not only that your placing rescue services lives at risk
Unfortunately in my earlier years I've experienced 2 fires at sea and 2 severe leaks (Cabin Sole awash in the night). In the all the cases we struggled and fought to solve the problem rather than take to a raft where our chances of survival would be minimal.
Perhaps some of the forum would find the various books on the Fastnet disaster of interest. A number of people lost there lives boarding rafts and leaving the yachts, while the yachts survived and were recovered days later.
I am pretty sure the rescue swimmer disagrees with the step up to the life raft theory.
And who has that "we'll known fact" that entering the liferaft was diminishing your survival chances?
While it certainly does have some merits...the total rescue scenario may dictate otherwise.
I have to agree with him and strongly debated that topic every time it came up in safety at sea seminars.
I would rather drown than burn to death but would much prefer to pass peacefully in my sleep.
I have only done two actual rescues at sea, but one stands out in my mind.
My girlfriend and I had just finished having dinner on the ICW, and returned to the boat. From habit, I turned on the VHF and almost immediately heard a mayday call. This guy was apparently offshore, but I decided to take a peek out the inlet to see if I could find him. He claimed his boat was on fire, but had no L/L to find him. The conditions were good, less than 1 meter seas, on a clear night. We saw the fire as soon as we cleared the inlet. Turned out to be about 10 miles away. Racing out there, it appeared we were going to be first on scene. USCG bombarded us with questions as I was manuvering very close to a 65-75 foot fishing boat, about 2/3 involved with heavy flames. There was one very scared, very naked guy on deck with keys in one hand and his pants in the other. He was too high off my deck to jump on my boat; he had already lauched a raft. He ended up jumping into the water, and my GF fished him out of the water. He only had one item to say, and it was lets get out of here, there's propane on deck. It was HOT. I really thought my paint was going to blister. It all had a happy ending, he was solo. USGC showed up maybe 40 minutes later in a 41 utility boat; before that, there was a helicopter telling me to "leave the area; its dangerous", a CBP boat, and a drift boat showed up. These things tend to be chaotic, so I don't know that standard rules apply, and it doesn't much matter, since without practiced behaviour, habits don't really work anyway in a crisis.