For some reason some of my posts don't get thru to PUP--this was posted several days ago and didn't come up on the list: I agree that the pirates scenerio is extremely unlikely. I also agree that one should stay with a boat if at all possiable. In our following a number of cruising and racing boats which have been abandoned, many of these were found some time later--one well over a year and 6000 miles later in reasonable (Livable) conditions. For the most part people leave boats when they panic. The exception seems to be in smaller boats, when they sink rapidly. (As 40 foot racing boat returning from Hawaii did a week ago 415 miles N of theHawiian Islands. Unfortunately many of the abandoment's occur in very bad weather--the boat is pitchpoled or rolled-and substantial damage is done to the boat. The major problem in this scenerio is that often the life raft is either pulled off the boat, or it opens and blows/washed away. So you cannot have it both ways and be safe--unless perhaps you had a second raft. We did not carry a life raft--but instead concentrated our efforts in every precaution to be sure we did not loose the boat--and we kept C02 bottle on a large heavy duty inflatable, with a canopy. Both that and the hard dinghy (which had extra flotation) had survival gear. We had two EPIRBS--one by the companionway the second in the survival gear in the inflatable. If I was putting a raft on a Nordhavn 40, I would go with the top of the pilot house roof. A deck mounted life raft will be subject to higher humidity, much higher heat, and much shorter life span. Be sure and have it inspected at specified intervals. Some new rafts come sealed and have a 3 year inspection peroid. As a life ages, I would inspect each year, or just before a passage. I have a friend who had a life raft on his cabin top for years after I had seen the seams not pass inspection..... I think that most "Sailors" think that they are invincible. I have done a lot of ocean racing. Although there are inspections of the boat, not much attention is paid to the ability of the crew to survive. The boats which are best equipt are boats like the Volvo around the world racers--yet they are also best equipt to repair the boat and keep going--which is what they do, unless the boat sinks under them. There is on way you compare the professionals on these and many of the well funded maxi racers, with a number of racers who are not professionals and who don't have the training and experience to make adequate decisions in an emergency. We have discussed the abandonment with a number of less experienced sailors (people we put the medical kit together for, and almost all of them paniced--also several lost the raft when the boat rolled. I would also stress the preparation of survial ditch bags. Even in small boats we have these at the ready. We now each have a personal GPS enabled EPIRB, which we wear, along with a submersiable VHF Radio and strobe light during heavy weather. If I were doing passages today, I would have the two PLB, plus a boat's EPRIB (GPS enabled), the VHF, and the usual ditch bag items, plus a satellite phone in the waterproof ditch bag. Don't forget the water (at least 10 gallons, plus still or hand powered watermaker), vitamines, high energy food, first aid supplies, and copies of passports, driver's license, credit cards etc--all in that ditch bag. Regards, Bob Austin