TWL: More on rafts
Good laugh--teddy bear raft. I'll have to remember this--but don't stake your
life on it. The "danger" is that you do stake your life on it. My
understanding that rafts should be recertified every 12 months. I am not
certain of current costs, but I would not be surprised it would cost $500 to
$1,000 for recertification and repacking. Probably someone who has had one
recertified recently could tell us.
Regards,
Bob Austin
On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, bob Austin wrote:
Probably someone who has had one recertified recently could tell us.
Give me a week or so - the yard is quoting me a price for repacking the
life raft, along with a bunch of other items to deal with during my
winter haul-out.
Paul Goyette
m/v Gentle Wind
1983 61' Cheoy Lee LRC
Sausalito, CA
At 07:43 PM 12/19/03 -0600, you wrote:
Good laugh--teddy bear raft. I'll have to remember this--but don't stake your
life on it. The "danger" is that you do stake your life on it. My
understanding that rafts should be recertified every 12 months. I am not
certain of current costs, but I would not be surprised it would cost $500 to
$1,000 for recertification and repacking. Probably someone who has had one
recertified recently could tell us.
Regards,
Bob Austin
Bob,
I had an Avon repacked a couple of years ago and it ran about
$350.00. Cost depends upon total need for replacement. Some of the stuff
like rations have a 5 year life and some less. The real expense comes when
you have to replace the flares, etc. Then it can run up to about
$500-600. You are correct, most mfg.'s suggest repack every year except
when I bought my Switlik they said two years on the brand new raft was ok.
Jim Alexander, Realtor
Boatless again (but not for long)
Port Charlotte, FL
Probably someone who has had one recertified recently could tell us.
As it so happens, I picked up my Viking raft from the local (Seattle)
service center today.
I bought a 10 year old 6-man valise raft (ironically, from the Trawler
Buy-Sell list) for $550 and then paid another $123 to have it shipped from
Viking Florida to Viking Seattle. IMHO, you do not want to go through the
process of trying to ship something like this yourself. So I was into the
raft at that point $673 for something that originally cost $2,600. So far,
looks like a great deal.
Before buying the raft I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with the
local Viking service manager. Reportedly, the raft had been used on one
ocean voyage and then stored the rest of its life. Viking specifies a
service life of 20 years (they have many in service that are older than
that), so if the raft was in good shape, they estimated they could recertify
it for $300 to $500. So I'd be into it $1,000 to $1,200, which seemed OK to
me.
When the raft arrived at Viking Seattle, I went over there and - with the
service manager - inflated the raft in their service bay (see picture at
http://www.keithpleas.com/trawler/liferaft.jpg). I then spent a half hour or
so poking around all over it seeing where everything was attached and how it
all worked (they also gave me a video showing deployment and usage). We
decided to relocate a couple of things (attachment points for interior
equipment and the handholds on the bottom of the raft) and add some more
SOLAS tape. Frankly, I found this process of crawling all over MY VERY OWN
RAFT quite reassuring.
Also, since I'm in the PNW where the water is cold, I decided to add an
inflatable floor ($105).
The actual inspection / service came in at $539 total (not including the
floor). It was at the higher end because the bottle was a month over 10
years old and thus required hydrotesting (and refilling). Since I don't
think I'll be out in the ocean very much (I'm planning on coastal and Inside
Passage and will pack a "ditch" bag) I had them delete the "food", though
they did renew the water (3 litres, $9) and add a drinking cup ($1.65).
Other minor things included in the servicing were renewing the handheld &
parachute flares ($89), changing the batteries in the flashlight & SOLAS
rescue light $44), new bursting straps ($5.60), and so on.
So now I have a "like-new" raft (with an upgraded floor) for a total of
$1,326 compared to almost $3,000 (including tax) for a new raft. Plus I've
actually had some experience (though not in the water) with the raft and can
better anticipate how it would be used.
The icing on the cake is that they also gave me a box full of post-dated
SOLAS signaling devices: 3 smoke canisters, a dozen parachute flares, and a
dozen hand flares. They expire after 3.5 years but are good for much longer.
So...while I also have an 11' RIB, I now have a backup emergency transport
and that will definitely give me increased peace of mind (FWIW, I also carry
4 survival suits). Guests don't generally ask about this kind of thing, but
if they do, I think they'll also find it reassuring. The raft ended up being
a fairly reasonable expense and, as someone pointed out a few months ago, is
there anybody who NOT have a liferaft if they were free? And, given that,
do you really want to make a monetary wager on your - and your family's -
safety?
Finally, when thinking about using the dinghy as an emergency transport,
keep in mind that there are clearly conditions that could render the dinghy
undeployable. OTOH, the liferaft will always be ready to use.
Keith