Hi Ryk,

Ryk wrote:

A life raft seems like a very reassuring second boat, yet survival
suits are easier to deploy, easier to store accessibly, and have far
fewer modes of failure (and don't require expensive repacking and
inspection).

My application is Great Lakes sailing, for now at least, so there is
plenty of cool to cold fresh water available and the potential search
area is well serviced and contained. Hypothermia and drowning are the
big issues.

Ryk

I'm going out on a limb here, because I don't have direct
experience with either system, however... ;-)

I've read plenty of stories of about sailboats sinking where
they tried to deploy the life raft unsuccessfully.
Obviously the people involved were rescued anyway, or the
story would not have been told. Most of these stories can
be summarized as follows: 1) crew got scared due to water
ingress that they could not identify, or could not stop. 2)
Weather was bad. 3) Crew attempted to deploy life raft, but
it blew away as it was inflating. 4) Crew did something
else and were successfully rescued. In one case, they
actually had the foresight to tether the raft to a rail
before inflating it, and it blew away after breaking their
tether!!

Because of the above, I'm somewhat skeptical of life rafts
if the weather is bad. The problem is not in the rafts
themselves, but in deploying them from a pitching, heaving,
rolling deck in 25+ knot winds.

OTOH, a survival suit and personal GPIRB together should
make rescue a near certainty in most areas, and deployment
is not an issue. Those in combination with a larger RIB
type dinghy with a tent type cover that can be snapped on
and erected in decent weather would be my choice. Obviously
deployment of the RIB in bad weather could have nearly the
same problems as deploying the life raft.

Here's an idea for the experienced offshore sailors to shoot
down (and please feel free to shoot it down!):

Tow your RIB with some emergency supplies inside, and a
custom snap on cover to keep it from filling with water.
Use survival suits and a couple of GPIRBs as your emergency
plan, and make sure that your RIB has hand loops to hold
on to should you wind up in the water. If weather permits,
plan on unsnapping the cover on the RIB, climbing aboard,
and erecting the tent cover to keep exposure to a minimum.

PS - make sure you have a knife to cut the RIB loose from
the boat as the boat sinks ;-)

Now for offshore races, and commercial situations, you won't
have a choice but to follow SOLAS dictates.

Don W.