"Don W" wrote in message
et...
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.


One of the problems with the suits is the amount of time it takes to put
them on properly and for the crew to be knowledgeable and properly trained
on donning them.

Yet even when the suits are used properly there is no guarantee of survival
in frigid water, especially is there is significant delay in the rescue due
to bad weather or gale force winds.

Watch the TV series "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. The last
episode had a boat capsizing with a captain and crew of 5. Although 4 were
able to get into their survival suits only 1 survived.

http://tinyurl.com/ls8tu