Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Simulating Life Raft Entry
Any sailor contemplating a blue water passage should look for the opportunity to actually
deploy and enter a life raft. A number of sailing schools offer half-day or weekend safety
courses that do exactly this. In our case, we had a used life raft that was impossible to sell,
so we could use it for our own simulation. We were careful to notify the marina staff in our
location and to use a discreet area lest any passers-by become alarmed. Although a simula-
tion in quiet, in-shore waters is not ideal, it did provide a calm run-through that did not
frighten our young son.
A (not so) dry run with our old life raft
What did we learn? To begin with, it took a surprising number of hard jerks on the deploy-
ment line to fire the CO2 cylinder and inflate the raft. On the other hand, righting and en-
tering the life raft was relatively straightforward. The strongest crew member should enter
first to help the others in. The boarding ladder can swing awkwardly under the raft as
weight is put on it, but the hand-ladder inside the raft gave us the extra grip needed to
climb in. We discovered that the raft lurches as each person enters, so we were careful to
distribute our weight for balance.
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