Re: Life-rafts and flares.
- From: "Quilljar" <Not@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 20 May 2009 09:23:02 +0100
We sailed for twentyfive years without even considering a life raft!
Coastal channel sailing only, never overnight and always towed our dighy inflated. The difference in speed was negligable when just cruising.
The radio and the good old RNLA are the safest bet in home waters. Spend your money on them. Become a Governor member perhaps?
--
Quilly
Bookstore
http://stores.lulu.com/quilljar
"IanM" <look.in.my.sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:guvibc$1lno$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Justin C wrote:Thank you all for your comments, they've been welcome and have helped usYou'll need a decent waterproof storage box for them if you expand the pack as the one supplied with the coastal pack wont be big enough. The offshore pack would come with one the right size. You *could* just get a second coastal pack before the first one expires.
formulate a plan.
We've ordered a small coastal pack of flares - because that's the
sailing we'll be doing. Thoughts of France are, at least for my wife,
too grand at this time - "baby steps" she keeps saying to me. I'll top
the flares up to the equivalent of an Off Shore pack over time.
NOT an essential for a cross estuary hop. We've spent the last three years cruising the Southern North Sea and Channel without one. If you read the reports from the '79 Fastnet or the Sidney Hobart race disaster, abandoning to the liferaft is more likely to kill you than staying with the boat. The only reasons to abandon are fire or sinking.
WRT a life-raft, taking all posts into consideration, along with our
expected cruising ground, and likely cruising season, we've decided to
forego this for now. We may, however, hire one for the delivery trip
when we cross the Thames estuary. I would feel safer knowing we had one,
but don't feel it is essential for the type of sailing we're likely to
be doing in our first year or two.
I tow an Avon 310 just about everywhere and we could abandon to that in under a minute *with* grab bag, flares, hand held GPS and VHF and the current chart off the chart table. It's always got oars and a bailer and if I have a little more time, I'll grab the outboard and spare fuel, a tarp for shelter and whatever food is handy. We don't have to jump in the water to board it either. If you are going west of Portland bill oror much north of Harwich other than coast hopping, you should probably take another look at if you need a raft.
I hope it stretches to good quality life jackets *with* thigh straps, and a throwable horseshoe with a good strobe light.
Thank you again for your comments, the experience (and anecdotes) of
others certainly helps one rationalise a problem.
To whoever it was who suggested we forego the "fashion" purchases, I
agree - we already have those from when we first took up sailing,
four-hundred quid each on foulies, eighteen quid each on wellies -
didn't take too long to learn that you don't have to have the most
expensive!
The budget isn't as big as I'd like (who's is?)
*Wear* the lifejackets in the tender. More yachtsmen drown between the pub and their boat than anywhere else. Even marina pontoons are dangerous if you have had a few drinks. I was involved in a tragic incident a few years back. A well know officer of the yacht club in the port I was visiting had been drinking in the marina bar and had slipped on the way back to her boat. When we discovered the body floating next to us in the morning it was far too late to do any good. BE CAREFUL. If I'm ashore drinking I now do not return alone.
, I'm sure, if it wasIs the Cobra waterproof? I blew lotsa dosh on an ICOM as I knew this was one area I didn't want to compromise on. Its still in excellent working order nearly a decade later in spite of several years dinghy cruising where often as not it was swimming in the bilge water. DONT cheapskate your backup VHF and *DO* add an adaptor that lets you connect it to your masthead aerial. Keep a fully charged spare battery for it in the grab bag and swap it every time you charge the other battery so you *know* its good.
larger, I'd be looking at a more expensive boat (there's a Frances 26
down in the Solent for 19K - just that bit too much) and still be
struggling with the safety gear. Be assured that we're not making
frivolous purchases. On the shopping list is a hand-held VHF as backup
(Cobra HH300),
a hand-held GPS as backup (Garmin GPS72), neither ofwhich are top of the line. It may be that we could get slightly cheaperWhy?
devices for both roles, and afford more flares, but this is the balance
we have struck. I do have to replace the on-board VHF with one that is
GMDSS equipped, and shall do that before the delivery trip.
Practice good radio procedure and if you have to make a Mayday call, all vessels listening + the CG will get your position. If the existing non GMDSS radio is in good condition I'd rather spend money on replacing the aerial and it's cable if it is at all questionable and possibly an EPIRB.
I'm sure wewill find other things we 'need' to buy, but I'm trying to keep a tight
reign on the budget - mainly because there is nothing left to spend!
The payment for the boat is on it's way, the vendor signs the papers
Friday - here's to a weekend sailing!
Justin.
--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & >32K emails --> NUL:
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