Liferaft recommendations?

Is Givens still in business?

Alive and well per their website
http://www.givensliferafts.com/

Life Raft Placement

I purchased a [Winslow] 6 person coastal life raft at the NY Boat Show and somehow got on the subject of placement with the salesperson. He/they do NOT recommend carrying a canister life raft on the foredeck, saying it is often an inaccessible location in an emergency. He/they suggested, instead, carrying it on top of the aft deck (boat deck) (Viking motoryacht). Would any of the esteemed contributors care to offer an opinion regarding life raft placement ? TIA.

Has anyone read the book "Adrift" 76 days at sea in a life raft? Awsome book and a true story I started it one sunday morning and finished it by supper time. I think I would add the book to my ditch bag just for inspiration.

The bow is often the least desired location for liferaft installation for a few reasons, one of which is the exposure to spray, green water and the possibility of being washed overboard.

Second there is a popular theory that a sinking vessel could float for a period of time with the bow out of the water (air pocket) or at least bouyant, leaving you a vertical, wet deck to climb to release the raft. The hydrostatic release needs to be at least 15 feet under, before it releases the raft so this could also leave you waiting a while for the "ship to go down".

Winslow makes a great raft, I have purchased several in the past several years and fortunately never had to use one. One selling point when I bought my first one was they paid FedEx charges to ship back to the factory for repacking, they have gone away from this now and have several first rate facilities to do the inspection/recertifications. Another great benefit I thought was I could go to the factory while the raft was being recertified and was eagerly invited to tour the facility. So you can walk around and watch rafts being made, meet the people doing the work, pick up scraps of fabric and do your own durability tests with it.

Whenver any raft gets certified it must be inflated for at least 24 hours (and hold pressure) so when it goes in for service, have the facility call you when they inflate it, that gives you 24 hours to go see it. If they do not want you to come see it...maybe find another facility.

This is a Viking S.C.? What size? You should have enough room behind the steps on the upper deck.

Ed - It's not a SC (Princess). It's a '96 'Cockpit Sports Yacht' (60'). The bridge has steps down to the aft deck, which is fully enclosed. I want to mount this outside, for obvious reasons. So it's either the foredeck or the boat deck. And I see the wisdom of not mounting it forward..

Not familiar with the boat. Sorry. Edit: Just looked it up. That aft roof looks like a good spot.

One thing about raft manufacturers that amazed me. I replaced mine a year ago as stated earlier in this thread. There are only a handful of manufacturers and they know nothing about each other.

Let's say you have a raft already mounted in a cradle and it has reached the end of its life. You could buy from the same manufacturer no problem. But if you shop around, the others want you to buy their mounting system which will not have the same footprint as the one you have. If it were me, I would already know which of my canister products will fit in someone else's mounting cradle so that I can sell them my raft product.

I wound up buying a Revere offshore that fit in the Switlik cradle.

It's how companies lock in their customers. Company A and company B sell a similar product. You have company A's but when it wears out you find that company B's replacement is $10 cheaper. If a critical element needed for the change is $100, you're sticking with company A.

I have a Sportfish and carry my liferaft cannister on the foredeck. I have heard all kinds of reasons and idea's on where to carry the liferaft. Some of my reasons for carrying forward.

1) I have a center rigger and outriggers that could snag or puncture a liferaft. Also hardtop and tuna tower. Also could snag a crew member in the water as it went down.
2) 100 lb cannister would have to be lifted out of the cockpit in order to be deployed vs slid off the bow.
3) Dinghy is also stored on the bow. If I'm going under I'm launching the dinghy first. I'll go to liferaft when the dinghy sinks!
4) Boat has good handrails and easy access to bow. Also large forward hatch escape to bow.
5) Most likely reasons for abandoning ship are sinking and fire. Either way I'm more likely to have more time on the bow than in the cockpit.

I think you have to look at each vessel and the likely crew and decide for yourself.

NYCAP

No question. My point is though that if I am trying to sell my own product and you called me saying that you have a cradle already mounted for XYZ, I would already know which of my own products will fit that cradle out of the box or I would make an adapter of some kind so that my cradle would fit in the same footprint knowing that you don't want to mess up your deck with holes that are not covered. I would think that I could sell more of my own product that way.

Just a thought.

You're thinking logically and in a consumer friendly fashion. Unfortunately, as you've found, that's just not the way it's done. If there were ever a problem where say the case jammed in the cradle and failed to release who would the lawyers go against. Even in this situation where you found a cradle that happened to fit your case you've probably given the manufacturer of both an out from their warranties and liability.

I called Givens for a price on a 8-man offshore ... it was less than I thought due to a current deal they had (no doubt due to the tough economy) ... I bought it.

Avon raft..good and bad...

I just replaced (2) 8 man switliks with new Avon rafts. The reasons: 1. Avon raft fit in existing cradles and 2. The sealed raft only requires inspection/certification every 3 years. Be aware of one design flaw in the Avon canister....They are quite flexible and if someone steps on it, it will deflect enough to break the seal and allow rain/salt water intrusion (I learned this the hard way). The good news is that my service center dried and resealed it at no cost.