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life rafts.....location?

Masallah 04

Member II
I'm curious as to where folks carry their life rafts. I have a 4 person AVON (non-cannistered) that I carry below decks where my dining table usually sits. Nice that it's low, and centered, but it's a bit heavy to lift into the cockpit, and I'd sure like to have my table back. I'm considering lashing it on deck immediately behind the mast. Any thoughts?
Alan....
Masallah...
 

HGSail

Member III
My life raft is my dinghy and I tow it be hind the boat. Unless I am going Bluewater I feel this is enough.

Paty
E29
'73
#224
Holy Guacamole
 

CaptnNero

Accelerant
Life raft A.K.A. Dinghy

We keep our rollup inflatable in the v-berth.

Yes Loren, I know that's weight in the bow, but cruising comfort comes first on KOKOMO. ;)

It's out of the way in the v-berth since we sleep in the aft cabin. Seriously, I have a long range project to relocate the CNG tank from the starboard cockpit locker to the port side coaming space. Then I'll have plenty of room in the starboard cockpit locker for the dink. That will be a safety improvement too, removing the CNG tank from the inside hull area to it's own isolated locker. Sorry for digressing.

Maybe that 52 pounds of dink forward will counterbalance some of those extra cruising batteries and inverter I put in the stern. Second position for the dink is inflated upside down on the foredeck/cabintop. Last place for it is towed behind us, but that tends to be seldom. If the weather is degrading, it's lashed still inflated to the foredeck.

If Alan's really talking about a true life raft, they can fit in a fairly tidy deflated container near the mast on the cabin top. That also seems like a handy place to have a liferaft in an emergency as opposed to burying it in a locker or the v-berth.
 
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windjunkee

Member III
For the longer races we participate in, we are required to carry a liferaft. We have tried the inflatable dingy in the salon, but that really gets in the way. Since then, we have rented a nice compact 6 person raft in a soft case which we lash just behind the mast -- small enough so it doesn't interfere with the boom vang and its not wide enough to mess with any of the lines running back to the cockpit.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 hull #134
 

mark reed

Member III
life raft location

For our annual passages up and down the Washington Coast, or any other passages that are too rough for towing the inflatable dink, we store our Viking 4-person liferaft, in its valise, in the starboard cockpit lazarette. It weighs ~65lbs, but is on top of a bank of house batts so fairly easy to pull out of the locker. It is held in place with a single cam strap around its middle and through a U-bolt on the inboard side of the lazarette. Liferaft painter is tied to a strongpoint within the lazarette. We also have a "ditch bag" with GPIRB, VHF, GPS, flashlight, flares, food, H2O, meds, etc. stowed atop the engine cover and aft of the companionway steps.
For inland waters when we are towing our inflatable dink, we sometimes move the liferaft to the aft cabin to free up more space in the lazarette.
 
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