![]() ![]() The contents of all life raft survival packs can be divided into three categories: vessel gear, crew aids, and signaling equipment. We will be looking more closely at ditch kits and their contents in a future issue. ![]() (No raft contained a proper radar reflector, a glaring omission in our view.) Even those sailors who have a customized life raft survival kit should be prepared to pack additional gear and supplies in an overboard bag. In our view, none of these standardized packages is ideal. The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have their own guidelines for what should be included in the packs, and these kits tend to be less comprehensive than commercial-grade SOLAS A (offshore) and B (coastal) survival packs. The hierarchy of life raft survival packs ranges from a basic emergency kit (E-type) that the manufacturer puts together to the internationally standardized Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) A-package, which is more comprehensive and nearly twice as heavy as the E-type kits. Two manufacturers, Winslow and Switlik, included separate ditch bags with the rafts they sent, and the contents were specifically chosen to supplement what was packed on their respective rafts. ![]() It was no surprise that some packs were more complete than others. It should also help you determine what contents will be required for a separate abandon-ship bag, or “ditch bag.”įor our life raft test, we asked each maker to equip its raft for an offshore voyager planning a Caribbean cruise and possibly carrying on with a trans-Atlantic crossing. This evaluation of survival equipment is primarily a guide to choosing on a life raft kit that is appropriate for your needs. With this in mind, our ratings focused on the rafts themselves. Some makers also allow you to customize the pack to fit your own specific needs. The manufacturers featured in our life raft evaluation offer several options for survival packs, and in most cases, you can pay more for packages that are superior to those we were sent for review. Six manufacturers participated in the test: DSB, Elliot, Switlik, Viking, Winslow, and Zodiac. Our recent test of six-man life rafts (“Elliot Life Raft Rises to the Top,” April 2007) gave us the chance to see what survival gear gets packed into an offshore life raft, and how this equipment varies from one manufacturer to another. A close look at the survival gear that each life raft manufacturer provides reveals that its generally left up to the owner to provide the gear that is more likely to expedite rescue (like a 406- EPIRB) or keep him alive (like a Katadyn hand-operated wate maker). For Practical Sailors six-man life raft test, the examiners looked at eight life rafts suitable for a cruising sailboat with far horizons: the DSB 6-ISAF, the Elliot 6-SOLAS, the Switlik MD-3, the Switlik SAR-6 MKII, the Viking Rescyou, the Viking Rescyou Pro, the Winslow Ocean Rescue, the Zodiac Class Ocean ISAF. ![]()
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