After recently purchasing a new Liferaft we were curious to know if our old raft had any life left in her. So of course - we just had to test her out! Darren...

Closed Captions (CC):
yeah in our last episode we changed up a

rusty old chain and showed you through

our ground tackle introducing our new

Mantis storm anchor okay so we're doing

something a little bit different today

we are getting rid of their old life

raft pretty much came with the boat and

we decided we'd swap it out for a new

one

and we're just really interested to see

if it's if it's going to blow up so we

got to take it to land and see what

happens

so

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today was quite interesting

Darrin wanted to see if he could lift it

by himself and the only way he could

lift that by himself was putting a

harness around it to give it off the

boats so yeah that was an interesting

little scenario and he wouldn't want to

inflict any heavier but we got her up so

we'll see you inflate okay so we have

come up to the car park above shoot

Harbor and we've got our life raft all

set up you can see and we're gonna see

if she and flights this will be

interesting

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well that is amazing I did not expect it

to inflate

okay so you can see that Darren's is

holding me a life raft upside down just

at the minute

that's a reflective marking in case she

goes upside down and down here is the

the canister that blew it up you can see

it's a bit rusty there's rust coming out

of here there's actually a couple of

different handles so if it ends up in

the water and it's upside down it sort

of launch yourself up on side of that

literally just pull it over it's it's

quite light so there are actually

pockets and they fill up with water you

can see there's a big cavity in there so

so they're kind of like ballast yeah

they're just stops are getting thrown

over it just puts a little bit more

weight into it a little battery pack

there for the why they look like they

might be shot what's the strobe light

yeah there's a strobe light on the top

of that

on top of a I'm amazed it blew up I

really enjoy

okay so I've climbed up my ladder was a

bit of an experience but I got in you

can use these to put help pull yourself

in these are all around the raft and you

can grab up on the ladder and whoever's

in the raft can help the next person

come in so that's how that works and

then you can shut this whole life raft

up I'll just show you you just put on a

nifty little a little ripcord so just

put on this cord

oh okay so this is a cozy little life

raft and it's our home until we get

rescued and it's really sturdy so it's

got this frame on it so that you know if

you roll over it's not going to crush

and yeah it's a six man life raft

there's six positions that people can

actually sort of sit in and if you just

watch instead of get up and behind here

and you're pretty safely tucked in and

that'll pretty much keep you if you're

rolling around and bustling around and

heavy weather so yeah the other thing

tonight is this little viewing hole can

provide ventilation hang on a minute

but you can also stick your head out and

take a look at the view see if there's

anyone out there

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so this is the vision - but keep me sort

of keeping water out of the life raft

but allow me to sit up and see what see

what's going on

okay so there were a couple of ration

packs that we'll check out that we've

put out of a life raft but there's also

this ring on a on a lanyard and you can

throw that out into the ocean to help

people pull themselves towards the life

raft and also tucked away in this little

pocket here with this knife so this is a

specifically made life for a life raft

it won't actually punch other life rafts

if it's cutting procedures but you can

actually use it as a can opener and for

whatever else you might need if you're

fishing or whatnot but yeah it won't

puncture or damage the life raft so this

is specifically made life raft night so

that comes and sits in there okay so

this baby Bell here actually inflates

the floor of the raft so you get your

foot pump out and your pump any company

pump and you've got double skinned floor

to sit on to help protect you from the

elements so we've got this little light

here that'll come on it's just amazing

how they build these rafts it's

incredible isn't it yeah there's a whole

lot of thought yeah

I can see where the money comes into it

when yeah yeah yeah looking around at

what they've actually done so this is

our little home away from home a little

life raft and we hope we never have to

get in it but I'm actually feeling very

secure in the case that we ever do have

to get in this is a very well built a

little Raffi vessel so okay somebody and

they can grab onto that and pull

themselves in and then this is the

floating letter you can grab on to these

all the way around the raft and this is

the boarding ladder that you would climb

up to they can help a view into the raft

so that's how it works okay so these are

all the goodies that are in the life

raft

we'll just take you through them so this

is six packs of protein bars

their rations to teat and are there

nothing bad condition down reckons we

might try them for dinner so oh my go

and then we've got a little fishing line

some seasickness tablets and how to let

the flares off so it's a really good

thing to have

oh this is our waterproof torch with

some spare batteries so that's pretty

cool

and this is some pains and Witten's

waterproof matches and a whistle and a

bump so that's good to have on board as

well

we've got a ten opening night

we've got six rations of seven oceans

water catchers so you want to be careful

with use of that Tara was trying to tell

me that these are actually sea biscuits

and that you actually they're dehydrated

and URI and fight them but they're

actually sponges

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that's so tasty they're actually in my

apartment water

okay

got a bunch of bliss so this is an

orange - orange smoke players some red

handheld flares and to write two sets of

rocket flares so that's some good

signaling to have so if you see a

missile nearby or a helicopter or a

plane in the air time to let those go

what else have we got

we've got some sunburn cream

and some sunscreen so that's a good

combo to have and we've got a nice

little signaling mirror here just to get

somebody's attention it's you get the

Sun in the right place and err quite

handy little little gizmo some

instructions on the back

don't worry I can lock a trait as well

amazing really good Nick and this little

fella here or I believe it's two it's

got two over inflation valves inside the

life raft as when we let it off you

could hear it actually expel on the

excess air and it stops it flow on the

life raft apart but if they fail you can

you can pack that in into the over

inflation valve to stop it

was many more egg so the thought of

really everything on this Explorer is

really really good toilet fridge yeah so

we've also got a patch repair kit with

some glue and so you can patch the suti

market I know you actually lift this out

into the ocean and it lets out a trail

of dye of orange dye and that'll let

people know that there's someone in the

water someone around something unusual

happening so and last but not least

we've got a couple of paddles I'm

paddling honey

I think you're a grant and this is the

Droid

so what you do is you set this out

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basically fills with water and it's the

filling with the seawater actually sort

of stop this life right down because it

creates drag what the drug is find out

how that works it'll also help stop it

tipping over as well I'll sort of keep

the life raft on its feet a little bit

better right creates a bit more

stability yeah great idea sorry that's

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like to say I am absolutely stunned that

the life raft is still inflated Avon

life raft good on you

absolutely I'm courting brush with the

quality of that thing out for all those

you go through and take the time to test

her old life raft I mean it was 30 years

old we weren't expecting it to actually

inflate at all but I've actually done

life raft training before and Darrin

hadn't done life rafts to him he had a

general idea about what to expect and I

think a lot of cruisers who do buy their

life rafts haven't got a general idea of

what to expect with their life raft but

not to actually haven't actually seen

how it operates and and what actually

does occur so it's kind of one of the

reasons we had our old one ready to

throw out we thought we've mayor's will

do the trial and see what happened

didn't show you guys what's in a life

raft and how it actually functions so it

was pretty quite cool it wasn't it it

was a great little experiment and you

certainly never stopped learning the one

of Darrin's concerns the old life life

is that she is six men and she's pretty

weighty pretty heavy and so he wanted to

know whether he could actually lift that

himself and actually get that over the

guard rails and into the water and I

know that the perfect scenario is that

you're supposed to wait for the life

raft to float off your boat to step up

into the life raft and that is the goal

but you know don't know about your

cruising boat but serían has got a lot

of appendages to here so you know we've

got this Bimini and we've got the solar

arch and the radar arch and we've got

the the back stays and even though the

life raft is actually situated for us on

the back there is the potential that

will actually snag on all the appendages

so he really wanted to see whether he

could lift that himself and get that

overboard and yeah as Darrin says same

thing with a dinghy with those who have

got the thought that we won't have a

life

well step into our dunya and have that

loaded up with gear it's a good thought

what happens if you actually hit a

container if you hit a container or

something and you're sinking you're out

on the water in minutes you know this

that's really not a lot of time to then

be trying to untie your tender and and

get it in a gear and in the water so

I've read a blood of their vessel caught

fire they had four minutes four minutes

of fighting the fire as what they were

doing before they realized it was

useless and then they were in the water

floating with a life ring if I remember

correctly they didn't have a life raft

and they nothing else came free of the

boat it all just sank within four

minutes so there's those sort of

scenarios to think about if you are

wondering whether you'll have a life

raft or whether you'll go the tender

option yeah you know stormy where to

happens on the coast as well

strange things happen at sea you don't

really know what's gonna yeah your wife

things are going really bad yeah you

know people think oh well you know we'll

just throw the the tender or the sword

and you know that's a great thought but

it doesn't necessarily always work like

that if conditions are really bad if you

can unleash a tender in less than a

minute that's well tied down in really

bad conditions I'd be pretty impressed

to see it all happen you know say for

example the boat has been rolled and one

of us has got a dislocated shoulder or a

broken limb or is you know unconscious

or whatnot you're gonna have to maybe

launch that raft by yourself and yeah

big task big task in what could be

really heavy weather

but six men live for offices it's really

it's a two-man lift you know it's it's

it's 30 plus kilos not that heavy but

big and all you just can't you just

can't get a grip on the thing so yeah

oddly enough there and had to tie tie a

tenner around tie a rope around that

raft to be able to maneuver it by

himself which would have been no help

then have the life raft open so yeah

just an interesting couple of little

tests that we did just to see how things

would work so yeah but I'm really happy

with the life raft if you're wondering

about value for money you know it's the

four main life raft is around about

between two and two and a half grand a

6-man would be sort of two and a half to

three grand of something like that great

build quality really really well made

life pods it's the conclusion that I've

come to look you can see where the money

is when you when you start looking

around it you know the cost of them you

know when you look at normal inflatable

tender would far outweigh the cost of a

life rafts either really for what they

are like quite cheap yeah exactly you

know that is a self-sustaining pod

it's it's very robust it's very well

made it's got all the gear already

packed into it that you need to survive

as you saw so you don't have to worry

about a thing all you got to do maybe is

grab your breath bag

and launched the rather giddiness

so whatever the scenario is that the

Kurd and you have to unfortunately

imagine that life raft

two hundred two thousand dollars that we

spend

right on

somebody's what fronts your life and

it's pretty much well our tender costs

moving my life actually you know but

just to track through that and as far as

the build goes so it's a self inflated

floating pot the life raft you you throw

it out or it floats off your boat

whichever scenario occurs so it has hand

holes on the base to help you write it

and it's also got the peg holes all the

way around the face of the outside and

dry so that's just survived so you reach

into the front of a life raft pull out

the ladder pull yourself in and then you

can draw out that life ring and help

pull your other people there and then

once you get on the life raft you can

place the base of the floor and you can

keep those sponges out

keep it nice to dry this next trick

you've gotta keep this

right the fully enclosed vision I don't

know if you would have seen it I had a

trust that came right across the top of

it and that actually makes the whole lot

very strong it's very well braced it's

very very rigid it's got those internal

body restraints that you can sort of

lock yourself in behind if it has really

foul weather and if the weather clears

up and you're still on board you can you

can roll it door up or down and let in a

bit of fresh air and a bit of sunshine

do some fishing or I have a look around

and see if there's any land in sight and

you might have the strength to paddle

two bags underneath it for extra Palast

and the drag be very stable in the water

yeah much much more than a tender yeah

you just don't have to worry about it

and it's got the internal restraint so

if the weather's bad and there's a few

of yours in there at least if not

getting trying on top of one another

it's it's really purpose-built

just just great really yeah so hope that

was really helpful for you and if you're

wondering what your life raft actually

does might be giving you a bit of

insight in Tibet and if you're wondering

whether or not there's value in a life

raft then you know you might have

hopefully we've helped you out with that

so our next video is going to be a QA

answering the questions that came

through from from you guys about the

ground tackle and our storm anchor so

you've got some really interesting

questions from that one and well worth

putting in the Q&A so keep an eye out

for that for next week and just like to

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