Sunday 24 January 2016

Stowing the liferaft

I've had the liferaft stowed in the forward end of the cockpit for the past two seasons - it looked like this:

Raasay - 'bridgedeck' arrangement with liferaft stowage

I made a temporary 'bridgedeck' that could be quickly removed but was strong enough to stand, or even jump, on.

This worked amazingly well, despite appearances.  That's why it lasted two seasons ...

The liferaft was safe and handy, and I had a useful place to put dishes and other utensils while standing at the galley. It also made sitting across the forward end of the cockpit more comfortable.

However, it wasn't ideal - the cannister was in the way a bit for the helmsman (on the rare occasions that I was manually helming ...), and the advantages of the 'bridgedeck' could be achieved with a smaller structure.

Also, I'd seen a Rival 34 (Southern Rival) with the liferaft stowed very conveniently just in front of the mast, in a location rarely needed for anything else.

So now it looks like this:

Raasay - new liferaft position

It was after dark (4pm) by the time I finished up.

I have a couple of things to tidy - I'm not too happy with the quick release strap supplied with the cradle.

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