Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Having water available "by mandate" isn't necessarily so. In fact

having water packed in your life raft is about as stupid a thing "mandated" that I have ever seen. I had a "mandated" life raft pack in my 4 man Winslow offshore vacuum packed brand new state of the art raft that leaked and almost destroyed the entire raft. It seems that the vacuum packing split open two of the water containers which ruined the batteries for the dome light and flashlight. The acid set there until it was time for a service and attacked everything it contacted and really created a mess. I decided to check it myself with the help of "Dan Y" we were able to salvage the raft and repack it without the water or batteries but now it's not "certified". In order to get it packed professionally they insist on selling you the standard off shore mandated equipment including the water and I'll never do that again. Had I needed the raft it would have worked but I would have been sitting in acid as well as saltwater with sticky shit all over the place with no light and little water. All covered in battery acid/paste. How to spoil an already ugly situation! Put the water in your ditch bag.

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