I have bought an Avon Coastline 6 person canister life raft to put on my
I am not keen on putting it on the stern as that space is already too cluttered.
I was thinking of mounting it on the sliding hatch over the companion way, because its out of the way, but also easy to get at if needed (without going on top).
Size: 2'3" x 1'7" x 9" and 74lbs (69 x 49 x 23cms and 34 Kgs).
With the mounting kit it will actually be about 10" (25cms) high. I was thinking of mounting it with the long axis fore & aft. Having measured, it it does not impair forward view (even when seated), I usually stand anyway during close manoeuvres.
I am not worried if the hatch can take the weight (it holds me without any flex ), but how will it stand up to being slid open/closed with that weight on it..
My comments are based upon mounting a 65 watt solar panel on our sliding hatch, as well as on placing items such as our inflatable dinghy on the foredeck. Regarding forward visibility, I have more concerns than you express. Equipping with a life raft suggests longer passages, perhaps in open waters. I doubt you'd be standing at the wheel for extended periods of time. I worry about seeing a variety of things while underway. In addition to boats, both large and small, I am also concerned with flotsam. Things like chunks of wood, awash logs, large strands of kelp, whales dozing at the surface, crab/lobster pot floats, and small buoys all must be seen and avoided. Anything on top of the sliding hatch, including my solar panel which sits only 2 inches above the hatch, reduces forward vision. The obstruction creates a blind patch of water in front of the boat. The greater the obstruction, the larger the patch of water you can't see. We've made a booster seat cushion out of a combination of rigid insulation foam and cushion foam, which raises the steering seat position by about 4 inches. This helps greatly with forward visibility. Often, I sit in the corner of the cockpit, to one side or the other, for greater forward visibility, especially when sailing. I used to steer with my foot, but now rely on the autopilot. Regarding the weight, you're right in saying that the hatch can handle the weight of a person standing on it. It's designed to. Sliding with that weight is another issue. Our panel weighs about 35 pounds, I'm guessing. That added weight makes opening and closing the hatch a much tougher chore. Also, if you haven't sanded down the leading edge of your hatch yet, the extra weight will likely cause it to scrape on the foredeck when opening and closing. This causes a loud noise, and you'll need to sand it down. This process has been described in threads on this site. If you do mount the raft on your hatch, I would recommend installing Velcro wooly in the sliding hatch tracks. I recently did this, and it improved the ease of opening and closing the hatch. For me personally, the limited storage and stowage space on the 26x requires careful thought on what to install. A dinghy is a very important item for us, and we both trail it and stow it, depending on circumstances. I feel it provides us a bit of security in the event something catastrophic happened to the boat. Also, I rely on the floatation in the boat's hull for something to hang onto if she should fill with water. A life raft, with it's inherent bulk, cost, and servicing/maintenance cost, balanced with likelihood of use, simply doesn't make the cut for us.
I too share the concern about forward visibility. I close the hatch often just because it effectively makes it lower, improving visibility, especially in places like the Erie Canal, as there's loads of flotsam to avoid. I don't like having the dodger on, either, and often take it off and fold the hoops just to improve visibility, even though I have to put it back up to use the bridge over the cockpit for shade. The helm seat is just too low, though a couple of stacked PFD seat cushions helps.
If you're good with that, well that's good. I would find it supremely annoying, personally.
As to the sliding friction question, the Velcro retrofit in the slide tracks would be indicated here, I would think.
Thanks for your comments, you both highlighted my worry, the overall height. A quick measurement suggests it would be OK, but there is nothing like experience. Perhaps I will strap it into place temporarily and try it out first, instead of mounting the bracket based on measurements.
The Idea of having the life-raft is not for longer voyages (although I doubtless will go further), it's because we don't have any lifeboat or coastguard on call here in the Falklands. If we had to abandon, it could be a fair wait before we got picked up. Best we could hope for is a warship which could be on patrol anywhere around the Islands, or two other ships which work in our waters regularly, or if lucky they might despatch the ASR Sea-King from the Military. Whatever happened we might be on our own for a number of hours.
We do carry a 'double dose' of Flares, a VHF/DSC Portable Radio, and an EPIRB/PLB, we have all lifejackets fitted with spray hoods, lights and strobes.
Generally we don't go more than a mile or so off the coast, but we are hoping to go and play in the Falkland Sound (the passage between East and West Falkland) it is about 90 miles North/South, and anything between 5 and 30 miles across. The Life-raft is just another safety layer in place.
John, you're right...clutter is bad, so howcabout an arch. It's definitely part of my long term plan for Whipsyjac. It would be a great place for your epirb and liferaft ad well as the common solar panel. It would declutter your stern(who doesn't want that! )
just behind the forward hatch it will block your interior view of the world but in a emergency simply reach around the hatch and deploy it? Just a thought I realize it is not ideal as in heavy seas and foul weather you could lose the raft as it deployed but I was thinking of mounting a roof top carrier of sorts there for extra storage in fact I was thinking my dinghy.
We have our inflatable Dinghy (a WestMarine/Zodiac RU-260) upside down on the bow whenever we have it inflated, rather than towing. It's just the right size to wedge its bow into the bow pulpit and the stern pontoons between the forward stanchions, so we don't have to strap it or do anything, and I can be assured that if the nose ever went below water that the dinghy would make capsize extremely difficult and worst case, if the boat somehow sunk it would pop out and surface. The Genoa tacks right over it no problem. The only awkward part is keeping the oars locked onto it correctly when its upside down.
It is a REAL hassle not to be able to open the bow hatch, however, and the kids hate it up there because they like to hang out on the bow underway.
I would strongly consider some kind of strapping or mounting system that mounts it on the bow. If you don't anchor all that often, you could put it right over the anchor locker with straps and simply move it when you need to access the locker.
Another option would be to put some stand-off legs on the cabin top so you can mount it forward of the hatch and have the hatch slide underneath it. Depends on how permanent you want the mounting to be.
I stand at the helm while motoring, and while sailing I'm either on the port or starboard windward side, so I don't see the forward visibility problem as being all that problematic the way I use the boat.
We are not planning on sailing for the next season (Oct to April for us). So I have no mast fitted. We have had a short mast made (as seen in another post, I would post pics if I could figure out how on here).
I have found a box about the right size and am putting a bit of weight in it to replicate the life-raft (the real one will not get here till November). I am going to try it in a few positions and see how we go.
I do favour on top of the hatch, for both being out of the way (we don't go on top much) and for convenience, so perhaps a compromise might be a mount forward and raised above the sliding hatch if it does not block forward view too much. I am really not keen on blocking the cabins forward view or the forward hatch as we deploy anchors from there (accessing via the forward hatch). We tend to either tow our dinghy or have it deflated and stored in the aft berth (our storage area).
I do sit, at sea, but stand at the helm in close confines and manoeuvring. We don't have much sea traffic, or floating junk, and I tend to be a plodder rather than a speed junkie. At the moment we have a modified steering system, cable direct to the motor (via the tilt tube) and no rudders, and after we are in the water I plan to lower the CB about six inches to help with steering.
We plan to use this year as a suck it and see, if it works out, we may move to motoring permanently, in which case I will move the helm position to one side of the companionway, and open up the cockpit. I may even put a hard topped enclosure over half of the cockpit, and (poaching from another post I saw) move the cockpit rear seat, back over the engine to give even more room and blocking off the engine noise........
I guess to some of you this plan is pure heresy, but if it gets the admiral to sea and happy, it will be very worth it.......
In my 3year cruise from Cape Cod tru Carribean and South America . I had a Avon 4 passanger life raft that I never used.
Question is why would you want one on a coastal cruiser?
A inflatable would do same at much less cost and you can use it as a dink.
Dave
JohnCFI wrote:I have bought an Avon Coastline 6 person canister life raft to put on my
I am not keen on putting it on the stern as that space is already too cluttered.
I was thinking of mounting it on the sliding hatch over the companion way, because its out of the way, but also easy to get at if needed (without going on top).
Size: 2'3" x 1'7" x 9" and 74lbs (69 x 49 x 23cms and 34 Kgs).
With the mounting kit it will actually be about 10" (25cms) high. I was thinking of mounting it with the long axis fore & aft. Having measured, it it does not impair forward view (even when seated), I usually stand anyway during close manoeuvres.
I am not worried if the hatch can take the weight (it holds me without any flex ), but how will it stand up to being slid open/closed with that weight on it..
DaveB wrote:In my 3year cruise from Cape Cod tru Carribean and South America . I had a Avon 4 passanger life raft that I never used.
Question is why would you want one on a coastal cruiser?
A inflatable would do same at much less cost and you can use it as a dink.
Dave
The Idea of a life-raft is not to plan to use it, and certainly not to discard it because you have not used it. It's for the day when it all goes horribly wrong and you need your A$$ rescued from the wringer
Read (my) Para 2 in Post 4 above.
We do have an inflatable, but as any manufacturer will tell you that is no substitute for a life-raft, adrift it will flip over, provide no shelter, and not have any of the equipment found in a coastal life-raft.
I prefer not to risk and be found wanting! I intend to be fully equipped for any situation. Down here we can go from a F2 to an F10 in under an hour, and with no hint of it in any weather forecast. And once clear of Port Stanley and Port William, we are in open water, next stop heading east (in the prevailing westerly wind) is the west coast of Chile....
I like all the customization ideas. I too have considered moving the helm to the companionway side, but for sailing purposes it's not a great position. I'd actually do both sides and use a simple hydraulic system, take the helm seat out completely, and do a teak slat sole over the cockpit floor.
If you aren't into high-speed, you'll get better mileage out of a 9.9hp motor as well, although you may not want to give up the ability to get home.
I think it would be interesting if the factory sold the same hull as a sailboat and as a cabin cruiser.
Thinking back to when I changed the steering Teleflex cable, I wish now I had stumped up the extra to go hydraulic. Although I think the cable I put in (13 feet) is probably long enough to go to the Starboard side. At the moments it's just a thought, gotta see how the season goes....
A pipe dream is changing to a 25HP motor, I reckon it would offer all the speed I will ever need, plus a little bit in reserve for a windy day.....
), but how will it stand up to being slid open/closed with that weight on it..
