Price of Safety

[marisca]

Just got an invoice of £457.76 for servicing my 3 year old liferaft; my EPIRB (batteries and test) is over £250 and is 2 years overdue but the test still works; flares are nearly out of date but still needed for some events ~£120 for a coastal pack; lifejacket activators and lights are in-date till next year but at ~£23 per jacket = £138 FOR ALL 6; then there's horseshoe buoys, danbuoy, floating rope, and I haven't got into personal AIS/EPIRB beacons and SARTs. I reckon for 6 years' worth of safety I have toys that add up to about £3k or £500 p.a. and for what? I haven't got close to using any of it; my lifejacket crotchstrap (when I wear it) tries to tether me to cleats; the liferaft is a handy back-rest when motoring on calm days auto-tiller control in hand but the rest is just using up my meagre pension. At least the sainted Nicola (please come back!) made travel to the boat with my bus-pass free!
Somehow I have ended up as scrutineer for SIPR and I have huge sympathy for the souls that have had to reinvest in in-date mandatory safety gear for the event and each year there is a noticeable plethora of new LJs, flares, etc.. I have a friend who bought his rather lovely boat some 8 years ago but has not serviced or updated any of the copious safety gear it came with since. But then he doesn't enter events that demand it. Maybe I should give up the few competitive events I attempt and follow his example.

[BlowingOldBoots]

Just serviced my new liferaft at 3 x years, Ocean Safety, indeed the cost was a surprise, similar to yours.

There is definitely a case for simplification, cost reduction and avoiding events that commit you to more dosh.

For example, keep the liferaft and lifejackets without lights and excrement, keep a DSC VHF if coastal sailing is your thing, get rid of the rest. PLBs and PLB AIS are a waste of time as is EPIRB if you have DSC VHF for coastal sailing.

A few weeks ago a DSC VHF was activated with position, two vessels immediately responded and headed to the casualty. That is not going to happen in coastal waters with an EPIRB only activation.

You could think that the liferaft is not required, no one sinks, so why have one, plus we all have dinghies. I tend to think that the consequence of sinking justify a liferaft. I’ll die in Scottish waters in about 30 to 45 minutes. I have hit rocks and had a fire onboard, neither were big deals, but could have been. I store my dinghy rolled up in the cockpit locker. On davits or ready to launch dinghy, I might not have a liferaft.

Let it all just expire, sure, that’s a strategy, but sell the guff on and enjoy putting the cash to something else. Get rid of the garnish, lower the costs, enjoy your sailing. My attitude to racing is now, why do I want to sail to someone else’s agenda?

There is a lot you can do to lower costs.

[Gardenshed]

Liferaft: not a believer that you can unroll, blow up and use a dinghy as a life raft, so that's one piece of kit I have and keep in-date....and a life raft has chocolate in it
flares: coastal pack, kept in date as needed for some of the very few races that I enter
bought a laser flare which I really like. No pyrothechnics, you can test it to make sure it works and no risk of firing it in the wrong direction
lifejackets: keep them in-date, but don't have all the bells and whistles
DSC VHF: at the chart table and separate handset in the cockpit so accessible and easy to use
EPIRB: not needed inshore in Scotland in my opinion. If I were doing a significant ocean crossing, then yes, I'd have one
Don't have a PLB, but that makes sense, particularly if it broadcasts an AIS signal
horseshoe / floating rope & MoB recovery sling: all on board, condition checked regularly so no need to replace until they appear damaged

It's easy to get carried along by the "expert" advice and load up with more and more safety kit, but keep it simple, know how to use what you have and maintain the boat so that you reduce the risk of needing it is quite a sensible approach

The biggest safety improvement in the last 10-15 years is the accessibility to good 2-3 day ahead forecasts. Avoiding shitty weather is easier now that it ever has been, thanks to Windy/XCWeather/PredictWind etc.

[mm5aho]

My liferaft is coming up to its service date, and I wonder about it...
My LJs I do myself, baulking at the cost. I take them all home for the winter, and open each one and visually inspect. Then I inflate using a dinghy pump (so as not to fill them with saliva and cause an "old guy blackout".)
I leave each inflated for 24 hours, if busy sometimes 48 hours. I remember only one failing this test, I cut the bladder and binned it, but salvaged a few parts that might one day be useful such as clips, buckles, and the inflation cylinder.
I weigh the cylinders and write the new date and weight on each. Some years ago I noted that these tend to rust. The thin electroplated zinc with yellow passivation doesn't last long if the jackets gets saltysplash. I wrapped each in insulation tape, and solved that problem. Check the inflation pin works manually without the cylinder. The acivator I change on its date marked on it. I also mark the service tab on each.
Pump the air out - by vacuum pumping they're so much easier to fold away. Roll/fold the bladder into the outer case. and zip it up. I keep a spreadsheet of weights, dates etc. I carry 7 JJs and a few spares on board.
My AIS goes without interference. EPIRP has a long date, but might eventually require a new battery. Flares only a year to go before I should decide if I want to carry explosives aboard any more.