Know what you are buying

 I can help you make the right decisions when purchasing your liferaft.

For instance, good things to know are:

• The inflation lanyard on some liferafts is as long as 50 feet! In other words, you will have to pull about 49 feet of line out before the liferaft inflates. 
• If your (inflated) liferaft or Winslow Liferaft lanyard snags on a sinking vessel, the  lanyard has a break-away strength of 500 lbs at the connection point on the liferaft, and it will come back to the surface. Stay clear, but be ready to grab the liferaft when it surfaces because it will no longer have a tether line. (The inflation lanyard is also the tether line).
• If your liferaft or Winslow Liferaft floats free, it can travel away at about twice the speed that you can swim.
• Some liferafts or Winslow Liferafts do not come with survival equipment.
• You can request personal items such as prescription medications, prescription glasses, watermakers, EPIRBs, and thermal protection be packed in your liferaft equipment container.
• You can survive aprox. two days in a liferaft without fresh drinking water. 
• A liferaft or Winslow Life Raft without an insulated floor will place you on a surface equal to the temperature of the water you are trying to survive in. Because the water is moving under the liferaft, it will conduct heat away from your body almost as fast as being in the water. Water temperature under 75 degrees can cause fatal hypothermia, even in a liferaft.  I would advise anyone North of the Gulf of Mexico to have an insulated floor in their liferaft.
• When inflating a liferaft from a vessel, make sure the liferaft is deployed on the down wind side of the vessel. Otherwise it will rub against the vessel and possibly become punctured.
• If you are rescued by a helicopter, you will have to enter the water to get into a rescue basket. The rotor wash from the helicopter will cause the liferaft to blow around wildly. If you are unable to enter the water, stay put until the rescue swimmer comes to get you. Unfortunately the helicopter will not be able to recover your liferaft.

Next thing you may consider is, who are you buying a liferaft from. As I look around the internet, I see a lot of companies who claim to be the survival experts. But the chances are, if you call them, you will be talking to someone who has never laid eyes on a liferaft. You place the order, and they direct ship from the factory.

I have walked the walk and if you look at my "About Us" page, you will see that I have had several years of experience both in survival and liferafts. Liferafts are a costly investment, would'nt you rather buy from someone who can guide you to the right liferaft for your needs?

Randy, 

The raft, PLB, and over water survival pouch all arrived and look great. You really went the extra mile - not only by providing so much information over the phone making sure my requirements were met, but also by having the survival kit and PLB all set up and ready to go.  I was impressed by the way you tethered elements of the survival kit to the pouch to avoid loss.  Without benefit of our discussion I would have bought the wrong raft and paid more. It is rare to combine such top notch service with an unbeatable price - keep up the great work!   Jeff McDonald, Foxboro MA.

Let's talk: 251 639-9354 or 251 510-5225 cell

Randy Boone