Life Rafts: What You Need to Know Before You Need One
I’ll tell you how I got interested in life raft equipment. A friend of mine does offshore sailing — races, long passages, the whole deal. One evening over beers he told me about a training exercise where they had to deploy a life raft in open water and spend a night in it. His description of the experience was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. “You don’t think about life rafts until you’re standing on a tilting deck wondering if this is the day,” he said. That stuck with me.
The Different Types of Life Rafts
Not all life rafts are the same, and picking the wrong one for your situation is a real problem. Here’s how they break down:
- Offshore life rafts: Built for the worst conditions. These are what you want if you’re crossing oceans or sailing far from shore. They come packed with survival gear and are constructed to handle heavy seas over extended periods.
- Coastal life rafts: Designed for nearshore sailing. Less equipped than offshore models but still solid. If you’re not venturing far from the coast, these will do the job without the added weight and expense.
- Inflatable life rafts: The most common type. Compact when stored, they inflate via a pull cord connected to a CO2 canister. Most recreational boaters have some version of this.
- Open-reversible life rafts: Basic models for small boats. You can board them from either side, which is a nice feature when you’re in the water and the raft flipped during deployment. No canopy though, so you’re exposed to the elements.
Probably should have led with this — the type of life raft you need depends entirely on where and how you boat. An offshore racer needs different equipment than someone fishing ten miles from shore.
What’s Inside a Life Raft
Modern life rafts are more than inflatable platforms. They’re designed as self-contained survival systems. Let me walk through the key components.
Inflation system: Most use CO2 canisters triggered by a pull cord. It’s fast — the raft goes from a canister to fully inflated in under a minute typically. There’s usually a manual pump as backup in case the automatic system doesn’t fully inflate the raft.
Canopy: This is your shelter. Protects against sun exposure, wind, rain, and cold. Some canopies have reflective tape on the outside so search aircraft can spot you. I didn’t appreciate how important the canopy was until my friend described spending a night on the water — hypothermia is a real threat even in moderate temperatures.
Ballast bags: Water-filled bags that hang underneath the raft. They act like a keel, keeping the raft from flipping in rough seas. Without them, a life raft in storm conditions is basically a beach ball.
Survival kit: This varies by raft quality and type, but typically includes water, emergency rations, first aid supplies, signaling devices like flares and mirrors, and sometimes fishing gear. The better kits have more. You generally get what you pay for here.
Boarding aids: Ladders, ropes, or scramble nets that help you get from the water into the raft. This matters more than you’d think. When you’re in cold water wearing a life jacket, pulling yourself over an inflated tube is exhausting. Good boarding aids save energy and potentially save lives.
Rules and Regulations
The International Maritime Organisation sets standards for commercial vessels through the SOLAS convention — Safety of Life at Sea. The requirements are specific:
- Life rafts must withstand harsh marine environments — salt water, UV exposure, temperature extremes
- They have to inflate rapidly after activation
- Capacity ratings must be accurate — if it says it holds eight people, eight people have to actually fit
- Signaling and survival equipment must be accessible, not buried under packaging
Regular inspections and servicing are mandatory. Life rafts need to be professionally serviced at certified facilities, usually annually or every three years depending on the type. It’s not cheap, but a raft that doesn’t inflate when you need it is worse than useless — it’s a false sense of security. Failing to comply with servicing requirements can result in penalties, and more importantly, it puts lives at risk.
How to Actually Use One
Knowing you have a life raft and knowing how to use it are different things. Here’s what matters:
Before you ever need it: Check your raft regularly. Make sure everyone on board knows where it’s stored and how to deploy it. Run through the scenario verbally at minimum. If you can do actual deployment training, even better.
When it’s time to deploy: Pull the activation cord firmly. The CO2 fires and the raft inflates. If it doesn’t fully inflate — it happens — grab the manual pump. Keep the raft tethered to the vessel until you’re sure the ship is actually going down. You don’t want to drift away from a vessel that turns out to be saveable.
Getting in: Stay calm, which is easier said than done. Use the boarding aids. Help weaker swimmers and injured people first. Distribute weight evenly once you’re in — everyone clustering on one side is a capsize risk.
Once you’re in: Use the survival kit wisely. Ration water and food from day one. Set up the canopy for protection. Deploy signaling devices strategically — don’t fire all your flares in the first hour. Use them when you see or hear a potential rescuer.
Modern Features Worth Knowing About
Life raft technology has come a long way. Some features in modern rafts that I find genuinely impressive:
Auto-deploying canopies: The canopy inflates at the same time as the raft. No fumbling with setup while you’re wet and scared.
Insulation layers: Advanced materials that help regulate temperature inside the raft. In cold water, the floor insulation can be the difference between hypothermia and survival.
Self-righting design: If the raft deploys upside down — which happens in rough conditions — it’s designed to flip itself right side up. This is a bigger deal than it sounds. An inverted raft in storm conditions with people in the water is a nightmare scenario.
Satellite communication: Some modern rafts come with integrated GPS beacons and satellite messaging. That’s what makes modern life rafts endearing to maritime safety professionals — rescue teams can pinpoint your location instead of searching blindly.
Stories That Drive the Point Home
The crew of the yacht Rose Noelle survived over 100 days in the Pacific after their vessel capsized. One hundred days. Their life raft and the survival equipment in it kept them alive until rescue. Stories like that are the reason I think every boater should take life raft equipment seriously, even if — especially if — they never expect to need it.
There are also accounts from humanitarian crises where life rafts saved lives during dangerous sea crossings. These events highlight how life rafts serve as last-resort survival tools in the most desperate circumstances.
The Bottom Line
Life rafts have been part of maritime safety for a long time, and they’ve gotten dramatically better with modern engineering and materials. From small fishing boats to commercial vessels, they remain a last line of defense that nobody wants to use but everyone should be prepared to use.
Keep yours serviced. Know where it is. Know how to deploy it. And honestly, if you spend real time on the water, consider doing a training exercise where you actually get in one. My friend says that single night in a life raft changed how he prepares for every voyage. I believe him.
