I just had a look at your Bio......and yes, I can see why you think as you do.....

I think though, that you are ignoring the fact that a lot of people just simply cannot afford a liferaft, and make do with other arrangements.

We see this a lot on these forums, and it's understandable enough I suppose, because it's probably the case that most contributors are shall we say fairly comfortably off? This being the case, I think it's understandable that they don't relate to the needs and financial constraints of thousands of sailors in the UK..........Ł500 ish, for a 4 man liferaft is about half or a third of the value of some peoples boats.