Not all are hysterical. Me, I don't give a fig whether the skipper of another boat carries a liferaft or not - all down to personal choice (and I will not lecture others on the subject). But, Tranona states: "The only cause of foundering which is partly outside my control is collision. And even there the 5 cases in the last 12 years have so little in common, both in the way they occured and location that the only way of avoiding them is vigilance and good seamanship from both parties." Implying that collisions only happen betwen two vessels. The published example I cited earlier in this long winded and occasionally heated thread was that of properly sorted yacht which struck a submerged object at night in a F6 in what could be described as coastal waters (Thames Estuary). The skipper tried a couple of methods to summon help before taking to a liferaft as the boat sank, he and his son then spent about 8 hours in the raft before being rescued. If you read the report you will surmise that he was very grateful that he had a liferaft. Now this could be argued to be an isolated case but it most certainly did happen. To exclude it from consideration / deny the possibility as Tranona seems to do does not help others to form a balanced view and enable them to assess the risk based on the type of sailing they intend to pursue.
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Re: "Liferaft" is it needed for coastal cruising in UK
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