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Dec 06, 2024
A yacht liferaft is one of the essential life-saving devices required for vessels, particularly yachts, when navigating at sea. It boasts many advantages such as being compact, lightweight, simple in structure, easy to use, excellent in performance, and high in cost-effectiveness. Typically, yacht liferafts are stored in white storage cylinders and installed on dedicated raft racks on the ship's side. Its main purpose is to provide a means of evacuation for distressed personnel in emergency situations, thereby ensuring the safety of navigation and operations at sea.
Painter Line
A yacht liferaft should be equipped with an effective painter line, no shorter than 10 meters. Together with the distance from the storage location to the lightest loaded waterline, or 15 meters (whichever is larger). Generally, when the liferaft is stored, the end of the painter line is securely fastened to the ship. Also, at the connection to the bottle valve, there will be an inflation pull cord about 1 meter long, used to trigger the bottle valve of the inflation cylinder, making the liferaft inflate automatically. Furthermore, the painter line is regularly arranged in a back-and-forth manner before being pulled apart and stored within the cylinder along with the raft body, ensuring it doesn't get entangled as the vessel sinks.
Weak Link
Between the painter line and the hydrostatic release unit, there is a 70 cm weak link (breaking rope). When the tension on the painter line of the liferaft reaches (2.2±0.4) kN, the weak link will automatically break, ensuring the liferaft can successfully detach from the ship and float freely.
Hydrostatic Release Unit
The hydrostatic release unit is a free-floating device usually used for yacht liferafts, satellite emergency position indicating radio beacons, and other equipment. When the yacht sinks or needs to release the liferaft, the hydrostatic release unit can automatically or manually release the liferaft, ensuring it can smoothly deploy and float to the water's surface.
Storage Location
Inflatable yacht liferafts are usually stored within fiberglass storage cylinders, typically positioned on raft racks on both sides of the vessel. The raft racks should be firmly welded to the yacht deck, ensuring that the storage cylinder remains upright and secured with straps to prevent it from rocking or falling off.
Painter Line Fixation
The storage of each yacht liferaft must ensure that the painter line is securely fastened to the vessel to prevent accidental detachment.
Free-Floating Device
Each yacht liferaft (or liferaft group) must be equipped with a free-floating device that complies with LSA Code 4.1.6 requirements, that is, a hydrostatic release device, ensuring that the liferaft can automatically release in emergencies.
Automatic Inflation Function
Yacht liferafts must have an automatic inflation function to ensure that when the yacht sinks, it can automatically inflate and float to the water's surface, providing safe shelter for distressed personnel.
Manual Release Capability
The storage method of the liferaft should ensure that it can be released manually at once, avoiding delays in evacuation during emergencies due to operational difficulties.
Safe Storage Location
Yacht liferafts should be stored in safe, sheltered areas, and necessary protective measures should be taken to prevent the equipment from being damaged or rendered ineffective due to accidents such as fires or explosions.
Yacht liferafts are essential for ensuring marine life safety. They not only provide an escape route for distressed personnel in emergencies but also significantly enhance the safety of yacht navigation. Therefore, crew members and yacht operators must store and maintain liferafts in strict accordance with requirements, ensuring they are always in a usable state, providing the strongest safety guarantee for voyages at sea.
