After reading Matt Broze's article on survival rafts in Sea Kayaker Magazine's book "Deep Trouble" I decided to get one. Unlike Matt I had no trouble finding one. Fair Radio Sales http://www.fairradio.com has them in their catalog for $59.50 plus postage. After mine came I inflated it manualy and left it for a week with no signs of leakage. It folds up about the size of a Sears catalog and weighs only five pounds. I plan to keep it on the floor of my boat under my knees and attach a line from the sea anchor loop to a tab on my pfd via a quick release. This way if I exit the boat so does the raft. I will probably loosly wrap it in some foam for floatation when uninflated. I then have the option of inflating the raft to A. get out of the cold water, B. use it as a super paddle float to re-enter and pump out my boat, C. use it as a life raft if my boat is blown away. I can think of many other uses. Question... How does one rig up a CO2 cartridge to the inflation valve? Inflating by mouth is a bit slow. It did not come with instructions and I don't know the military manual number. Even if I never need it (and I hope I don't) it makes a nice toy. Hmmm... they even have the orange survival box kite. Hook a strobe to it and send it up a few hundred feet at night. Ought to attract some attention. 73 Gary Gary Pewitt N9ZSV/KT gpewitt_at_execpc.com 6120 W. Calumet Rd. Apt. 204, Milwaukee, WI 53223 414 355 8147 home 414 297 4307 work Sturgeon's Law "Ninety percent of everything is crap." *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Gary wrote, "question... How does one rig up a CO2 cartridge to the inflation valve? Inflating by mouth is a bit slow. It did not come with instructions and I don't know the military manual number." Have had about 30 years working with and testing water survival systems, and if this raft did not come equipped with a threaded bronze fitting for a cartridge and an inflation toggle --- along with specs for the cartridge --- it was not designed to inflate by a cartridge device, Gary. There's no viable way to retrofit a cartridge to a orally inflatable raft, nor is there a safe way to figure out which size cartridge to install, anyway. Without that, you have a neat water toy there --- not a survival system. I wouldn't depend on it for serious rescue scenarios, from the sound of it, and I'd be really hesitant in connecting it to myself with a tether long enough to foul on anything else in the boat, as well. Suggest testing it in real but controlled conditions, at the very least, Gary. (You can't assume a raft will remain functional by inflating it to normal pressure and leaving it in a static state --- has to have the weight of your body in it and the dynamics of waves to really prove out its survivability.) Jack Martin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:04 PDT