Life raft , 20 hours on board. Arimar Test at the Marina di Varazze

Life Raft Test: living aboard a life raft

Boat safety equipment, and life raft in particular, is a serious thing but, if you have never attended a maritime safety course, it is very likely that you are not well-versed in using boat safety equipment. Most yachtsmen have a raft but they have never had the opportunity to see it work neither for educational purposes nor for demonstration purposes. After all, opening it just for pleasure would be a really expensive practice.

But if life raft operation remains unknown to many, living on board a raft is something completely obscure. Factors like cold, humidity and, above all, waves are the main elements which could put on strain our resistance.

This is why Boatandboats has organized a special test which will show both boat owners and yachting enthusiasts how to launch and, above all, how to live on board a life raft.

The test will be carried out next Saturday April 28th at 16:00 in the Marina di Varazze, in the waters in front of the central dock, with a 8-person Arimar Oceanus PG raft. Visitors can therefore closely assist raft opening and observe all subsequent operations.

Yes, because we will not only show you how to launch a raft: Davide Terraneo, a journalist of our team, will climb on board the raft and will stay there until the following day, feeding on emergency rations and standard-issue water.

After the launch and relative transshipment, Davide will row to the central dock where he will “dock” the raft, always staying within sight and earshot.

Before night, on-board signal devices ( hand flares, whistles, torch and so on) will be tested and, in order to simulate waves, a tender provided by the Marina di Varazze will pass by him to reproduce the wave effect.

Then, Davide will spend the night on board the raft to test living conditions. His greatest enemy, even in a controlled environment like that of our test, will be, of course, cold. Consequently, our journalist will wear appropriate clothing and will use standard-issue thermal blankets.

The test will finish on Sunday April 29th at 12:00, when Davide will go ashore, where he can finally have a hot meal.

During the test, Davide will be caught by our internal and external cameras to the benefit of our readers but he will also ready to answer all visitors’ questions.

So, we will wait for you on Saturday April 28th and Sunday April 29th until 12:00 in the Marina di Varazze to “see” maritime safety and, above all, give comfort to Davide Terraneo.