Dan and Kika on Sailing Uma faced a similar situation. They anchored out in pretty calm waters and inflated the raft tried to live on it for 24 hours. It was enlightening. When my inflateable PDFs expire, we find warm water, don the vests and jump in. It is a refreshing experience.

Dave

Second Star

S362 #113

Fair Haven, NY/Lake Ontario

On Mar 14, 2025, at 2:23?PM, David Short, SV One Timer, 1997 362, Mt Desert, ME via groups.io <dhs.short@...> wrote:

I have a Winslow 4 person liferaft in a hard case.? Cert ran out 12/23.? It was manufactured 2002.? Given its age, the likelihood of a successful inflation test is low and, for the price of the repack of this high end raft ($1600 estimate), I can get a new Revere 4 person suited to my not going further than ~100 miles offshore.? Also, it has a 5 year service interval which is a $$ saver.? Evidently it's the flares that cause the typical 3 year limit.

1. Anyone that wants it is welcome to it.? It's in Western MA now & my first trip to Maine is in May.? I am keeping the cradle to adapt for a subsequent raft.

2. Disposal.? I guess it needs to be opened up, probably inflated, and cylinder, flares etc removed.? It would actually be interesting put out on the lawn and yank the painter & watch er go.

3. So the question is, anything to be done with this other than take up landfill space?

--

Dave Short
SV One Timer 1997 S362
Mt Desert, ME