THEIR LIFERAFT SAVED THEIR LIVES
(...) Bernard is motoring towards me. I can see in the distance what seems to be sails. (...) By then, Bernard sees the liferaft thanks to its red light and comes straight in my direction. We manage to manoeuvre the liferaft at the stern of the Pogo 8.50. (...) I release the safety line that secured me to the liferaft and climb on board the Pogo. It is about 21:00 hours, and it's all over ! (...) We arrive in Le Marin 9 days later, on the evening of 16th February. Our arrival is incredibly cheered and welcome. I had no idea that people had been so concerned : moments of real happiness, heartwarming memories in a sailor's life »
J.M. Liot ©

Shipwreck of "LD LINES", February 2006
Figaro 1 sailboat racing in the Transquadra Solo Plastimo 6-man Transocean liferaft
François Petit is racing in the Transquadra race on board his Figaro 1 "LD LINES". Right in the middle of the second part of the race, between Madera and Martinique (FWI), his boat dismasts and sinks. « Tuesday 7th February 2006 : (...) I have lost the mast. I come up on the deck and the first thing I see -apart from the incredible jumble created by dismasting- is that there is a large hole next to the starboard U-bolts. The mast is broken in two pieces, lying on portside and held by the stays and shrouds. About 20 minutes later, once I have cleared away most of the clutter, I go down to the cabin to start to organise how to finish this race without a mast, when I discover that the boat is filled with water up to my knees ! Things have got to move quicker. The liferaft is stored in the companionway, therefore immersed already. I pull it out and follow the normal procedure : I tie it up, throw it leeward into the water and pull the firing lanyard while praying at the same time, hoping that it will inflate. The liferaft inflates at once, and in the upright position. I run a second safety line through the liferaft side and secure it along the boat. I go down in the cabin and gather some essential equipment. When I climb into the liferaft, the transom of my Figaro is already immersed. I cut the line at the last moment. My boat sinks at 10:45. I watch it sinking slowly, then the bow hatch explodes under the water pressure, the boat goes down and disappears. Still 1500 miles to ge : I trigger my Argos beacon and call the race organisers with my Iridium phone. Ten hours in the liferaft... quite a while ! I have never been sea-sick in my life and here I am, awfully sea-sick. I discover the liferaft and its contents. Some features could be improved but... here I am, sitting in a liferaft that performed perfectly ! The race organisers are very reactive and I am not worried about the course of action : I know that everything is being organised to rescue me. The race organisers have just informed me that Bernard dR. is surely sailing very close. I spend ¾ of an hour on the watch, standing in the liferaft. I am clinging to my marine lifejacket.

Lessons learnt
· Stay calm · Wear a lifejacket, both in the liferaft and while being rescued · Have a small watertight container ready to throw into the liferaft, holding the essential tools for communication (Iridium phone, portable VHF & GPS).

Shipwreck in Malaysia, May 2006
Yacht struck by lightning Plastimo 6-man Offshore liferaft
« My wife and I were on an ocean voyage from the Andaman Islands of India going to Thailand when our sailing yact was struck by lighting due to a tropical storm, caught fire and sank on 8th May 2006. After endless attempts at fire fighting, we were forced to abandon ship into our liferaft. The 6-person liferaft was easily carried to the foredeck by my wife who is small and weights 50 kg. This was great as I was busy trying to fight the fire. The inflation worked well and was quick. This was important to us as the yacht was by now seriously on fire and we needed to get off. The liferaft deployed upside down. I jumped in the water to turn it over. It was easy to turn. We were 60 NM offshore with no land nor a single vessel in sight. We were drifting West with the current and had both inhaled a lot of smoke and noxious fumes, and were in shock at the realization of what had just happened, and also at what our present situation was. The packaging of flares and other equipment in the liferaft worked well : despite the liferaft being full of water, nothing got wet. We were extremely fortunate to be rescued from the raft by a large gas carrier, after spending about 5 hours in our Plastimo liferaft. The ship had seen smoke from 25 miles away and diverted their course to check what it was. Unfortunately we have lost our vessel entirely as it burnt to the waterline and sank. We have lived aboard our boat for the last 9 years and we have now lost everything ! We have our lives which we are extremely grateful for and our liferaft. Clearly, the liferaft did a great job as we are here to write this to you ! »

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