“The liferaft isn’t a pleasant place.” Mara Zapp says this without beating about the bush. As head of the Well Sailing Sailing School She knows how people react to an inflated life raft – and how little many sailors know about the device that is meant to save their lives in the worst-case scenario.
At the Trans-Ocean Summer Gathering on Fehmarn She practised dealing with precisely that kind of emergency with club members. In the interview, the instructor explains what matters most. Her key principle: get into the liferaft without getting wet, keep calm and always think on your feet. After all, no two emergencies are the same. What’s more, anyone who owns a liferaft should know how it works.
YACHT: Climbing into the life raft – a manoeuvre that sailors tend to avoid. A truly exceptional situation. Is it even possible to practise something like this?
Mara Zapp: Of course you can! However, even during training, we realise that every situation is different from the next. Training helps, and you’re certainly better prepared for a real-life emergency. But of course, there’s always something different. A small detail that you have to tackle in a new and creative way. The important thing is to keep an open mind and see what solutions you can come up with and how to apply them.
Could you give an example of this?
Here at the Trans-Ocean summer meet, we had an island where someone had tied the ripcord in a very odd way. As a result, we had to secure it in a completely different way to usual. Normally, you’d pull the ripcord out as far as it would go, then secure it to the cleat. This time, we suddenly had a loop but no end. The problem was that if I don’t know where the end is, I can’t secure it to the cleat. We then came up with a temporary solution using a lifeline. It worked, but it also showed that you always have to stay creative.
Anyone who has a life raft should know how to use it
How high is the demand for this sort of training?
Getting into the life raft is part of the safety training courses, and demand varies greatly. Many schools offer this in a swimming pool, where participants often have to struggle to climb out of the water and into the raft. We, on the other hand, practise getting into the raft from a boat. This is our main focus, as it is, hopefully, what will be feasible in an emergency.
In your view, how important is it to have a life raft on board?
That’s something everyone has to decide for themselves. One thing is clear: everyone has different safety needs. One person might say, ‘I want to have the life raft with me even whilst in the Kiel Fjord.’ Another might not need one at all. But: if you do have a life raft on board, you should also know how it works.
What level of prior knowledge do course participants usually have?
Sailing schools rarely cover the topic of life rafts. That’s why the first step is always to build up a certain basic understanding. It’s straightforward and many people pick it up quickly: secure the raft beforehand, throw it overboard, climb in. Any tips and tricks that come into play later on are just the icing on the cake.
In the end, it’s giving it a go that makes all the difference. Hardly anyone has ever towed one of these things. Why would they? After all, the maintenance is ridiculously expensive. So, outside of training sessions like these, you’ve hardly any opportunity to actually tow a life raft.
Speaking of tips and tricks: what should you pay particular attention to?
It’s important to me that the participants reach the island without getting wet. This is crucial because it drastically increases their chances of survival. That’s why I make sure the participants board the boat safely secured.
They should also have a plan for exactly what to do. This includes: maintaining a safe distance between the island and the boat, securing the line, and carefully climbing over. If there are several people, it’s important to help one another. For example, the first person can guide the second person’s foot. It’s little things like these that ultimately prove helpful when such an emergency arises.
“Stay on the boat for as long as possible”
When is the right time to set foot on the island?
Of course, the boat is always the safest place. So the rule is: stay on the boat until you absolutely can’t any longer – for example, because it’s sinking. That’s the basic rule.
The life raft must be set up in advance; after all, it has to be ready at the last moment. If the boat sinks, you need to be sitting in the life raft. There’s always a knife in the life raft so that you can cut the tether.
What could possibly go wrong with this manoeuvre?
Well, unforeseen things can always happen. It’s possible that not all the CO₂ will flow into the island and that it won’t inflate fully. What’s more, the ripcord could get caught on something and deploy whilst you’re still in the air. When stepping onto the island, you could fall into the water. The island might inflate the wrong way round.
In the latter case, we’ve found that as long as you’re still on the boat, there’s a good chance the island will right itself. It has also happened before that the ripcord – that is, the last connection to the boat – has come loose too early. To sum up: things can always happen that you’d rather avoid. But you should learn how to deal with them.
One Step-by-step guide you can find here.
What’s inside the life raft?
The standard equipment includes Signalling equipment, a lamp, a knife, a paddle and a drift anchor, which is designed to slow down the drift. Most of the equipment is made of PVC – and smells accordingly.
Even the emergency kit containing food is completely shrink-wrapped in plastic. It is important to note that the contents cover only the bare essentials and are by no means a substitute for your own well-thought-out grab bag.
All the content from the YACHT Safety Special:
- Sea Survival Training for Emergencies
- Lifelines: How to use them correctly
- Lifejackets: 24 automatic lifejackets in a major comparison test (150N & 275N)
- Emergency Transmitter – Alert, Search and Find: An Overview of the System
- You should master these MOB manoeuvres!
- Back on board with tips and professional recovery aids
- Prepared for an emergency: 6 checklists for 6 scenarios
How can you prepare for the worst-case scenario without having to inflate your own life raft?
For one thing, there are various types of training – from videos and lectures to manuals. And then there’s the option, as is the case here at Trans Ocean, for clubs to organise such training sessions. I can’t recommend it highly enough; after all, what you do is stored in a different part of the brain to what you simply read or watch.
The best way to prepare: Run through the manoeuvre in your mind
Is there anything on board that we can prepare?
Yes, of course. It helps just to walk around the deck and think about whether the current solution works the way you’d like it to. Where do you attach the ripcord? Where do you hook it in? Where do you step over? Are there better positions for the island? Could someone less strong lift the island over the railing? Is it already tied to the boat? All of this can be planned perfectly well in advance, at your leisure.
What should you always bear in mind when it comes to life rafts?
It helps if there’s as little movement as possible in the boat. And: it really is a last resort. Although in German it’s called a ‘Rettungsinsel’ (life island), in English we simply say ‘life raft’. I think that’s a much more appropriate term. You should always bear in mind that a life raft is not a pleasant place to be!
Fabian Boerger
Editor News & Panorama