Revere Offshore Elite vs Viking RescYou Life Rafts

[DavidBostonWhal]

Both are excellent brands and models, but I always go with Viking on things like this. Might be that I know the owner, but I know the quality that goes into their life rafts is unparalleled... Citimarinestore.com has both of these life rafts at decent prices. Might find them cheaper elsewhere, but I couldn't find any better source myself.

[deluxe68]

Originally Posted by JamuJoe

Among other factors, consider the service interval. The Revere Offshore Elite (which I've just ordered) is 3 years.

Some Switlik rafts now have 5 year intervals. They put some of the supplies in a separate bag so they can be updated without getting into the raft.

[autumnbreeze27]

If you are on Facebook, there's a guy who recently posted on SSCA's FB page about problems getting a response from Viking about an issue with his RescYou 4.

[ewsponberg]

I know this is an old thread, but I am interested if anyone has experience with the rail mount for Viking Life rafts. We just purchased a Viking RescYou Pro 4-person life raft for our 35' sloop, and we bought the deck mount frame and the rail mount kit. All not cheap, and the life raft in the canister is HEAVY! The rail mount kit itself looks robust enough, but I am not sure my rail on my stern pulpit is up to the task. Has anyone had experience with the Viking rail mount kit, and what was that experience. My inclination is to forego the rail mount and bolt the mounting frame to the coach roof. We are intending to leave St. Augustine, FL, in a few months for the Bahamas, Caribbean, and around the world.

Eric

[Suijin]

I would be EXTREMELY concerned about hanging something that heavy off the back of my pushpit, if only because of leaks at the stanchion bedding, regardless of the mounting kit. I suppose you could reinforce the whole rail somehow.

I'm surprised you went for a canister on boat that size. There are fairly compact four person rafts in valise form that are easier to stow in lazarettes and cockpit lockers.

[Celestialsailor]

The back of my boat already looks like the circus came to town. My concern would be loosing it off the back and saying "goodbye to 3 grand! I have a Viking valise stowed under the V-berth. Although it is still heavy, not as much as a hard canister type.

[ewsponberg]

Originally Posted by Suijin

I would be EXTREMELY concerned about hanging something that heavy off the back of my pushpit, if only because of leaks at the stanchion bedding, regardless of the mounting kit. I suppose you could reinforce the whole rail somehow.

I'm surprised you went for a canister on boat that size. There are fairly compact four person rafts in valise form that are easier to stow in lazarettes and cockpit lockers.

Thanks, Suijin. We considered the valise, but decided that it would still be really difficult to get it up on deck in an emergency. Also, while we have a lot of storage room in the boat, there are hatch openings to go through, and these are not so big that a valise would easily slip through. On our previous voyage on a 27' sailboat, we had a 4-man Avon life raft on the coach roof, and that proved an OK place, so that was (is) our Plan B in this case if the rail mount does not work out. Thanks for your comments.

And to Celestial Sailor, thanks. We have a scoop stern where, conceivably, we could mount the life raft on the transom. But that would totally negate any possibility of getting on and off the boat, which we do over the transom. Our access under the berths and behind the seats is through smaller openings in the panels, and we can't really get big objects through them. And I don't want to go cutting them up. I think on deck is the best solution for us. Thanks for your comments.

Eric

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

The back of my boat already looks like the circus came to town. My concern would be loosing it off the back and saying "goodbye to 3 grand! I have a Viking valise stowed under the V-berth. Although it is still heavy, not as much as a hard canister type.

Awesomely funny... and unfortunately accurate for most of us !

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by ewsponberg

Thanks, Suijin. We considered the valise, but decided that it would still be really difficult to get it up on deck in an emergency.
Eric

Ha ha...Eric...you would be surprised how adrenaline can take the difficulty away from situations...

[Mara Mae]

I am going to have to make this decision sometime next year. I am hearing too often that a significant number of life rafts (less then 50%, but more than 30%) fail to deploy or deploy poorly. I am asking which model has the best deployment reliability? If this is even an actual recorded performance figure. I know I want the smallest one since it is just my wife and I.

[ewsponberg]

We are still happy with our Viking Pro liferaft. It is mounted on our coach roof. We had it serviced last year here in Australia which involved opening it up, replacing the perishables, and reassembling it again. My wife wrote a blog piece about that, which you can see here (scroll about a quarter of the way down for a video of the liferaft inspection that we produced) Link: https://www.arlissryan.com/stir-crazy-in-february/.

Cheers,

Eric

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Mara Mae

I am going to have to make this decision sometime next year. I am hearing too often that a significant number of life rafts (less then 50%, but more than 30%) fail to deploy or deploy poorly. I am asking which model has the best deployment reliability? If this is even an actual recorded performance figure. I know I want the smallest one since it is just my wife and I.

Got any real statistics that support this statement? I seriously doubt that modern rafts that are current in their inspection have anything like these online rumor failure rates. There was the story of some cruisers who had old rafts (I believe they were in NZ) that were beyond economic viability to service and repack, so they decided to just pull the string on them and see how they performed. Surprise, there were some failures.