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Liferaft Demo at Dockside Marina
21 December 2023 · 5 min · 922 views · Fort Pierce, Florida
What this video covers
A 10-person offshore liferaft, roughly one year past its certification date, is deployed in the pool at Dockside Marina on South Hutchison Island, Fort Pierce, Florida.2:17 Deployment required repeated hard yanking before the raft inflated — a direct demonstration of what a year-overdue certification means in practice.1:55 Once open, the double-tube offshore raft shows ballast bags at each corner, a strobe light on top, handheld rocket flares, catch plugs, a whistle, a sponge, hand pumps, and a repair kit.1:55 Supplies and water are not standard — they depend on what the buyer specifies at purchase, separate from any ditch bag brought aboard.4:10 Ten people fit, but tightly.3:06 Boarding from the water, not stepping in from a docked boat, is identified as the hardest part of liferaft use, and the demonstration ends with a recommendation to take a pool-based boarding class where crew practice water entry under controlled conditions.2:44 Certification intervals — annual, biennial, or triennial depending on the raft — are flagged as essential to reliable deployment.4:52
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