life rafts

[Steplift 72']

Those coastal rafts I've seen varied from the offshore or commercial models by the number of air chambers in the flotation tubes. Some coastal models have only 1 chamber and 1 flotation tube. There may also be a difference in the ballast chambers. The high quality rafts often have volume of water ballast. I've had 2 rafts, one was found floating and the other was given to me because it was out of date. It turned out there was no local site to refurbish the raft and my kids ended up playing with it behind the house in the boat slip because we were unsure if it worked (it did work perfectly when activated....wished we'd kept it onboard). I've been 140 miles offshore without one, but things like your kids or grandkids onboard make you grow up and have some responsibility.