i also think you can rent epirbs from boat us or west marine....

For clarification of above

1. Indentify who will be in charge PRIOR to leaving the harbor . . NOT when it is time to abandon ship. Often there are disputes as the S*#t is hitting the fan. It is imparitive that the chain of command be fully understood prior to any type of crisis response. See my post above on breaking the fishing team into two teams.


2."keeping the raft tied to the boat"

While the raft should obviously be deloyed prior to the boat sinking and must be secured to the boat, you should NEVER leave a boat that is still afloat.

As the saying goes - never get in the raft unless you are stepping up to it.

A great read on this topic is "Fasnet Force 10". The book recounts the events of the 1979 Fastnet Race when 15 lives were lost. In several cases in that horrible tragedy, sailors died in rafts only learn that the original boats were still afloat days latter.

The worse case was the vessel "Gramalkin" - the crew left one man for dead on the boat and presumably got in the raft. In the end he was not dead - and today is the only survivor of the Gramalkin

Bob - you are right - never say never. Each case demands a separate assesment.

The point is that many boats are abandoned prematurely and this error plays out with amazing frequency.

In a storm senario (much different than fire) a raft is not a "safe" place to be. Rafts tear, tumble, and are very dangerous places, they are a last resort. A partially flooded boat with broken windows and no power can be safer than a raft.

That said your point is a good one - "you just have to evaluate the conditions at hand"

Hopefully none of us will ever need to make those evaluations

When running at night, its a good idea to have some means to quickly find a crewman that accidently falls overboard. Most of the guys I fish with all wear some sort of floatsuit for the ride out (keep in mind we fish aboard an Intrepid CC so it can get a little wet and cool on the ride out) with either glow sticks or a water activated strobe attached to the suit. While there's no guarantee that the sticks or strobe will stay attached on impact, it's just an added "comfort" measure.

Excellent point Mermaid. We have them on our lifejackets-probably should have them on us at all times.