liferaft own or hire

[hobbit555]

what are people's thoughts.
how do costs compare


needs to be for 14 persons and solas A pack and suitable for coding to 150miles from a safe haven. have plenty of room for storage so more than 1 raft is possible.
Not really interested in the cheaper end of the market (arimar for example)

Many thanks
Damian

[Andy Moore]

We only have a 4-man (or it might be a 6!) which we own. We make sure we have it serviced every couple of seasons.

[Andy Gee]

Originally Posted by hobbit555

what are people's thoughts.
how do costs compare


needs to be for 14 persons and solas A pack and suitable for coding to 150miles from a safe haven. have plenty of room for storage so more than 1 raft is possible.
Not really interested in the cheaper end of the market (arimar for example)

Many thanks
Damian

More cost effective to rent- fixed yearly cost regardless of what service it requires. We rent 16 person ones from Aberdeen Inflatables (Cosalt) for £500 per year.
HTH
Andy

[Andy Moore]

£500 per annum would put you in the market to buy one, no?

[Doug Stormforce]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

£500 per annum would put you in the market to buy one, no?

16 man SOLAS B to own plus service every year, plus pay for any repairs at the time of service plus pay for SOLAS kit as it expires (First Aid, flares, torch bateries etc.), No.

Hire is definatly the way forward, just knowing that as your raft goes out of date the hire company will send you an in date one and you therefore having no down time is worth a lot. Let alone all of the other benefits.

We pay a bit more than the above for our rafts but took a judgemnet call that in the case of the life raft, hire price is not important.

[SeaSkills]

I own rather than hire. 8 man ISO raft plus grab bag costs me about £1K, plus about £150 pa for service. At the end of it's useful service life it becomes a pool raft for Sea Survival courses (but even if it didn't I think I'd still buy)

[Jon Brooks]

Also there was and still maybe a problem buying a 14 man.
All the rules were changed and last year no one had an approved 14 to buy so the only option was to rent.

We rent and have found it very cost effective both in time and money

[mike]

ditto, costs and no danger of ever having the out of date components.

Norwest marine, absolutely superb, good rafts, good service and good prices.
NB have used 3 companies in the past and none have let me or friends down.
mike

[alystra]

Yep. Renting's the way to go, I'm sure. Owned one when I first operated commercially (a while back now). Ended up costing more than renting - especially after it was condemned. Rent offset against income. No capital outlay. No capital asset. Always up to date. I used Premium Liferaft Services. They were excellent, but this was some time ago and I don't know if they're still around.