Life Raft

We knew we wanted one for offshore safety, but where the heck to you put one?

Much thought went into this before purchasing one at our St. Pete Sail Boat Show a few years ago. The options manufacturers are good, but you have to know in advance of purchase, what your measurements are with a mounting location if you want things to work out as planned. I finally had decided the only practical place for us, was just forward of the aft cockpit, on the back of the pilothouse. We never use that companionway, designed and built into the boat as a second means of entry/exit and actually use the steps for it as a library shelf and soon to be LCD TV location.

All worked out well, by adding some strong teak bracing across this unused entranceway to attach the life raft case to. We now have a sunbrella white cover for it that also disguises that it is even a life raft and looks like an extension of the pilothouse roof. I'll take and add a photo of it here soon.