Hi Ed,

 

I notice from the Hanse owners website that you plan to do some offshore

racing with Scorpio. Have you decided where to put a liferaft and will it be a valise or canister? Our 342 is hopefully arriving in April but I am unsure where is the best place for the liferaft. Any thoughts on this?

 

Kind regards,

 

I already had a 4 man canister liferaft before getting Scorpio - we're going to keep it in a cradle on the coach roof between the sprayhood and the saloon hatch.

 

Although it's out of the cockpit and a bit high up, it seems out of the way - it also keeps the weight out of the end of the boat.  I was a bit worried about having all that weight right aft on the pushpit which was the alternative place to put it.  My philosophy is that you never leave the yacht to got to the liferaft, the yacht leaves you and the liferaft to get on with it, or alternatively, you only ever step up into a liferaft - so having it high up is good! 

 

I can probably post a photograph if you are interested.

 

Ed

 

Hi Ed,

 

Thanks for the info - A photo would be great if possible.  Presumbly the cradle is attached by drilling through the deck into the cabin?.

 

Thanks, Jim

 

For the benefit of all, I thought I would post the photograph here:

 

This shows the cradle (without the liferaft) on the coach roof mounted on the hatch cover.  The hatch cover is held in place by six screws and sikaflex.  To fit the cradle, Hanse cut the sikaflex out and removed the screws and then through bolted the cradle onto the cover with backing penny washers and then replaced the whole cover screwed it down and secured it with sikaflex.

 

In case anyone raises concerns about the hatch cover not being through bolted, I have seen a yacht with the keel bolts removed sitting in slings with the only thing holding the keel in place being sikaflex - it took the boatyard a couple of hours to cut through the sikaflex and separate that keel!

 

Ed

 

PS The TackTick instruments were new and put out in the sun to top up their charge.