I've been wanting to move to a rail deployed life raft for quite a while now.  As my wife and I grow older, picking up and moving a fairly heavy raft from the locker under the cockpit sole, tying the line to the rail and then tossing it over the side seems like an increasingly difficult task.    Not so much now, but give me a few years..... :-)

I'm probably going to put it on e-Bay to see if someone wants it for the Newport to Bermuda race (its an ocean/ISO-certified 6 person raft) but I was wondering about the potential for just fabricating a rail mount cage for the current bag/raft.   In other words,  pull a pin and the bag (which is already tied to the rail) falls into the water and deploys. 

Considerations

1.   The cost of fabrication.  LRSE has rail deployed rafts in hard cases for a few thousand dollars.  It should make sense given the new raft option. 

2.   The hard case versus the bag.   It would be nice if it could move into a hard case, but not all manufacturers give you that option.   I suppose you could fabricate a case as well, but now (1) above comes into play again.   If you don't put it in a hard case, then you still need some kind of secure cage to hold the bag in rough water,   and then I don't know how the bag would wear over time.

3.    Selling the raft is only likely to happen locally.   There are HAZMAT charges above and beyond shipping,  which is itself obscene.    I had someone wanting to buy it from me, but looking into shipping it cross-country made the total cost more than a new, rail deployed, raft. 

4.    My current raft is up for its 3 year maintenance this year and before I put 1/3rd the cost of a new raft into re-certifying the old one,  I'd like to have some confidence in the decision. 

5.   Freeing up the cockpit liferaft locker allows it to be used for other things (lifejackets, ditch bags, fishing gear, whatever..

I suppose I could just buy a new rail deployed raft and keep trying to sell the current raft. It might take time, but I'm not building some kind of kludge that a potential boat buyer down the road would make an issue.    I could also just kick the can down the road and worry about it when I am 3-5 years older..

Has anyone done anything like this?   Any ideas?

We originally had a 8 person raft in a soft bag but replaced it with a 4 person raft in a bag and store it under the floor. We opted for the 4 person because we normally only have 3 onboard during any long crossings (1200+nm) and normally only 2 onboard for shorter crossings. On local trips we only have 4 onboard. But as they say if you had 6 onboard they would squeeze into a 4 person raft. The 4 person bag is not too heavy and I can easily lift it on deck and then just push it over the stern. The Ocean Safety raft <24hrs in a bag weights 28KG where as the 6 weights 36kg. Purchase price and 3 yearly service price on the 4 person is also cheaper. 8 Person weights in at 40.5kg. 

The 3 year service to re-certify is about 1/3rd the cost of a new raft that would rail deploy.   Of course if I buy a new, rail deployed, raft, then I have this raft sitting on a shelf somewhere.   Selling it is not easy as there are hazmat fees and high shipping costs for life rafts.

I like our raft.  Its an ISO certified, offshore quality raft that gets good marks from LRSE.   A new one would cost quite a bit more than we paid originally.     I'm just not sure about the ease of getting it to the rail in rough weather.    

Thanks