By Editor, Jun 26 2019 12:43PM
Martin had an old out of date valise life-raft and suggested that we might us it for a demonstration of how to launch, inflate and potentially board a life-raft.
So after one of our regular monthly meetings we took said raft down to the waterside, gathered around, and shoved it into the water.
A couple of our lady members then tried tugging the painter line without success [Lesson 1: it's harder to get it to inflate that you might think!], but with a couple of gents helping out we managed to get the valise to pop open and start inflating….
To a chorus of Ooh’s and aaah’s it began to look as if we were about to have a successful launch, however….
Shortly after the hissing and whining sounds had begun, and the life raft had started taking a recognisable shape….
There was a rather loud pop/bang and a puff of talc, as the life raft exploded. It seems that the inner latex core and outer plastic of the raft had hardened, or perished and once a certain level of pressure was reached they both gave way!!!
Lesson 2: Life rafts go out of date for a reason!!!!
