Liam
I don’t have a D385, but i do have a D365 that i fitted a life raft to about 3 years ago as the old one was way out of date when i bought the boat. Below was where i fitted it and why
1. When i bought to boat it had an existing out of date 4 man life raft in its bag in one of the cockpit lockers. I could have got it re-packed but it was quite old and had to be stored in a locker. As is usual in lockers it was covered in a power cable and mooring lines
2. If you only sail coastal waters, the probability of needing it is extremely low. I talk a lot to UK Coastguards (always good to talk to them as you never know when you may require their help), i asked various RNLI crews how often had UK coastal boat crews had to take to a life raft, the very simple answer from every single one of them was NEVER. So probability of having to take to a life raft in coastal waters is very very small
3. However, its your life and your crews life and what price do you put on it, the answer should be everything. And when you really need a liferaft, you may only get 20-30 seconds to deploy it. So if it’s buried in a locker, you might as well not have one, you will never get it out in time. And it may not be you that has to get it out, you may be incapacitated, so anyone on board needs to be able and know how to deploy it.
4. If you do more than coastal sailing then all of the above is even more important
5. So based up the above i bought a new 4 man liferaft, and fitted it to the push pit. The push pit or coach roof is probably the only places you will get to in a hurry, if its in a locker, it will probably get buried under the other stuff in there
6. So i bought it based upon the basis that there is very high likelihood i will never ever deploy it, but if i need to i can in seconds, not minutes. But at around £750.00 i don’t care, my life is worth that to me and my loved ones
7. so that’s what i did, and i was happy with the decision 3 years ago and didn’t give it another thought.
8. Then being based in Lymington UK South coast i watched the start of last years (2023) Fastnet offshore race, in “interesting” weather and sea conditions. One very experienced French crew (Multiple ocean crossings as a crew on the same boat) took to their liferaft 2 miles west of the Needles. If you visit Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, right next to the lifeboat is a little artist shop and the artist is a member of the offshore lifeboat. He was part of the lifeboat crew that rescued the race crew and videoed it, if you go in his studio he will show you the video of the rescue. All i can say was the two french sailors had eyes like saucers and knew they were lucky to be alive. And the lifeboat crewman confirmed exactly where to fit a liferaft. Somewhere it only takes 20-30 seconds to deploy and then live with the fact you will never deploy it, but if you need to you can. They never recovered the yacht and have no idea why it sunk, but it was very fast. Even though they were in coastal waters, it was in really bad weather and huge seas, so very rarely it happens
9. So sorry if my answer is a bit blunt, but talking to RNLI crewman over the last 15 years makes you aware of what really happens in an emergency. The two biggest reasons for fast evacuation was boat fire or hitting a partial submerged obstruction, mainly large containers. Both mean a fairly prompt evacuation and also limited boat movement. If its on the transom pushpit, its the easiest place to vacate
10. You will still probably never need it in lifetime of sailing if its just coastal waters