Following an incident last year when a fishing boat’s liferaft failed to inflate, the RYA has announced that it is to increase its involvement in the development of industry servicing standards for recreational liferafts.

RYA Technical Manager Ken Kershaw comments “The RYA leading the development of a new servicing standard for liferafts is a natural progression from the work we have already been involved with in writing the liferaft construction standards.”

To date the RYA has been instrumental in developing and writing the new ISO standard recently adopted for construction and manufacture of liferafts for recreational use. Essential features such as areas of operation, fabric and construction, boarding ladders, safety of the gas inflation bottles and equipment carried in the raft itself formed the basis for this standard.