We got our Viking 8 person life raft recertified today. Panama Marine was nice enough to let us watch the raft inflation, play with all of the gizmos and look over the contents. These guys are certified for almost all brands of life raft and the tech who worked on our raft had been to many training sessions for various venders. A solid outfit.

I had done the life raft drills for the STCW but it is still really nice to get a good look at your own raft. Hideko enjoyed watching the process as well.

As expected all of the flares and such needed to be replaced. The total would have been around $750 for the service (with pickup and drop off) but it turned out to run $1,300 (about 50% of the cost of a new raft!) because Viking required the replacement of the relief valves.

A life raft is a debatable necessity on a catamaran. If your boat is positively buoyant do you really need a raft? It would be nice to live in the raft tied to the big boat if the big boat was upside down I suppose. Regardless, if you're going to have one you should probably bite the bullet and keep it serviced.