The best liferaft is the yacht

Sea survival is a ladder of ever-worse options, and the whole subject is about staying on the highest rung: ON THE BOAT. The statistics are blunt — a crew that stays aboard a damaged, even waterlogged yacht almost always outlives one that takes to the water early. So the first survival skills are deck skills: jackstaysjackstaysThe webbing lines along the deck you clip a harness tether to.full glossary → rigged before they are needed, harness clipped moving forward at night and in any sea, one hand for the ship, and the worst job done by the most rested person.

The lifejacket only works as worn, and only works WELL when fitted: crutch strap (a jacket without one rides up over your face in the water), sprayhood (waves keep coming after you inflate), light, whistle, and ideally a PLBPLBA pocket-sized personal satellite distress beacon, registered to a person.full glossary → or AISAISAutomatic Identification System — transmitting vessels broadcast identity, position and course. A clear screen is not a clear sea.full glossary → beacon in the pocket — because the modern person-overboard problem is not flotation, it is being FOUND. Service it annually; firing a ten-year-old cylinder during an emergency is a bad time for the first test.

Respect the water’s arithmetic: UK sea temperatures are cold enough that survival time is measured in single hours for the unprotected, and capability — the strength to swim, climb, hold on — fades far sooner than life does. Every decision downstream of this lesson is shaped by that clock.