old liferaft

Having bought the new liferaft, I took the old one off the boat this afternoon.... Its a 4 man Avon, built in 1973, and last serviced in Jan 1995 With a rusty gas cylinder and a decidedly tatty bag held together with bits of string of various types, I decided it was worthless, and so fired it iff in the back garden.... It inflated beautifully! Observations though....1] It took at least a full minute to inflate fully.. suprised me how long it took...2] The rubber was decidedly unhealthy looking in places, especially on the floor.... although it has thus taken 2 hours of vigorous children playtime!3] The batteries were significantly past their sell by date... although they did make the light work... for about 6 or 7 minutes!4] The design is aged.... no boarding ladder, no self righting lines, limited kit inside... and no knife to cut the painter....5] Don't expect a penthouse suite.... 'cosy' would be the correct term for four people!But nontheless... impressive stuff inflating perfectly at 33yrs old, and 11 years after its last service.. well done Avon! It now sits still inflated in my back garden... reports coming this way soon on how long it stays inflated..... Besides that, I got the new liferaft fitted. It went in perfectly just below the kicker... I also filled the old holes in the deck, and finally, and most importantly, I managed to get both the new batteries installed successfully.... the fridge immediately kicked into life!.....