Merchies also have a line over the side while at anchor. The Merchies have a lifering tied to the line, to help the person in the water have something larger than the line to grab hold of.

I've never seen it dragged while the vessel was u/w but I can think of many reasons why that would be fruitless in any situation.

Modern PFDs with Hydrostatic Inflators are pretty reliable and not a problem. Even the designs with pills are much less likely to be a problem these days than in older designs. For sailing especially, auto-inflating is the way to go. Too often you may end up in the water unconscious and it needs to take care of you, IMHO.

Are there any PLBs that both float and are stable enough in water to get an active GPS lock?

No. All a floating PLB can be expected to do is not sink. It cannot even be expected to maintain the antenna out of the water to transmit a distress (though some may under calm, very calm, conditions). If you want "stable" in the water, you want an EPIRB. a small and personal beacon and stable in the water are pretty much mutually exclusive. <g> The concept is that YOU are stable in the water (far more so than an EPIRB, BTW) and will hold the PLB in the best orientation.

Hi Doug, thanks for the quick response!

Ok, two questions:

1) So you think it is at least plausible that a person could handhold a PLB in somewhat rough water long enough for it to make contact? (I'm not talking about storm conditions; think 5' waves rather than 10' waves.)

2) Have you done your typical hands on, no holds-barred review of EPIRBs yet? (If so, I missed it.)

For being at sea, there is no substitute for a registered 406MHz EPIRB.

I've had them blurp for a second or two while taking them out of the rack (in the shipyard), to be switched off, not realizing that it had activated, until about an hour later when I would get a phone call from USCG LANTAREA New York, NY; inquiring about our safety!!!

+1 on this any sailor reading it. The copyright on my copy is 1986, so it may be hard to find. But it has a couple of important things that I think are still relevant 20+ years later:
1. don't count on the "survival" supplies packed with the raft.
2. have an way to fix punctures in the raft, and re-inflate it, considering rule 1.
3. have a way to produce potable water, considering rule 1.
4. have a way to get food, considering rule 1.
5. How to improvise a sextant.

I think there have been other threads about life raft contents and their problems, as well as something Les Stroud did on one of his episodes that indicated a similar problem. I have no personal experience in this regard, but think that it should be possible to supplement a life raft's equipment with a floating, sealed (e.g. screw top) large diameter PVC pipe with reliable equipment inside and tied to the raft (or some similar concept), so it goes over the side when the raft does, and stays attached.

While all your points are valid, the most critical difference between then and now is that Steve didn't have a 406 MHz EPIRB and that significantly changes the entire survival equation. While one doesn't want to depend solely on an electronic based means of survival, battery operated devices can still fail, the fact is that they have proven to be remarkably reliable and effective. Today, particularly with EPIRBs and PLBs, such an event should be an extraordinary exception to the rule for a reasonably prepared sailor.

Note please that Steve is a Member of the Board of Directors of the ETS Foundation...

Not a problem, BTDT...



http://www.equipped.org/406_beacon_test_summary.htm
http://www.equipped.org/406_beacon_test2_toc.htm