Firstly, is a 22 foot boat that goes further than 3 miles from shore required by SOLAS laws to carry a life raft?

Secondly, your reply sounds like the excuses that victims of boat accidents come out with after they have been rescued.

If a group end up in the water it is very hard to keep together, each person in that situation would really benefit from a PLB.

At 20 miles out, the water is going to be cold. If no one notices your distress, you have failed radio coms and have to rely on the Epirb to alert to a problem; you could be in the water for some time. If you have an older 121.5 Mhz Epirb you could be in the water for 6 hours before the message is passed to the relevant ground resources. You may be an hour’s flight time for a helo. You are likely to be at least very cold if not floating face down.

Relying on NOAA and USCG reports can not be relied on. Weather reporting is very fickle at the best of times. I think it was the Kennedy plane crash where one of the contributing factors was poor weather forecasts. There are plenty other examples of this fact too.

Cost and space is again a common excuse for not having equipment and another is my boat is unsinkable. If you can afford a boat you should be a able to afford the safety equipment. Space is a very poor excuse; there are always options available to you that take up dead space.

I’m not judging you, just highlighting the facts. At the end of the day the decisions are yours.