thats weird, i had a hard time lighting lifeboat matches with the strike surface of the lid. In mine tests lifeboat matches work very well on normal match striking surface. In fact that what i use to light lifeboat matches. Scraping of the vanish like layer of the head first will save your striking surface.

i personnaly add lifeboat matches to the match box of the coughlans "waterproof" matches. This way i got waterproof matches and waterresistent matches, which are easier to use and cheaper. I ofcorse throw out some of the coughlans box first before i add the lifeboats to make space. They both work on the same striking surface.