Alain BOMBARD is the name of that guy : "le naufrag? volontaire" ; he tried to prove that after a sea disater, you can survive in a raft, if you have at least some food and water : he extended the possibilities of survival by drinking rain, fish "juice" and sea water diluted with fresh water, eating fish and plancton...
He arrived in a very bad shape at the end of his "journey", but survive he did !
And - partly - because of his experiment, life rafts are now mandatory abord ships.

I would have to make some research but I don't think he claimed you can simply drink sea water, without consequences...
IIRC at that time, the chances to survive a high sea disaster were supposed to be extremely small. Thus rafts were not useful.
He just wanted to show survival is possible with a minimum of food - and especially water - to start with, items you can improve/make last a long time ...
it won't be holidays, but survival is possible even after a long time lost at sea.

thus the
bombard life rafts

here is another "r?sum?", in real english <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />