Not to be harsh but has anyone really tried to deploy these rafts in less than ideal conditions and to get, keep, them together for mutual support? A major problem with the General Belgrano case was the rafts were scattered by wind and waves as soon as they were inflated because they have no means of propulsion or attitude control. In a storm situation during a yacht race these units were not successful. Most were blown away, destroyed or capsized before they could be boarded. The crews that fared the best didn't try to use their rafts.

Made only worse by the simple fact that these units are virtually impossible to maneuver. If one was to be blown even slightly away from the others during deployment about the only way your going to get it reconnected to the group would be to use a throwing line or send over a swimmer with it. The two crews could then close the distance by sweating the line. Even this is profoundly limited as a hundred feet or so is the limits of a throwing line and an unprotected swimmer in cold water isn't going to go far. I also doubt any raft will have a line longer than a few hundred feet. Once outside a little less than twice that range, one line from each boat, nothing could be done.

Even if the ship was to be just a short distance cross-wind of land the sailors using these rafts would either have to swim for it and risk drowning by exhaustion or hypothermia or accept their fate of being blown away from relative safety.

Some number of civilian sailboaters have cited this lack of maneuverability as the main reason for not carrying a raft. Their plan is to use a dinghy or tender as their escape. What these alternatives lack in quick and fail-safe deployment and compact/lightweight storage is made up by the ability to maneuver. This ability is seen as a major advantage in that once deployed they have some ability to stay together and/or actively seek landfall or rescue.

At a recent visit to a harbor I noted that the British warships all had modern self-righting and maneuverable lifeboats of some sort in evidence. I don't know if these were in great enough numbers for the entire crew but it was interesting to see the differences between the US Navy with rows of life raft pods that leaves them as passive victims and the Brits, with their more practical naval traditions and nautical mindset, with boats that can be actively sailed out of danger and toward rescue.

I realize this is a bit outside of the central thrust of the topic, equipping existing rafts, but are you aware of any research in finding some answer better than these glorified kiddie floats? Perhaps a hybrid between a north sea lifeboat and a raft. Something that could be deployed without blowing away and that would give the sailors an active role on their fate without being excessively heavy, bulky or expensive.