I understood that ships only need rigid hulled lifeBOATS for a proportion of those on board, but must have inflatable lifeRAFTS for the rest.
What I've most recently read is that each side of the ship must have enough fully-enclosed lifeboats to accommodate 50% of the passengers or more, plus enough rigid or inflatable liferafts to accommodate 25%, for a total capacity of 125%.
Firstly a rigid hulled boat is preferable for the sick, injured, very old, or very young, but the able bodied should be fine in rafts.
True. Long-term survival at sea is significantly impacted by the availability of overhead cover. Also, a fully-enclosed lifeboat may be survivable (if tremendously uncomfortable) in sea states that would throw anybody out of a liferaft.
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