Safety equipment and raft 2025. Let’s have clarity
THE PERFECT GIFT!
Give or treat yourself to a subscription to the print + digital Journal of Sailing and for only 69 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.

For new safety equipment and lifesaving equipment for recreational vessels (here is our proposal to standardize the review of rafts to French criteria by lengthening the review deadlines) comes clarification from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
In fact, the ministry’s “Directorate General for the Sea, Maritime Transport and Inland Waterways,” in a circular dated Jan. 17, responded to some questions posed by Confindustria Nautica concerning doubts about the application of some new introduced with the updated Regulations of the Recreational Code in effect since last October. These are the key points.
Safety endowments 2025: review and expiration
The new Regulations of the Recreational Code regarding the maintenance of safety equipment on board prescribe that the manufacturer’s recommendations stated in the accompanying documentation or stamped on the product must be “observed.” In this regard, the ministerial circular specifies that:
– for life-saving appliances and safety equipment whose production begins after the issuance of the ministerial circular (January 17, 2025), the manufacturer is obliged to provide accompanying documentation containing recommendations for the product or to stamp the same recommendations on the product itself;
– for life-saving appliances and safety equipment whose production began or ended before the ministerial circular (January 17, 2025), the manufacturer is obliged to make the recommendations available to customers through their publication in downloadable Pdf format on the company’s website or in hard copy.
The revision and expiration times given in the manufacturer’s recommendations, run from the date of manufacture shown on the products. The yachtsman is obliged to acquire them and keep them on board, proceeding, if necessary, to the replacement of life-saving appliances and safety equipment that, according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, have expired or whose renewal is recommended due to old age.
In the event of inspections by the inspection authorities, any absence of recommendations on board or non-compliance with the manufacturer’s recommendations is not punishable until 21/10/2025.
Identification of rescue means
The new regulations require life jackets to be identified with the unit’s initials and registration number (or the number registered in the Central Telematic Archive of Recreational Craft).
The ministry in this regard specifies that the identification must be done by the owner (or leased user or owner) on the lifejacket label, on a “similar system,” or, failing that, using an indelible marker directly on the lifejacket. For (unregistered) vessels, identification of life-saving appliances and safety equipment is not mandatory, but can be done to ensure that they can be traced back to the vessel.
Safety Equipment 2025: Coastal raft beyond 12 miles
One of the most appreciated new features of the new Regulations to the Recreational Code stipulates that “vessels sailing beyond 12 miles from the coast and within the limit of the national search and rescue area (Sar zone), if equipped with electronic geo-locating instruments, may have on board the collective life-saving means provided for navigation within 12 miles from the coast.” That is, the “coastal raft” instead of the traditional raft.
The circular specifies that electronic geo-location tools are defined as the Gps and Epirb, which must be on board at the same time. The Epirb can also be replaced by a satellite phone equipped with a device to send distress message to the national coordination and rescue center of the Harbor Master’s Office (Imrcc).
Coastal raft replacement dinghy
The new Regulations now allow the coastal raft to be replaced by a tender (inflatable boat) for navigation within 12 miles of the coast. In this regard, the ministry points out that:
– for boats and recreational vessels , the tender replacing the coastal raft must be not less than 2.5 meters in length and have a capacity at least equal to the number of persons on board, including the crew, if any. In the case of vessels, there must be at least two tenders, with a total capacity at least equal to the maximum number of persons the vessel is licensed to carry including any crew.
– The dinghy (complying with EC regulations) must be kept inflated, placed on the deck in the sailing position and not capsized, so that it can be launched with (even) manually operated devices. The tender must then be kept in good maintenance condition, with no deterioration or deficiencies that would impair its efficiency. In case of inspection by inspection bodies, it must show itself “on sight” intact, free of discoloration and in good condition.
– Each tender must be equipped with the minimum emergency equipment required for a coastal raft, viz: inflating bellows, fixed-blade knife with floating handle attached to a line and stowed in a pocket near the tender’s attachment point, waterproof flashlight with suitable batteries stored separately in a waterproof bag, pebble, repair kit with a number of pieces of various sizes and mastic suitable for repairing the tender, paddles (outside the equipment container), sponge, whistle, water container (per person).
– The container of the minimum emergency equipment must be connected to a floating anchor by means of a 30-meter-long floating line (breaking strength not less than 5 kN), must be airtight, resealable, and on the outside stamped with the manufacturer’s name, its contents, and individual quantities of materials, highlighting those subject to expiration. The container must also have retroreflective tape with a minimum total area of not less than 1,000 cm2.
– Perishable materials (water and electric batteries) must be replaced on the dates specified in the manufacturer’s recommendations by the owner (or leasing user, if any).
– In view of the fact that the minimum emergency equipment is sold separately from the life raft, the manufacturer must also arrange for the container to be stamped with space for the initials and the registration number in the paper register or the identification number recorded in the Central Telematic Archive of Recreational Units of the unit to which they belong.
– Verification of tender compliance, as well as the integrity of emergency equipment and any necessary replacements , are the responsibility of the person assuming command of the unit while underway or at berth.
In choosing between a coastal raft and a tender, the ministerial circular reminds that among the essential safety requirements of the standards, possible effects resulting from:
– Variation in the working area of recreational units. That is, of the safe use of the area outside the deck to allow people to stand or walk during normal use of the unit, in relation to the prevention of falls overboard and recovery operations, the field of view from the command position, and the proper use of the deck safety line;
– change in the stability or buoyancy of the unit, which could be adversely affected by the embarkation of weight in a position not intended by the manufacturer during design and construction.
Inflatable boats and emergency kits
Finally, the ministerial circular explains that the guidance in the previous items (minimum emergency equipment, deadlines and replacement of perishable materials, etc.) also applies to inflatable boats when sailing within 12 miles of the coast if they are equipped with the emergency equipment kit instead of the coastal raft.
Fabrizio Coccia
Share:
Are you already a subscriber?
Ultimi annunci
Our social
Sign up for our Newsletter
We give you a gift
Sailing, its stories, all boats, accessories. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the Sailing Newspaper editorial staff each week. Plus we give you one month of GdV digitally on PC, Tablet, Smartphone. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button. You will receive a code to activate your month of GdV for free!
You may also be interested in.
Pure 42 (12.90 m), the aluminum deck saloon coming from Germany
The German shipyard Pure Yachts is a recently established brand that has decided to focus everything on building aluminum boats with modern lines, also designed for fun sailing as well as being world-turning boats. The shipyard has produced two models
Reboat: so your old boat becomes new
Recover hulls of boats with a few years on their backs, strip them bare, and rebuild them to today’s standards and owner’s needs. Reboat revives your boat This is the excellent idea of Reboat, which officially opened the gates
USED Classic Boat. Top Five Oyster Boats (11 – 20 m)
The landscape relating to Classic Bo ats-that is, production boats over twenty-five years old and launched since 1967-is a vast and ever-expanding one, made up of hulls of all shapes and sizes and, perhaps, not as easily “navigable” as one
VIDEO – Heyman 42, the Pilot House for sailing anywhere
Northern Europe with its shipyards is a very interesting market for the sailing world, and BOOT in Düsseldorf is the fair of choice. One of the boats we were waiting to see at BOOT was definitely the Heyman 42, a