One of the first things I needed to do in preparation for the next Bermuda 1-2 race in June 2013 was to get Robin's life raft inspected and repacked. So I began making phone calls, searching for a company to do the work. First, I called the nearest re-packing company, less than 50 miles from home. They could  tell me it would cost $160.50 for them to open the "valise" -- the bag containing the raft -- but they could not tell me what the final bill would be.
A life raft contains flares, lights and other items, some of which have expiration dates. Robin's raft is five years old and was scheduled for reinspection in 2010. Because we didn't race in 2011, we skipped the inspection and now the raft's flares and batteries are all out of date.
I don't want to go into a reinspection not knowing how high the cost could rise, and this company wouldn't even tell me if the repack could cost more than a new raft.
So I called the next closest company, where a man -- we'll call him Fred -- said that he would charge $285 to open the raft. He said he'd call back with the full cost of the re-packing.
I proceeded to call other companies -- in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Frank called back in 15 minutes. He said the total cost would be $850. "Bring cash and we can do it for $650," he said.
I knew the price was good. The question was: How good would the job be? I imagined needing the raft in a gale out past the Gulf Stream and finding it wouldn't inflate because Fred had left out the inflation bottle to save me $200.
I wouldn't be doing business with Fred.
But I was concerned someone else might take his deal and pay a bigger price. So I called up the manufacturer of my life raft, on whose web page I'd found Fred's phone number. I asked how they chose vendors whose names made it to their list of inspection stations. The young lady on the phone said the manufacturer tested the vendors to be sure they knew what they were doing.
So I told her about Fred's offer and of the concerns it raised with me. She said her company couldn't dictate a vendor's prices.
It's not about the price, I said, and I suggested her company run a sting operation, calling Fred as a consumer and asking the same questions I asked.
She said she was sorry for my experience. She offered no action to address my actual fears. And she didn't offer to let me talk to her boss or anyone else in the company.
So I'm writing this to let other boaters be aware of the issues they face when dealing with safety equipment. Here's hoping no one finds themself with an item that fails when they need it because they obtained it from a disreputable business.