The liferaft is the one piece of safety kit you hope never to use and cannot afford to get wrong. It is also the most confusing to buy, because the choices are wrapped in standards, packs, distances and French regulation that does not always match what you knew at home. I went through this carefully before our first French season, partly because I wanted the right raft and partly because I did not want a French inspection finding I had the wrong one. Here is what I worked out.
First, does France even require one?
This is where many visiting crews get tripped up, so start here. French leisure boating is governed by a regulation called Division 240, and it ties safety equipment to how far you sail from a shelter, not to your flag or your home rules.
The thresholds you need to know:
- Under 2 nautical miles from a shelter: basic equipment, no raft required.
- Between 2 and 6 miles: more kit, still no mandatory raft.
- Beyond 6 miles from a shelter: a liferaft becomes compulsory.
That 6-mile line is the one that matters. Plenty of pleasant French coastal passages stay inside it, hugging the coast bay to bay, and on those you are not legally required to carry a raft at all. The moment you plan to cross a bay or run offshore beyond 6 miles, you must have one aboard. I go through the full equipment ladder in my guide to the division 240 safety equipment for visiting boats, and it is worth reading before you commit to any kit.
A word of caution for British crews used to RYA thinking: France enforces by distance offshore and a control by the Gendarmerie Maritime can and does check. Carry the raft the regulation requires for the waters you actually intend to sail.
ISO 9650-1 or 9650-2?
Liferafts are built to the ISO 9650 standard, and the two sub-categories matter.
ISO 9650-2 is the coastal raft. It is designed for moderate conditions, inflates reliably down to 0 degrees, and is meant for use within a day's reach of rescue. For French coastal cruising just beyond the 6-mile line, this is the category that fits, and it is what French chandlers sell as the Division 240 coastal raft.
ISO 9650-1 is the offshore raft, built for harsher conditions and longer survival, with a tougher specification and extra equipment. If you are crossing Biscay, heading well offshore, or using France as a stepping stone to longer passages, you want the 9650-1.
For coastal France, the 9650-2 is the honest match. Do not over-buy an offshore raft for inshore hopping, and do not under-buy a coastal raft if your real plans run further than the coast.
Valise or canister?
This is a genuine choice with real consequences.
A valise is the soft-pack version. It is lighter, easier to carry, and lives below in a cockpit locker or lazarette. It is cheaper. The catch is that it must be somewhere you can grab and deploy in seconds, and a raft buried under fenders and a folding bike is useless.
A canister is the hard case that mounts on deck or on a stern rail in a cradle, often with a hydrostatic release. It survives weather, deploys fast, and is the better choice for serious offshore work, but it costs more and clutters the deck.
For coastal French cruising with a small crew, a valise in an accessible cockpit locker is the common, sensible answer. Stow it where you can reach it without thinking, not where it fits neatly.
The pack: under or over 24 hours
Coastal rafts come with two equipment packs and the names tell you the logic. The under-24-hour pack assumes rescue comes quickly, which off the French coast within VHF range of CROSS it usually does. The over-24-hour pack adds drinking water and emergency rations for a longer wait.
For inshore French work where a Mayday brings the SNSM lifeboat or a helicopter within hours, the under-24-hour pack is defensible and is what many coastal rafts ship with. If your plans stretch toward Biscay or longer offshore legs, pay for the longer pack. Whatever you choose, know what is and is not in the raft, because what is missing you must carry yourself in a grab bag.
What it costs in 2026
Prices have a wide spread, so here are real 2026 figures. A 4-person ISO 9650-2 coastal raft starts around 1,400 euros for a valise from the mainstream brands, with canister versions a few hundred euros more. Step up to a 9650-1 offshore raft and you are into roughly 2,700 euros and beyond for an under-24-hour 4-person unit. The number of berths drives the price, so do not buy a 6-person raft to carry a couple.
Buy the raft that matches your crew and your waters, not the biggest one in the shop. An over-specified raft is heavier, more expensive and no safer for the cruising you actually do.
The cost everyone forgets: servicing
A liferaft is not a buy-once item. The standard servicing interval is 3 years, and a service is not cheap. The raft must go to an approved station, be unpacked, inspected, its cylinder and equipment checked, and repacked. Skip it and the raft may not inflate when you pull the line, which defeats the entire point, and a French inspection will note an out-of-date service.
Build the servicing cost into your budget from the start. If you are keeping the boat in France long-term, find out where the approved stations are before the certificate runs out, because leaving it to the last week of the season is how people end up stuck.
Stowage and the grab bag
Where the raft lives is as important as what it is, and it is the part crews skimp on. A valise has to be reachable in the seconds you have when things go wrong, not buried at the bottom of the lazarette under the spare anchor and a deflated dinghy. Stow it on top, in a dedicated spot, and tell everyone aboard where it is and how it deploys. A raft you cannot reach in a sinking boat is money spent on reassurance, not safety.
The grab bag is the companion no regulation will force on you but every sensible crew carries. The raft's own pack covers basic survival, but you want your own bag ready to throw in: handheld VHF, spare water, your registered beacon, flares, warm layers, any essential medication, and your passports and ship's papers since you may be rescued straight into a foreign port. Keep it next to the raft. The moment you are deploying a raft is not the moment to be hunting for documents.
One more practical point for visitors: the painter line. The raft is useless if it floats away, so know how its painter attaches to the boat and how long it is, because you inflate the raft while it is still tied on and only cut free once everyone is aboard. Rehearse the sequence in your head before you ever need it.
Fit it into the wider safety picture
A raft is the last resort, not the whole plan. It works alongside the rest of your Division 240 kit and your ability to call for help. Make sure your lifejackets meet French rules so you reach the raft alive, and that your epirb or plb registration in France is current so rescuers know where to come. The raft buys you time; the beacon spends it well.
My short answer
For coastal French cruising that crosses the 6-mile line, fit a 4-person ISO 9650-2 valise raft with the pack that matches how far from rescue you really go, stow it where you can deploy it in seconds, and keep the 3-year service current. Spend around 1,400 euros and a service fee, not the price of an offshore raft you will never test inshore.
If your France is the start of something longer, buy the 9650-1, accept the higher cost, and read it as an investment in the passages ahead rather than the coastal hops in front of you. Match the raft to the worst day you might plausibly have, then hope you spend every season proving the purchase unnecessary.
