A life-ring for the 21st century

UK-based Salvare Worldwide is best known for its innovative inflatable survival platform, the Seapod, but now the company says its new smaller cousin, the Mini-Pod, is proving to be just as popular across even more markets.

Like the Seapod, the aim of the Mini-Pod is to provide a place of refuge and buy hours rather than minutes for survivors waiting to be rescued from the sea.

Although it doesn’t take the place of a life raft or life jacket, the device solves the age old problems of quick deployment, visibility, and keeping a casualty safely out of the water to delay the onset of hypothermia.

Salvare says that the Mini-Pod attracted a great deal of attention at Seawork International this year. That’s largely due to the fact that it has all the qualities of its cousin the Seapod but it’s much smaller and oblong shaped, meaning it’s lighter in weight and quicker to deploy in man overboard situations.

As well as being suitable for stowage on board large ships, coastal vessels and small boats, Salvare says it’s also highly suited to the helicopter and aircraft markets.

Because of its compact size, the Mini-Pod can be deployed to survivors within a very accurate range, which is not always possible to do with a life raft due to its weight and size.

The Mini-Pod auto inflates and because of its symmetrical design, it will always inflate the right way up. Salvare claims that it is not hugely affected by wind conditions and the skirt around the outside adheres to the water surface, making the whole platform extremely stable in all conditions.

The Mini-pod has a small freeboard which enables easy boarding even when wearing a life jacket. Rescuers can either pull survivors back to the boat in a man overboard situation, or come alongside the survivor and use the Mini-Pod’s buoyancy to help get the victim back onboard.

Like the Seapod, the Mini-Pod is equipped with Solas approved LED lighting and its highly visible bright Yellow/Orange colour makes it easy to spot out at sea.