If you are concerned about your safety,you will ensure that your
liferaft is firmly attached to the deck and is equiped with a hydrostatic release mechanism. You should never store it below deck.
You will not be able to deploy the raft manually if you have been run down by a large merchant vessel during bad weather were your yacht just looks like another broken wave on the vessels
radar.
A father and child were lost off the northeastern tip of the North Island of New Zealand in just such circumstances. The mother survived because she was lucky enough to grab hold of a partially inflated dingy that had been stored on deck and the prevailing winds and current finally took her to land after four or five days.