Boat safety equipment: Plastimo and SeaCurity, two European benchmarks

Safety at sea is not decreed; it is prepared. Before even casting off, every sailor knows it: the lifesaving equipment carried on board matters as much as the weather forecast or the state of the sea. But faced with ever-better-stocked chandlery aisles, how do you choose a boat safety equipment brand you can truly trust? After more than forty years wandering the pontoons and sailing along our coastlines, I have ended up with a short list. Very short. Two names appear on it: Plastimo, on the French side, and SeaCurity, on the German side.

Why these two? Because they share a rare profile: a long history, genuine technical legitimacy, and above all a dual culture. These manufacturers equip leisure boaters and sea professionals alike — merchant marine, fishing, search and rescue. It is precisely this dual mandate that, in my eyes, makes them benchmarks in marine safety in Europe. A manufacturer whose life jackets and liferafts must satisfy the requirements of a shipowner or a fishing skipper cannot get by on marketing. It must deliver reliable, robust, tested products. And leisure sailors benefit directly.

In this article, I invite you to discover these two brands: their history, their credentials and their product ranges, to help you equip your boat with complete confidence.

Safety equipment at sea: a subject that forgives nothing

Regulatory requirements, but not only

In France, division 240 imposes a minimum safety outfit depending on your sailing area: basic, coastal, offshore, or long-range. One life jacket per person on board, night-signalling devices, distress flares, a bilge pump, bailing arrangements… The list varies, but the principle remains: each type of navigation has its own level of requirement.

Yet regulation sets a floor, not a ceiling. The true sailor — one who has already taken a breaking wave across the cockpit or hauled a crew member back on board in the dark — knows that approved but poorly designed equipment can prove dangerous at the decisive moment. Hence the value of relying on brands proven by sea professionals, not merely by leisure-boating catalogues.

Why “professional” manufacturers inspire confidence

A brand that equips the merchant marine, professional fishing or rescue organisations is subject to constant scrutiny. Its products must satisfy SOLAS requirements (the international convention for the safety of life at sea) and ISO standards, notably the ISO 12402 series governing life jackets and buoyancy aids in Europe. This level of demand then carries over to the ranges aimed at leisure sailors. It is the best guarantee there is.

Key takeaways

• Plastimo, founded in 1963 in Lorient, is a historic French marine equipment brand: life jackets, liferafts, compasses, deck gear and safety outfits. It equips leisure sailors as well as professionals and the great offshore racers.
• SeaCurity, a German specialist in sea rescue articles based in Munich, designs and distributes equipment for leisure boating and commercial shipping: liferafts, life jackets, man-overboard systems, distress signals.
• Both brands share a dual leisure and professional culture: that is what, to me, makes them European benchmarks.
• Their products meet international standards (SOLAS, ISO 9650 for liferafts, ISO 12402 for life jackets).
• Choosing one of these brands means equipping yourself with gear proven by those who spend their lives at sea.

Plastimo: sixty years of safety, “made in Lorient”

A history born with French leisure boating

Plastimo was founded on 29 April 1963 in Lorient, at the height of the boom in French leisure boating, driven by the unstoppable growth of the Bénéteau and Jeanneau yards (Wikipedia). The starting point was modest: buoys and navigation accessories. But the company grew quickly with its customer base, and its field of activity soon extended to everything on board.

As early as 1970, Plastimo manufactured its famous Transat oilskin in Lorient, the sailor’s working garment par excellence (Plastimo on LinkedIn). In 1971, the brand launched the first waterproof marine compass, a small revolution for navigation (Picksea). And in 1995, when French regulation finally authorised inflatable life jackets in the mandatory safety outfit, Plastimo already had a complete, proven range embraced by its export customers (Plastimo). That is what distinguishes an equipment manufacturer from a mere distributor: being ahead of the standard.

The company’s corporate history — passing under American ownership, successive LBOs, the creation of the Navimo group and then integration into the Alliance Marine holding in 2012 (Wikipedia) — may have shaken its teams, but it never derailed its original vocation. To this day, the design, manufacture and servicing of liferafts are ISO 9001 certified at the Lorient site (Plastimo).

Legitimacy forged offshore and among professionals

What makes Plastimo a benchmark is its presence on every deck — and not only those of family cruising. The brand claims some 11,000 products, an R&D team integrated in Lorient, and a reach across nearly 100 countries, with almost half of its business done abroad (Plastimo, Nautisports).

On the offshore racing side, the greatest names in French sailing have carried its products: François Gabart, Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the 2017 Vendée Globe, and Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (Nautisports). The SLR 196 life jacket, developed with François Gabart, even received the special mention of the jury at the Dame Award 2021 at the Mets trade show in Amsterdam (Nautisports). When equipment crosses the Southern Oceans at the wrist strength of a solo skipper, it will comfortably withstand a family coastal cruise.

On the professional side, Plastimo fully embraces its dual role, describing itself as a dependable crew member for yachtsmen and a reliable partner to the boating and marine industry (Plastimo on LinkedIn). Its SOLAS lifebuoys and approved equipment circulate in fishing and merchant-marine circles. And for the ordinary sailor, it is hard not to mention the timeless classics still made in Lorient: the Cras ruler and the Breton plotter, companions of all our old-school navigation (Plastimo on LinkedIn).

What Plastimo offers

The range covers virtually all of the boat’s safety equipment:

• Inflatable life jackets (manual, automatic or Hammar triggering) and foam models, from children’s versions to offshore jackets with integrated harness, not forgetting a life jacket for the ship’s dog;
• Coastal and offshore liferafts, designed, manufactured and serviced in Lorient;
• Safety tethers and harnesses, developed by the Lorient R&D department;
• Lifebuoys and SOLAS lifebuoy lights;
• Distress signals (flares, smoke signals);
• Marine compasses, navigation instruments, the Cras ruler and the Breton plotter;
• More broadly, all deck hardware, anchoring and deck equipment: the catalogue exceeds 11,000 references.

The famous Pilot 165 jacket, available with or without harness, has become a genuine benchmark on the leisure-marine market (Nautisports).

SeaCurity: German rigour applied to sea rescue

A survival specialist, not a generalist

Compared with Plastimo, the contrast is interesting. SeaCurity GmbH is not a generalist equipment manufacturer: it is a specialist in sea rescue articles, based in Munich, Germany. Its field of action is clearly stated: the development, manufacture and distribution of sea rescue devices and safety articles for sport boating and commercial shipping (BuyingSelling.eu).

This specialisation is a strength. When a company’s entire activity revolves around a single question — how do you keep people alive when the boat is in trouble? — the concentration of expertise is total. SeaCurity stands in the great German tradition of maritime safety equipment, alongside century-old houses such as Secumar, whose century of innovation in life jackets has raised the bar for the entire sector (YACHT).

Leisure and commercial shipping: a dual requirement

Like Plastimo, SeaCurity works across two markets: pleasure boats and yachts on the one hand, commercial shipping on the other (BuyingSelling.eu). This dual exposure obliges the brand to meet the highest standards: its Seamaster series liferafts use fabric tested to ISO 9650 for the buoyancy tubes and materials proven to SOLAS requirements for the canopy, retroreflective tapes and the inflation system (NauticExpo).

In practice, every Seamaster raft carries serious equipment: four water stabilising pockets totalling 220 litres, an inflatable boarding ramp with ladder, a thermally insulated floor, a sea anchor, two relief valves… All vacuum-packed for optimal storage (NauticExpo). These may look like technical details on paper, but they take on a very different dimension when you picture the real scene: in force 6 winds, in the dark, in 12-degree water.

A European maintenance network

Lifesaving equipment must be serviced. SeaCurity understands this well and relies on a dense network of maintenance stations, from Lübeck to Hamburg in Germany, but also in Palma de Mallorca, the Canary Islands, Portugal and beyond (SeaCurity). For a French sailor wintering in the Mediterranean or a skipper crossing the Atlantic, knowing that the raft can be serviced by an approved station along the route is no small matter: it is the guarantee that the equipment will remain reliable over time. The brand also distributes its products through the major European leisure-marine retailers, from Compass to Toplicht (SeaCurity).

What SeaCurity offers

The catalogue covers the entire chain of sea rescue:

• Coastal and offshore liferafts (series 5301, 5320, Seamaster) and their accessories;
• Inflatable life jackets and their servicing accessories;
• Man-overboard rescue systems: sling buoys, marker buoys, Dan Buoy system;
• Lifebuoys and lifelines;
• Distress signals: coastal and offshore distress kits (hand flares, smoke signals, distress rockets) (NauticExpo);
• Leak prevention systems (hull breach sealing);
• Cold-water protection suits;
• Waterproof bags and backpacks.

Two brands, one philosophy

Reliable, longstanding, proven by professionals

At the end of this overview, the conclusion is self-evident. Plastimo and SeaCurity do not look alike: the former is a French generalist brand turned institution, the latter a German specialist focused on rescue. Yet both accumulate the same assets: a long and assumed history, proven reliability, and the ability to serve leisure boating and sea professionals simultaneously — fishing, merchant marine, rescue.

That triple foundation is what, to me, makes them the two best European benchmarks in boat safety equipment. For a manufacturer whose products pass the professionals’ filter, approximation is not an option. The sailor who chooses these brands buys that peace of mind: equipment designed for the worst days, used on the best ones.

Equipping well also means maintaining well

One final piece of advice, sailor to reader: the best life jacket or the best raft in the world is useless if it is not maintained. Have your inflatable jackets and rafts serviced at the recommended intervals, check your distress flares before every season, and inspect your inflation cylinders. Safety at sea is a state of mind, not a one-off purchase. Plastimo and SeaCurity provide the tools; vigilance remains the crew’s responsibility.