There is a particular method for getting into a raft if you find yourself in the water to start with (in fact probably more than one) but the best thing is to have a rapid exit procedure designed to enable you to inflate it outside the cockpit (you would be mad to inflate it
inside the cockpit
) and step directly into it,
while holding the activation cord to make sure it cannot get away.
I don't think that procedure can be employed with a high wing aircraft unless the hull is sufficiently floaty, for long enough.
It's hard to illustrate without pictures but in essence you bounce your upper body into the raft, and once that is in there, getting the legs in is fairly easy. FWIW, I have practiced it in a pool with a "boat" much smaller than the raft I mentioned earlier.
Obviously one needs to be relatively mobile/flexible to do this.
Once a person is in the raft, it is easy for others to get in.
The thing to absolutely avoid is throwing the raft into the water (inflated or not) hoping that you can swim to it. Wind will carry it away faster than almost anybody can swim.
JO, no point in having a swipe at me, I know what "microlights" look like. I also can't believe that the closed cockpit tricycle gear ones cannot carry a 7kg raft
Far more likely, it is against the "community culture" to spend money.