Radar or VHF Assisted Collisions

Kukri

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Another rain squall and radar incident, from the depths of memory.

I worked in the early 1980s for Swire Pacific Offshore. Amongst our competitors were Smit. Both companies had (SPO still have) offices in Singapore and various offshore support vessels deployed offshore Thailand. A colleague was relieved there and got a lift back to Singapore on the anchor handler “Smit-Lloyd 19” which had just finished a charter. This was just before New Year, 1984. The top four on the Smit boat were Dutch and the crew were Filipinos. During the evening of the 31st December the Smit-Lloyd 19 was running down the coast of peninsular Malaysia and her skipper decreed that there should be a New Year Party.

The Officer of the Watch decided that he didn’t want to miss the fun, so he instructed the Filipino quartermaster to keep a good look out, and to use the radar. He showed him what a rain squall looked like on the radar, and joined the party.

The Smit-Lloyd 19 passed through a rain squall. And another.

The third rain squall was the Malaysian island of Pulau Aur.*

She’s still there.

The party carried on until the Jenever and Heineken ran dry, the Dutch part of the crew reasoning correctly that they would soon be finding alternative employment. Then they called the office.

The funniest part of the story is that Smit, an extremely publicity conscious outfit, never admitted it had happened. Had there not been an Englishman on board, nobody outside a tiny number of divers holidaying on Pulau Aur would ever have known.

* Aur Island - Wikipedia
 
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GHA

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Any thoughts on radar and rain squalls?
Very likely the most practical use the radar has been in actual events as opposed to being useful in keeping a watch with nothing to set off the alarm. Get woken up solo offshore to see the squall heading your way, shampoo ready, bucket under the gooseneck ready to get some fresh drinking water. Then that judgement call.......... Go for 2nd hair wash or get rinsed quick before it blows over :)
Maybe not so familiar to you lot up in the frozen North ;)
But very useful info from a radar, squalls do what they want some times with little interest in the wind direction.
 

Kukri

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Very likely the most practical use the radar has been in actual events as opposed to being useful in keeping a watch with nothing to set off the alarm. Get woken up solo offshore to see the squall heading your way, shampoo ready, bucket under the gooseneck ready to get some fresh drinking water. Then that judgement call.......... Go for 2nd hair wash or get rinsed quick before it blows over

And there was I thinking that the judgment call was when to tip the bucket out to dump the salt off the sail before collecting in earnest.?

(Sometimes, I miss roller reefing...)
 

GHA

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And there was I thinking that the judgment call was when to tip the bucket out to dump the salt off the sail before collecting in earnest.?

(Sometimes, I miss roller reefing...)
Tip out near fresh water offshore! The very thought..... First half bucket maybe not for drinking but never unused, fine for the pressure cooker rice :)
 

Refueler

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Yes, with a pinch of Sahara dust, which I'm sure could be touted as posh food in Soho. Yep, us sailors know about posh-nosh.

Coming back from Rihu to home port ... my Mother had passed away and I had to get back to be able to Fly to UK for her ...

Myself and two others on board had left before eating ... so I grabbed a few tins ... spaghetti ... tomato bits .... tinned stew meat ... threw all into a pot .. onto the hob ...

Boat was heeling quite well under a fresh breeze ... so I had to hold the pot (no gimbal or pot holder) ......

Once 'cooked' ... added a few shakes of spices I could lay hands on ... handed out bowls with spoons to guys ... spooned it in ..

We ate what got termed Rushed Goulashup ....... it was really enjoyed by all of us ..

Just wish I could remember exactly what went into it !!
 

Barnacle Bill

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My explanation in "Essential Boat Radar":

Radar assisted collisions. Despite the widespread use of radar, vessels continue to collide, and there have been tragic
instances where two vessels equipped with radar have managed to engineer a collision which
would never have happened without it. A typical scenario is as follows:

Ship A, heading due north, observes a target fine on the starboard bow, at relatively long
range. Because of the range, the bearing changes very slowly, so the skipper decides that the
other ship is heading south and will pass down his starboard side, but rather too close. He alters
course 5 degrees to port, and instantly the radar picture becomes much more encouraging,
because the target is a lot further away from the ship’s heading line.

Ship B, the target vessel, is in fact heading slightly west of south, and therefore observes
Ship A fine on his port bow. For similar reasons to Ship A, his instinct is to ‘turn away’ from the
target and he alters course to starboard.

Gradually, both skippers notice the target vessel getting closer to their heading line again,
so they each repeat their previous course alteration. This process continues until they collide!

Having personally made a similar mistake, but fortunately with a happier ending (I was unable
to catch up with the ship to collide with it), I am very aware of how confusing this kind of
situation can be. Your own course alterations make it far harder to work out what is going on.
The answer is to observe the other vessel for longer without making any course alterations,
and not make assumptions about what it is doing, particularly at long range when you simply
don’t have enough information.

The book goes on to explain how to avoid such situations by systematic target plotting: and not to "make assumptions on the basis of scanty information especially scanty radar information" (quote from Colreg Rule 7 (c)).

Excellent book, available in all good bookshops and online (Fernhurst Books or Amazon).
 
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Uricanejack

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I’d like to think probably wrongly I‘m pretty experienced Not sure how much use I’‘d be with a hand bearing compass.

Radar, EDCIS. Yep!

W
Probably just my peculiar Luddite personality traits. The first thing I teach a new hawse piper or cadet. Is to use the wing repeater. When not fitted, a trip to the monkey with the azimuth ring.
Gets the cover off and airs it out, between the swings.
Always have in my hockey puck in my jacket when out in the boat.
And a seastrel In a nice wooden box.
 

Uricanejack

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I rather like mince.
find it very helpful versatile and I’ve never cooked it quite the same way twice, some versions are better than others
 

Uricanejack

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Haven’t hear those particular politically incorrect terms for a long time. The usual replies referring to the ancestry and offers about parents and siblings.
VHF at night,
I almost miss it.
The original term apperntly comes from a American song about life in their empire.
 

Kukri

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If this is a cookery at sea bragging match this is my entry. Christmas pudding, from the ingredients, prepared at 76N and eaten at 80N, complete with rum butter and brought in from the galley in flames. Served at anchor but, be it noted, prepared under way...

7D49C73D-6A5D-4960-AFDD-05813CEED78B.jpeg
 
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Uricanejack

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If you are ever looking for crew, Flaming Christmas pudding And rum butter.
I could help with some lumpy or runny custard, never really quite sure which.
 

Stingo

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Back to the topic.... now that I've read all the very enlightening replies, I now understand why this situation could have turned very nasty - it looks like I broke all the rules.

I was single handed, so no one to discuss or possibly confuse the situation even more. I was four hours behind my self imposed schedule (get the anchor set before sunset) i.e. in a rush to keep moving at best possible speed, I'm on a westerly heading approximately 50nm south of the Dominican Republic heading for Haiti. About 5nm to the south west is a lucking farge rain squall that is heading into my intended path, all nice and visible with mark one eyeball and the radar. A turn to port to go astern of the squall and avoid the usual 45 knot gusts seemed like the sensible choice. But, Mr AIS tells me there is a large ship (heading northish) hidden in the squall by the rain (so about 5nm away) and our CPA is a nice comfortable 1nm across my bow if I hold my course and speed i.e. I am the stand on vessel. Well, I wanted to turn to port to take avoiding action from the squall. We all know turning to port is a no-no when vessels are converging. So I called him on 16 and asked if he'd clocked me. He hadn't. A minute later he confirmed seeing me on AIS and said he'd turn to starboard and go astern of me, which I really didnt want because I needed to head south, or turn to port, to avoid the squalls. I asked him to hold his course, which he agreed to. And that is when the clicker on the fishing reel went ballistic - another unnecessary distraction.

Anyway, he held his course, and ten minutes later a Mahi Mahi was landed and clubbed across the head and the squall and ship passed me on my starboard side. Not ideal, but the fresh fish, grilled in garlic butter, was delicious. Result!

Edit: if I'd held my course and the squall had hit me, that would have very possibly increased my speed from 6 knots to 8 or 9 knots. Who knows how much that would have decreased the CPA by?
 
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Barnacle Bill

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SpiderMoobs, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's worth remembering that in the situation you describe, no-one is "the stand on vessel" and no-one "the give way vessel" either. Rule 19 applies: Conduct of vessels in restricted visibility. Rules 11 to 18 - with their stand-on and give-way vessels - are for vessels "in sight of one another".
 
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