Recent content by boomerangben

Could be. Not thought of that. It will be interesting to see. The MCA have a couple of pollution control aircraft, or at least used to. Large aircraft capable of spraying oil slicks as well as spotter aircraft. It might be vessels are doing a first wave until the aircraft come on scene……. Who knows

Taken just now. Maybe my interpretation is wrong, but that looks like a search to me

I saw that too on the news web site. But I don’t trust the news and I have seen a few searches so I’m going to believe what I see, not what I read

Not really much of a bet to be honest. Since humans conceived, designed, manufactured, assembled, managed, maintained and operated both these vessels, unless it was an act of God, it will be a human factor. The question is where in the system was the human factor playing a negative role. Enter...

As of now, marine traffic shows what looks like a search in progress. I pray they find whoever they are looking for alive 🙏. That water is blooming cold at this time of the year

Immediate once it’s been through Garmins coms centre, they’ve contacted the appropriate rescue coordination centre, assumed no miss communication of coordinates etc. unless you can text 999 on an Inreach or course. Oh annd once they’ve texted you back and you’ve repeated your distress call. And...

Used to see big pods of dolphins in the Minch, usually during a Joint Warrior military exercise

I’ve done Hamble to Stornoway and clockwise was our shortest route. That took 7 days stopping only for fuel and the tidal gate in the North Channel. It all depends on how long you want to take. If I remember we did it late June early July and had little wind on the south coast but when we did...

I was towing an empty E boat trailer on a dual carriage way when a Volvo pulled out behind me and not seeing the trailer clipped it sending the whole rig weaving down the road. I tell you my sphincter gripped the car seat so hard I shook for a good while afterwards. Pulled over, no real damage...

I’m slightly concerned there is a mix of beacon types here. The OP refers to a device that offers (as far as I understand) AIS and DSC coverage but no satellite capability (other than get a gps location). Much of the discussion here is PLB satellite stuff. AIS and DSC rely on line of sight with...

Another thought. Reference to the OPs original scenario, there is no evidence to say the incident happened when transferring to the raft, he might have fallen over board whilst launching the raft….

If it were me, launch the life raft (attaching the painter to a suitable cleat first of course), inflate, shorten the painter to an appropriate length and if I had concerns, clip the safety harness to the painter as I step/jump/sprawl into the raft, make sure everyone is aboard, cut the painter...

Mmmm inflating on board - I would be terrified of it getting punctured. And if you’re on fire…….. For me if I need a life raft, it’s a deploy and go type of scenario. The less time the raft is alongside, the less chance there is of puncture and injury from the dying vessel and by making sure...

I would hope that the painter is strong enough to restrain the life raft in a gale, fully laden. Otherwise I would deem it not fit for purpose. To my mind a painter has to hold a life raft in place for the last person to board. Whether that is reflected by the ISO/EN/SOLAS/…… (take your pick) I...

the last time we had such a storm go past us in Stornoway, houses lost their roofs, power outages, boats blown off trailers and those in the marina damaged. we are no strangers to strong winds so the the builders don't mess about saving their nails - half the weight of our sarking must be in the...