CG66 and reporting - would you bother ?

well Chris
its usefull for HMCG to have the 66 as they then have a description, owner ect in case of an incident, boat or boat nicked, as happened in Ipswich Haven Marina some weeks ago.
if i go on a North Sea passage for say 30 hrs & get into difficulties @ say 15 > 20hrs what can / will they do, nothing!. they may put out an "all ships" after maybe 36 > 40 hrs.
family know when / where, we are going & i dont go offshore expecting someone to hold my hand.
just look @ the navtex to see the responce times on some "missing yachts".
"Yacht" missing on passage from La Sables what 2 months ago!!! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
The CG are always getting reports of vessels overdue, normally because some prat has forgotten to let his beloved know he has arrived at his destination. HMCG always acts on these reports and starts an incident, you may have heard of a Small Craft Safety Information Broadcast, this is normally the first thing the CG does when a vessel has b een reported overdue or possible overdue.

More often than not after spending considerable time looking for these people they are found safe and well, like I said they normally forget to tell someone they have arrived or even changed their destination, there are however the odd occasions when things go horribly wrong and something serious has happened.

But at the end of the day it's entirely optional, you dont have to tell them but ask a CG and he or she will tell you that they prefer you to tell them. It can help them and in the worst case scenario it could help someone who needs it.
 
Surely it’s got to be a good idea – it is after all a safety scheme. We, like quite a few others in this thread, use it for passages >50 Nm. It only works if you keep your nominated shore contact informed – they are meant to trigger any action on the Coastguard’s part. I've invariably got my children with me, and I file traffic reports very much with their safety in mind.

We have a laminated crib sheet by the VHF so as to try and avoid missing important details. The Coastguard seem to take a certain amount of pleasure in (harmless) humiliation of anyone on the VHF who is less than professional/accurate. At best they will ask for the one detail you didn’t give because it wasn’t required last time. The worst/most amusing example I heard was a boat leaving Ramsgate an hour or two behind us in 2002. The guy filing the traffic report was either new to it, or dead rusty. He was asked early in the report to spell the boat name – he responded “Tango W…W… Damn, I’ll have to spell it using alphanumerics” which he did. Later in the transmission he was asked for his international call sign, which he gave perfectly. “Hmmm” went the Coastguard, “it’s a pity those letters weren’t in your name, you might’ve done rather better”! All broadcast to the entire Thames Estuary and Southern North Sea. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Last laugh was on TW……… though – we motorsailed through Fisherman’s Gat and up the Black Deep. They’d done their tidal heights (to the millimetre I suspect) and with a circa 4ft 6ins draft sailed in a straight line from North Foreland to the Deben, across every sand bank, without turning their engine on, and arrived a few minutes before us!
 
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to have a tour of the local CG station where they demonstrated search methods, triangulation of your position, mobile phone tracing and a myriad of other ways to get your position should you be in trouble.... even DSC worked!!!

They do listen and they are interested in knowing your passage details why? quite simply it gives them a headstart should you actually run into trouble. A great example was when they ran the computer simulations of drifting for liferafts, people in life jackets etc. this gave them a search pattern to use based on your last position. Now if they know where you were heading and the approximate CTS it helps them no end.

They ran a simulation of a boat in trouble and looked up my CG66 details. It was reassuring to know that in an instant they had details of my boat, contact numbers, photograph etc. in seconds after a distress call.

It costs nothing to register, takes 5 minutes of your time and if anything you are helping them to help you should you get into trouble.

What do you have to lose?
 
What an interesting post! I'm not sure that I add much to it but:
1. I do keep my CG66 up to date. (Easy to do OnLine).
2. I tend to report passage plans less and less. (Time was when I would phone Brixham Coastguard from France to report a return Cross Channel passage). Still tend to report passage plans in excess of 50 miles, or if Strong Wind Warning has been issued.
3. When returning from France in 2003 I called a passing Tall Ship on VHF and Semaphore de Brehat responded to ask me for my passage plan. All very courteous and re-assuring, and concluded with wishing me a safe passage to Plymouth.
 
Sail from Dover so usually do cross channel. Since radar V good (from what I've seen on visit to Langdon Cliffs) were I to disappear off radar trace at least they would know how many bodies to search for.

Also inform if on long voyage (last year Dover to Scilly single handed). Might be of no use but gives me a little extra peace of mind...........

Suspect wife would be going through insurance policies first before informing of late arrival!
 
Reporting passage plans is a complete waste of time. Unless you have a shore based contact to inform your ETA. And they inform CG that your missing. Other than that, they take no notice. Well thats what they said anyway!!
 
Re: CG66 details

Just updated mine - you have to every 2 years or so to keep it on-line.

Three hours later I got a lovely e-mail thanking me for the update and to pop in any time I'm passng MRCC Clyde. Its signed bt 'Rosie'.

Wonder if she's the one with the lovely voice and incredible customer skills that Claymore says he knows..... (mind you he says he knows all the beauties on the Clyde...)

Donald
 
Rosie

You old smoothie Donald! What's your secret?

I too had a lovely email from Rosie saying she would investigate my lack of details but no invitation to "pop in any time". Where am I going wrong?

Dave
 
Hmmn ! Wot a question - if I ever do I won't be filing a passage plan or registering a CG66 that's for sure - I suspect the attitude of CG Clyde is different from that of Brixham where they can't even be bothered to transmit the weather on the aerial which covers the Dart 90% of the time. I should also add that I asked them for visibility reports outside Salcombe one day and was told they had no info. When we approached the bar we were turned back by the HM launch - inbound boats reporting max 20metres vis. Helpful lot !

As to leaving the mooring - that sounds a tad scarey with an ocean-going boat and I will have to think long and hard about it ! Rumour has it we might make the 10nm to Brixham this year - assuming the weather's nice !
 
I am surprised at the response you got from Brixham regarding visibility, on the number of occasions I have phoned they have been helpful and where necessary provided information from the NCI at Prawle. Incidently one of the locals down there has a WX station at his house which is accessable via the net. (WWW.Rickham.net)

If you are on Exmoor and your boat is berthed at Dartmouth how can you justify the statement that Brixham do not transmit the WX on the Dartmouth aerial 90% of the time?
 
Ok - 90% of the time I'm there - but that has included periods of weeks and months at a time.

We have had excellent info from both Thames and Solent CG in the past but never from Brixham - and have listened many times to boats trying to contact them by VHF with no response. This is, of course, purely a personal view - plainly your experience is different.
 
Ok can see that and appreciate its your personal view.
The WX forecast is now broadcast automatically and it is a computer that selects the appropriate channels, one can only assume then that if you are having problems then there is either something wrong with the program or you are listening on the wrong frequency.

The announcement for the WX is made on various aerials including Dartmouth on CH16 first and then the actual MSI is put out on Dartmouth on Channel 23. I am told that if there is a problem and you cannot hear it then let them know.
 
is it possible that there is some confusion here between the channels advertised for 'east of start point' and dartmouth'?

dartmouth has long been a poor relation in terms of radio reception. when i was based there we had no mobile phone signal while the rest of the country had full coverage.
 
As Gobi says, there is a specific channel for Dartmouth but we rarely get the forecast.

As to mobile phone, I believe yours is Orange isn't it ? Since there's now an Orange mast there on the hill we have little problem - surprised you did. But can anyone get an Orange signal in Salcombe ?
 
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