CG66 Voluntary safety scheme

[chanelyacht]

As a follow on from an earlier thread, and purely as a straw poll, I'd be interested in seeing how many people are already using HMCGs CG66 - and if you don't, I'd be interested in knowing why.
Nothing official about this, but if there are some barriers to people using the scheme, it would be useful to know what they are.

 

[Leighb]

You haven't a choice for my situation, which is Have updated, but no picture, which is because the only good photo I have shows her in her old livery with green dodgers and sprayhood, as per my Avatar, so would be misleading.

 

[RupertW]

I've nothing against it for others but do prefer to sail with minimum outside contact as I have too much of all that at work.

So I've never registered in or out of anywhere when going to France unless asked to do so by local officials, and in a similar way don't register VHF, CG schemes and so on.

It may not last for ever but a great UK strength is being able to come and go as you please, where even the compulsory bits are not enforced much so are effectively voluntary. I'd feel a similar way if there was some registering scheme for going walking in the lakes.

A bit less choice in my recent Med experience, alas.

 

[awol]

I assumed that the CG66 information was available to the CG from an on-line data base, though that could sound too sensible. Advantages to me are easier recognition if I'm in the shit and more sensible tasking if I answer a call for someone else in the shit. Obviously I need to ramp up my paranoia level.

 

[[70521]]

I am registered, but still need to upload a picture, there is a very nice man in Brixham that is going to do that for me when I e-mail him a picture.

I found the site a bit "clunky" and the photo requirements really, really restrictive.

 

[chanelyacht]

I've nothing against it for others but do prefer to sail with minimum outside contact as I have too much of all that at work.

So I've never registered in or out of anywhere when going to France unless asked to do so by local officials, and in a similar way don't register VHF, CG schemes and so on.

It may not last for ever but a great UK strength is being able to come and go as you please, where even the compulsory bits are not enforced much so are effectively voluntary. I'd feel a similar way if there was some registering scheme for going walking in the lakes.

A bit less choice in my recent Med experience, alas.

OK, may a bit of explanation might help.

(Leaving aside the bit about not registering your VHF, which is illegal).

CG66 is a database available within HMCG, and is not shared outside the MCA except for the obvious (passing details onto lifeboat, etc). It is run by an administrator at each MRCC (an unpaid function additional to normal duties). It is only normally accessed when vessel or contact details are needed for a reason - i.e. a search and rescue incident. It also makes passage reporting (should you choose to do so) easier, as we won't ask vessel description, etc - just your radio callsign (as that's the only truly unique identifier). It's nationwide, so if you registered at Brixham, Aberdeen can still access details.

We won't use it to contact you other than if a shore contact expresses concern, or by letter for occasional updates.

 

[l'escargot]

There is an issue with posting photos. In the past I have responded to the acknowledgement email and someone has helpfully resolved the issue. When I recently added a boat, the acknowledgement email said do not respond, use the contact us on the website, but that isn't working. So currently no photo.

 

[Bru]

There is an issue with posting photos. In the past I have responded to the acknowledgement email and someone has helpfully resolved the issue. When I recently added a boat, the acknowledgement email said do not respond, use the contact us on the website, but that isn't working. So currently no photo.

Ditto, try as I might I cannot get it to accept a photo and can't seem to get any response to the problem

Other than that, yes we're registered and yes I keep it up to date.

 

[PhillM]

As an aside, when is passage reporting advisable? I usually sail the Solent - and we dont bother to report that. At what point / scale of passage would the CG like to know about our passage?

BTW I have NO problem saying who I am and where I am going.

 

[marklucas]

I don't own a yacht, but when chartering for extended trips across and around the Channel, or to the Isles of Scilly, I have checked if the charter boat is registered - it never is. I have then registered it.

It strikes me that a charter company who is letting me take off with several £100k of their assets would really want to be able to find it! Especially as they will know very quickly if the boat is late.

Any thoughts from Channelyacht or others?

 

[Searush]

I don't own a yacht, but when chartering for extended trips across and around the Channel, or to the Isles of Scilly, I have checked if the charter boat is registered - it never is. I have then registered it.

It strikes me that a charter company who is letting me take off with several £100k of their assets would really want to be able to find it! Especially as they will know very quickly if the boat is late.

Any thoughts from Channelyacht or others?

I know a quiet creek where we could respray it for you quite quickly - for a small cash consideration . . .

 

[RupertW]

OK, may a bit of explanation might help.

(Leaving aside the bit about not registering your VHF, which is illegal).

CG66 is a database available within HMCG, and is not shared outside the MCA except for the obvious (passing details onto lifeboat, etc). It is run by an administrator at each MRCC (an unpaid function additional to normal duties). It is only normally accessed when vessel or contact details are needed for a reason - i.e. a search and rescue incident. It also makes passage reporting (should you choose to do so) easier, as we won't ask vessel description, etc - just your radio callsign (as that's the only truly unique identifier). It's nationwide, so if you registered at Brixham, Aberdeen can still access details.

We won't use it to contact you other than if a shore contact expresses concern, or by letter for occasional updates.

Thank you for the explanation. I do think it's a good and worthy idea for those who are happy to be visible, and who expect people to call somebody if their cruse doesnt go to plan. However like the legal issues including VHF they don't really matter if there is no enforcement - unless there is some moral dimension too.

My only concern with voluntary schemes run by government departments is they develop a momentum and can turn mandatory.

 

[chanelyacht]

If anyone is having photo or other problems, feel free to drop me a PM and I'll see if I can help.

 

[lustyd]

Just updated mine - the Coastguard seem to refer to the deck as topsides and topsides as upper hull

Uploading the photo didn't seem to work at first. One of the following was the fix:
switch from firefox to IE
add site to trusted sites
reduce file size even further than recommendations
remove spaces from file name
reduce file name to 8.3 format

The actual fix, of course, is to hire a web developer who know what they are up to - the error messages were worse than useless. If this is an unfunded piece of work then by all means ask here for coding help and I and probably several others will be more than happy to help
Dave

 

[lustyd]

I should also add that it's not obvious how to proceed from 1-2-3 etc. a "next" button would be useful because usually clicking 2 without saving would erase the answers. This meant that at first I clicked confirm, which took me to the end

Obviously I figured it out and love the concept of the site. I'm feeding this back to make sure no-one gives up because of these oddities.

 

[l'escargot]

If anyone is having photo or other problems, feel free to drop me a PM and I'll see if I can help.

It looks like they may have resolved the contact issue - it was last month when I last tried and then when you clicked on the "contact us" there was an error message.

I have just gone in again to get the error message to let you know what it was and it now comes up with a list of cg66 email addresses for each area instead, so I will try emailing the photo to see if they can upload it for me as they have in the past. I think it was a compatibility problem with certain browsers causing the problem - who knows that may have been resolved now as well**.

**No just tried - will email it

 

[Tranona]

I don't own a yacht, but when chartering for extended trips across and around the Channel, or to the Isles of Scilly, I have checked if the charter boat is registered - it never is. I have then registered it.

It strikes me that a charter company who is letting me take off with several £100k of their assets would really want to be able to find it! Especially as they will know very quickly if the boat is late.

Any thoughts from Channelyacht or others?

I would guess they don't do it because they don't see any value in it. When did you last hear of a charter company losing one of its yachts?

The reality is that the number of yachts that get into a position where they need outside assistance is tiny, and the multiple means of communication are so good these days should it be needed.

Somebody whose job it is to deal with this tiny number will naturally see it as an issue, because they don't "see" those who are happy to do what they want to do without feeling a need to tell anybody else about it.

It is good to have voluntary schemes like this for those who feel it is of benefit to them.

 

[lustyd]

I would guess they don't do it because they don't see any value in it. When did you last hear of a charter company losing one of its yachts?

The reality is that the number of yachts that get into a position where they need outside assistance is tiny, and the multiple means of communication are so good these days should it be needed.

Somebody whose job it is to deal with this tiny number will naturally see it as an issue, because they don't "see" those who are happy to do what they want to do without feeling a need to tell anybody else about it.

It is good to have voluntary schemes like this for those who feel it is of benefit to them.

I'd say it's more likely that all the charter boats are white, so a description is unnecessary. Contact info for charter fleets is likely already known to the CG but emergency contact for the crew would change for every charter. Finally, the RNLI probably know all the charter yachts intimately as they see them the most often

 

[Vara]

I think I've registered for CG 66, but I'm not sure, probably the worst site I've ever used. They send me e mails which are total gobbledygook.

I liked the old days when you used to drop a filled out card to the lookout station.

 

[snowleopard]

I've been on the database since we built the boat and I regularly make passage reports when we do long passages. Of course there are those on here who say it is pointless to do so or it makes me a wimp but since the advice to do that followed every MSIB last year it seems sensible to continue doing so.