Channel safety gear?

[LittleSister]

For single handing, my personal priorities would be something like -
Essentials -

• Layers of warm, comfortable clothes, waterproofs, warm hat and sunhat, and spare clothes in case of a soaking.
• Plenty of food and drink that needs little or no preparation, in case you're otherwise occupied
• A robust kitchen timer or similar, so you can wake yourself every few minutes if you get stuck out there longer than you can stay awake
• An auto helm, and adequate battery or charging power to keep it going longer than you expect
• A GPS, even if just a pocket one - trad nav is great, but when all else is going wrong it's great to know 'You Are Here'
• Fire extinguishers

Next order of importance - flares, lifejacket/harness, plenty of fuel for the motor and cooker, dinghy for getting ashore and providing some hope if all else fails

Fripperies - AIS very useful for stress reduction crossing shipping lanes, etc.; Liferaft, wouldn't bother until I had spare money and a bigger boat.

 

[capnsensible]

No it's not but for the purposes of the journeys the OP is suggesting and the incidence of life raft deployment on such journeys being virtually non existent, or at least I have not heard of any in recent years then a life raft would not be high up on my list of priorities. He does not say what type of vessel it is or what it's condition is either it could be a 60' Oyster or a Leisure 17 which could make a difference on what one would recommend.

Doesn't matter. When the dinghy flips your just as dead.

 

[capnsensible]

I agree, but if you call for help where the OP will be, I can't imagine that you'd be in your dinghy for more than an hour.

If it's windy you probably won't be in a dinghy for more than a minute or two........

 

[Uricanejack]

I wonder if anyone who says life rafts hardly ever save any life's and very few are ever deployed. have given any thought to how many successful survival stories they have heard from half inflated dinghies or even fully inflated dinghies.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Liferaft. A bit like those cardiac defibs in public places. Very few ever get used and of those even fewer result in a happy ending but perhaps even fewer still of us would say they are a wast of space.

 

[RupertW]

I don’t think half inflated dinghies do the job either - they are just useful to have for other reasons.
The point is that almost nobody survives thatnks to a life raft and their occasional uses seem mostly to be as bad dinghies to transfer people from one boat to another in an emergency. Its always far more valuable finding out what caused the emergency and trying to prevent that.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I don’t think half inflated dinghies do the job either - they are just useful to have for other reasons.
The point is that almost nobody survives thatnks to a life raft and their occasional uses seem mostly to be as bad dinghies to transfer people from one boat to another in an emergency. Its always far more valuable finding out what caused the emergency and trying to prevent that.

Many many fishermen survive due to liferafts, and quite few single handed boats and their skippers are lost sadly. Who knows if a liferaft would have meant boat was lost but skipper ok. Its a bit like defibrulator, useless unless you are ill, gives 50% chance of survival if heart stops.

Anyone who sails outer bristol or english channels is 30 or more miles from land. Your VHF wont reach more than 10 miles and less off Irish or N Cornish Coast, indeed by Scilly, French CG was clearer than English. If boat has trouble you are on your own, no get you home service

 

[Lucky Duck]

Anyone who sails outer bristol or english channels is 30 or more miles from land. Your VHF wont reach more than 10 miles and less off Irish or N Cornish Coast, indeed by Scilly, French CG was clearer than English. If boat has trouble you are on your own, no get you home service

Doubtful and are the laws of physics different off the Irish and N Cornish coast

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I wonder if anyone who says life rafts hardly ever save any life's and very few are ever deployed. have given any thought to how many successful survival stories they have heard from half inflated dinghies or even fully inflated dinghies.

About the same as people rescued from life rafts sailing along the south coast.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Doubtful and are the laws of physics different off the Irish and N Cornish coast

10 miles is normal rage for yacht maybe 15, but to get help you need to be within 10 or 15 miles of a CG station or someone else who is listening and often we are the only craft for many miles (unlike the Solent thank heavens). Off much of N Cornish or N Devon Coast we cannot hear the weather updates so must presume CG could never hear us, and 1 mile off Irish coast by Kilmore quay we were in radio shadow, though we could practically shout to farmers on the cliffs. Returning from Brittany we heard their traffic reports to within 35 miles of Scilly thus 70 miles from French territory, but did not hear UK CG until within about 10 miles of St Marys.

I have two aerials, one on mast and one on pushpit and tried both when i first went into radio blackspot, but it was the lack of signal not the equipment.

As an engineer I can state clearly that what might be achieved in practice is often not what happens, particularly for cash strapped and time limited organisations such as CG

When we bring our newer boat back from Chichester no doubt we can just call to the next boat if in trouble, once beyond Portland it is safer to presume we are mostly on our own

 

[Fr J Hackett]

10 miles is normal rage for yacht maybe 15, but to get help you need to be within 10 or 15 miles of a CG station or someone else who is listening and often we are the only craft for many miles (unlike the Solent thank heavens). Off much of N Cornish or N Devon Coast we cannot hear the weather updates so must presume CG could never hear us, and 1 mile off Irish coast by Kilmore quay we were in radio shadow, though we could practically shout to farmers on the cliffs. Returning from Brittany we heard their traffic reports to within 35 miles of Scilly thus 70 miles from French territory, but did not hear UK CG until within about 10 miles of St Marys.

I have two aerials, one on mast and one on pushpit and tried both when i first went into radio blackspot, but it was the lack of signal not the equipment.

As an engineer I can state clearly that what might be achieved in practice is often not what happens, particularly for cash strapped and time limited organisations such as CG

When we bring our newer boat back from Chichester no doubt we can just call to the next boat if in trouble, once beyond Portland it is safer to presume we are mostly on our own

I think you will find you will have plenty of company all the way to Newlyn and probably beyond unless it's foul weather.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I think you will find you will have plenty of company all the way to Newlyn and probably beyond unless it's foul weather.

I'd love fair winds on the beam but who knows what the Lord will provide. I might well go via Morbihan next summer, crossing Milford to Landsend/Scilly or to Ushant I've never seen another yacht except at the ends and only a handful of fishermen, but I agree Falmouth and Dartmouth are busy.