Coast Guard Policy on tasking a rescue

ylop

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Well, I do. I carry a full spares kit, a lot of tools, ensure everything mechanical is maintained properly, and undertake meticulous checks before I set off. But I’m relatively infirm, I have modest but limited mechanical skills, my wife is not a mechanic, and so I would rely on Seastart to help me if I got into mechanical difficulties. Not try and fix things myself as a first / preferred option.

Just as I would never consider fixing my own car by the roadside.
But you’ve missed the point - I was replying to a post which basically was saying if you aren’t in SeaStart and sail in their area you are remiss.
 

wonkywinch

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Under Solas V we all have a legal obligation to offer assistance if it is safe for us to do so. This is why we should monitor channel 16. I am surprised the other hero's of the sea have not been mentioned....fishermen. In the original post the boat was in Lyme bay, known to be a busy fishing area, I would imagine the coastguard looked at ais and judged that one of these would tow them in (like the kind op did).
They must have special settings on their AIS. Almost all the FVs I've ever seen in Lyme Bay have their AIS transmitter turned off.

So much so, I generally assume a vessel I spotted but with no AIS is fishing until I get close enough to see what they are through the binoculars.
 

Greg2

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They must have special settings on their AIS. Almost all the FVs I've ever seen in Lyme Bay have their AIS transmitter turned off.

So much so, I generally assume a vessel I spotted but with no AIS is fishing until I get close enough to see what they are through the binoculars.

It is only a legal requirement for AIS to be fitted and operating on fishing vessels of 15 metres or over in length and perhaps understandable that smaller vessels have theirs switched off as they don’t want to openly advertise their preferred fishing grounds.
.
 

Momac

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Someone I know was rescued by the RNLI when he didn't really want to be rescued. The RNLI called him an told him to wait while they sent out a crew to his boat .
It was a few years ago around 2015 I think.
We assumed the RNLI crew needed the practice.
 

Juan Twothree

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Someone I know was rescued by the RNLI when he didn't really want to be rescued. The RNLI called him an told him to wait while they sent out a crew to his boat .
It was a few years ago around 2015 I think.
We assumed the RNLI crew needed the practice.
So what prompted the RNLI to contact him?
Did he call the coastguard, who then tasked the RNLI?
 

Momac

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I heard of someone who towed a yacht with his motorboat.
The yacht was damaged while being towed and while coming into the lock at the marina. The yacht owner held the motorboat owner liable.
No good deed goes unpunished.
 

Momac

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So what prompted the RNLI to contact him?
Did he call the coastguard, who then tasked the RNLI?
No he had not called anyone. The RNLI called him.
The RNLI must have observed he was a bit too close to the shore as he passed their station.
 

jrudge

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I would be interested to know how a 50 ft motor boat looses all power. The only way I know that that is remotely likely is running out of fuel.

For this the owner as matter of course should pay all costs.

The other will be flooding of the engine room to the extent the control units were submerged but that would then be reported as vessel sinking.
 

ylop

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I would be interested to know how a 50 ft motor boat looses all power. The only way I know that that is remotely likely is running out of fuel.
Blocked fuel filters?
Water in fuel tanks?
Electrical problem preventing it from restarting?
Some major engine issue like seizure, cylinder head, bearing failure?
Overheating triggering a fire suppression system.
Water leak in the engine bay (e.g. burst hose) that had been stopped so was not "sinking" but had killed fancy electronics.
Engine ECU just gives up.

Some of those become less likely if two engines but certainly not impossible, and depending on conditions and experience of the crew on board may have been harder to solve than in the calm of a marina tied up with the manual to refer to. Lifeboat crew vary in their own experience - some would step on board and help the crew get the vessel going again and some would simply tow it rather than try to check for silly engine faults.
 

ylop

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My assumption is that the majority of 50 ft boats will have 2 engines. I am sure people on here will find one but they are not common.
Difficult to work out what the boat is in these pictures:
Multi-RNLI call-out in rough conditions after boat suffers 'total engine failure'
but I don't think its a typical 50' Gin palace.

Most of the above are unlikely to apply to a two engined boat.
In reality any problem with the fuel system is likely to affect both engines fairly quickly, whether that is lack of fuel, blocked filters, water in the fuel, etc., unless you are extremely thorough to treat both as entirely separate systems, fuel up in different locations etc.

Flooding or fire suppression in the engine room would potentially affect both engines as they aren't usually segregated. Electrical gremlins might be less likely to kill both engines simultaneously but something as simple as a loose or corroded cable might (but would be the sort of thing you might hope would be fixable at sea - but I am sure not every 50ft MOBO owner does there own troubleshooting).
 

dunedin

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The boat that was towed to Torquay had the fire suppression accidently activated, probably didn't know the reset sequence .
Fair enough. The 6 years late Calnac ferry Glen Sannox last week accidentally triggered a fire alarm which closed various vents and caused a full engine shutdown on its sea trials! Three tugs were promptly despatched to tow it if necessary, but it eventually got engines going again. Oops.
 
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