Coastguard position announcement

[NormanS]

If I am underway, I'll have several ways of rapidly finding the actual position of a Lat and Long. On balance, I spend much more time at anchor than underway. When I'm at anchor, it'll take a minute or two to either get out the relevant chart, and plot the position, or switch on a plotter, and wait for it to go through its starting rigmarole, so that I can then plot the position. If I immediately knew that the casualty was close by, I could have the anchor up and be underway, I could be able to help that bit sooner.

I have several times heard the CG give the lifeboat a descriptive position first, so that it has some idea where to head, and then give a Lat and Long position later, when it is more relevant. Makes good sense to me.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

It's exactly what I expect from a self-styled "safety engineer". And it isn't ALARP, it should be ALARA, as low as reasonably achievable, tempered by BATNEEC, best available technique not entailing excessive cost. Even the HSE accept there has to be a trade-off between cost and benefit. None of which is relevant to clear communications by radio or any other means.

Without getting into a flame war HSE define ALARP so I presume its used in more than one industry. I may not explain things well but I assure you that voice procedure plays a strong part in my industries safety regime and is discussed, and all risks are discussed with a view to make them as low as reasonably practicable - though quixotically we have now gone for "Target Zero", which might presume more god-like powers than we can muster.

 

[ShinyShoe]

While I can see the logic of giving a pos with both a long lat and an informative location am I missing something with how hard this is on isn't.

If I'm sailing past St Helens Fort in the Solent I glance at my plotter, or my VHF (which I must be near as I'm listening to the radio) and see my position is something like:

50N 44.3 1W 04.7

If I'm sailing in the solent then anything further than what - 1NM there is probably another nearer boat who can help? (I only sail at 3-4kts, and its busy water) 1NM radius - what's that 2 minutes of latitude either way? And 1 minute of long

So anything between

50N 43.3 and 50N 45.3

AND

1W 2.7 and 1W 6.7

Definitely needs plotted urgently.

If I was on a faster boat - say a RIB capable of 20kts I might feel anything in 10NM was worth a look depending what other traffic was likely to be about... just multiply the ranges... so 20 minutes and 10minutes so 50N 32 to 50N 52 and 0W 45 to 1W 25 as a crude rounding.

That will include places south of the Island like Ventnor... but to be honest even if they say "Off Long Ledge" I'm still having to look at a chart to work out where that is...

 

[rgarside]

Without getting into a flame war HSE define ALARP so I presume its used in more than one industry. I may not explain things well but I assure you that voice procedure plays a strong part in my industries safety regime and is discussed, and all risks are discussed with a view to make them as low as reasonably practicable - though quixotically we have now gone for "Target Zero", which might presume more god-like powers than we can muster.

ALARP is the terminology used by HSE.

 

[chanelyacht]

It's exactly what I expect from a self-styled "safety engineer".

And it isn't ALARP, it should be ALARA, as low as reasonably achievable, tempered by BATNEEC, best available technique not entailing excessive cost. Even the HSE accept there has to be a trade-off between cost and benefit.

None of which is relevant to clear communications by radio or any other means.

Which is why CG maritime searches are planned to a probability of detection of 78%, not 100%.