Coastguard Stations close No listening watch on 16

[BrendanS]

It seems like the dedicated listening watch via headphones was ceased over seven years ago.. 22 Sept 2003 according to the news at the time. Oh, doesn't time fly!

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/406779/many-maydays

Reason given - Other methods of calling the coastguard coming into existence such as DSC, Satcomms and mobile phone calls possibly increased their workload rather than decreasesd it...

It was widely discussed at the time, and , the listening watch didn't stop. What happened was that one person with headphones on was not tasked with that individual job. The listening watch was put onto loudspeakers instead, so multiple people could listen.

 

[reginaldon]

I suppose the hope is that Coast Watch may take over this function - the Big Society!

 

[Searush]

I suppose the hope is that Coast Watch may take over this function - the Big Society!

That's as big a word as "IF" isn't it?

Coast watch is relatively new & pretty small, it relies on volunteers & has a lot of coastline to cover. A bloke & a bird parking on the cliff once in a while with binoculars & a radio MIGHT (another big word) see something, but it would be a lucky co-incidence wouldn't it? I don't see them raising a first alarm too often.

Their value might be in getting to the nearest land point as observers to feed back info to help Lifeboat & ASR helo, but that requires them to get there first.

I must watch the TV prog "Coastal Police" to understand the Fuzz's involvement in the current set up.

 

[Beadle]

The basic division of responsibility is that below high water mark the coartguard have primacy above high water the police have primacy.

So when the little boy in one of the plethora of Tarberts calls 999 he will get the police - who for all their faults usually know where they are. The police will involve the coastguard who will assume control of the incident involving SAR assetts and with the police and ambulance service will have appropriate resources waiting to receive any casualties.

They call it integrated emergency management.

 

[Cantata]

The basic division of responsibility is that below high water mark the coartguard have primacy above high water the police have primacy.
So when the little boy in one of the plethora of Tarberts calls 999 he will get the police - who for all their faults usually know where they are. The police will involve the coastguard who will assume control of the incident involving SAR assetts and with the police and ambulance service will have appropriate resources waiting to receive any casualties.
They call it integrated emergency management.

Er, not quite. When he calls 999, the operator should hear the words 'beach' and 'sea' and should route the call to the CG who will call out the local CG Coast Rescue Team. They know every inch of their patch and know what to do. Incident as you rightly say coordinated by the MRCC (at present), advised by the local team on the spot who will ask for other assets e.g RNLI, helo, ambulance, if required. Police presence only requested in criminal activity suspected.
My experience (12 years on a CG CRT) is that if the police are called first, they usually c*ck it all up and waste valuable time before thinking about telling the CG. For example, searching for missing people on the coast - police look for them all day without telling anyone else, then when it's getting dark they get fed up and call us out.
Sad but true.

 

[Searush]

Er, not quite. When he calls 999, the operator should hear the words 'beach' and 'sea' and should route the call to the CG who will call out the local CG Coast Rescue Team. They know every inch of their patch and know what to do. Incident as you rightly say coordinated by the MRCC (at present), advised by the local team on the spot who will ask for other assets e.g RNLI, helo, ambulance, if required. Police presence only requested in criminal activity suspected.
My experience (12 years on a CG CRT) is that if the police are called first, they usually c*ck it all up and waste valuable time before thinking about telling the CG. For example, searching for missing people on the coast - police look for them all day without telling anyone else, then when it's getting dark they get fed up and call us out.
Sad but true.

That is frightening, with no understanding of wind & tides they will have no idea of potential risks to casualty or rescuers. How come "Incident Reviews" haven't changed the procedures on this one yet?

Couple of incidents reported recently in N Wales, man found dead on Gt Orme cliffs & another drowned in Pwllelli Marina. I have no details, just BBC Wales statement of above facts.
Gt Orme incident

Marina incident

 

[billcowan]

All over the med there are tens of thousands of boats, a lot of them with hilariously inept or at least inexperienced skippers, but there are very very few people listening on channel 16. there is no lifeboat service either,

The med can blow up a storm just as quickly and as fierce as any here,
and at in the eastern end, not a lot of forcasting

and we are not going to even consider the wrongly or un charted rocks!

so its all relative.



Mind you - hypothermia is less of a problem!

 

[Bosun Higgs]

I too suspect this is scare-mongering.

Yes, it's exactly the sort of thing that you would expect from any employee group faced with re-organisation and possible redundancy. The MCA is a small enough organisation for the changes to be done effectively ie its way easier to manage than something like the NHS. And safety at sea is not something that any government would willingly risk for the small saving involved. So I'm happy for them to get on with the changes and am happy to bet that the result will be a non event. Just as it was when they closed the lookouts and we had endless forecasts of dire consequences that didnt materialise.

 

[gandy]

An operator with local knowledge, dealing with a restricted patch, would probably know where you were if you said you were 1 mile, 270 degrees from Tarbert. A more remote, less knowledgeable operator would almost inevitably have to ask "Which Tarbert? There are several of them." This introduces delay and the possibility of confusion at a time when these should be strenuously avoided.

Would the operator not know which coastal station was picking up the transmission? I would hope so if they ever went to a centralised system. The areas are pretty big at the moment.

 

[Beadle]

Err

No

when you call the 999 operator she will ask what service you require.

The operator will not try to take details of the emergency itself - her role is to connect you to the emergency service you require and if that is unclear she will default to the police. She is not trained to deal with the details of the emergency. Whats more, there is no guarantee that the operator will be local, BT have carried out a deal of rationalisation of their operator services. It could well be that the operator is 100 miles away.

The police control room operator will take details and mobilise the appropriate resource and will also ensure in almost every case that there is a police presence.

If you think for a moment - take an emergency at Ravenscar - the nearest coastguard is Bridlington - 50 miles away - what is the point calling them. They may or may not have someone on call nearer but not something that can be relied upon.

Further the the police are well able to search a beach - or call in cliff rescue resources. If they need RNLI or SAR Helicopter a call to MRCC can arrange that.

Why wait an hour for a coastguard officer to arrive?

The fact is that any event above high water mark is down to the police, whether you like it or not.

 

[Ubergeekian]

An operator with local knowledge, dealing with a restricted patch, would probably know where you were if you said you were 1 mile, 270 degrees from Tarbert. A more remote, less knowledgeable operator would almost inevitably have to ask "Which Tarbert? There are several of them." This introduces delay and the possibility of confusion at a time when these should be strenuously avoided.

Are you saying that we need a separate CG station for every Tarbert in Scotland? How many would that be? We'd need Loch Fyne CG, a Gigha CG and Jura CG at the very least ...

 

[Ydnacoop]

Many Thanks

Hi Folks

thanks for your comments

I'll pass them back to my friend who is a senior watch commander in the coastguard

Just hoping you all have DSC. Cause if you haven't they won't hear you.

 

[pvb]

Just hoping you all have DSC. Cause if you haven't they won't hear you.

You wish!

 

[Robin]

Hi Folks

thanks for your comments

I'll pass them back to my friend who is a senior watch commander in the coastguard

Just hoping you all have DSC. Cause if you haven't they won't hear you.

Tell him bollox, stop scaremongering because it doesn't help his cause.

 

[gjgm]

There are many possible scenarios where providing lat & long by voice might be a tad inconvenient, to say the least. In those cases it is perfectly acceptable to give a bearing and distance from an easily recognised landmark. An operator with local knowledge, dealing with a restricted patch, would probably know where you were if you said you were 1 mile, 270 degrees from Tarbert. A more remote, less knowledgeable operator would almost inevitably have to ask "Which Tarbert? There are several of them." This introduces delay and the possibility of confusion at a time when these should be strenuously avoided.

I agree that DSC may be one way round it (though many here would argue that it isn't a particularly good way) but DSC is not yet mandatory and there are still many non-DSC sets (including almost all handhelds) in use.

You are absolutely right about inaccurate long and lat. You should hear the delightful sarcasm from the CG
I want someone to answer the radio. I couldnt care where he is siting. Its up to me to make clear where I am.
Which Tarbert.?. Cant be many instances where a few seconds more to clarify is going to make any difference. The lifeboat or whatever isnt going to arrive in the next 30 seconds anyway. Strenusously avoided? Right, stop wasting time by not making it obvious to start with

 

[Jim@sea]

In the summer I was going to hire a boat in Spain. When I looked at it there was no VHF. I asked why and was told that Mobile Phones have taken over.

 

[lenseman]

Hi Folks

thanks for your comments

I'll pass them back to my friend who is a senior watch commander in the coastguard

Just hoping you all have DSC. Cause if you haven't they won't hear you.

GO AWAY and come back when you have the facts about any change of operating procedures or closures, or stay away.

 

[Ydnacoop]

GO AWAY

Thank you for your abuse I hope you don't treat all your customers like this.

Best Wishes