[2068]
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I fall into the group that hate unnecessary DSC alerts, and began to doubt it's value.
Until today.
It was forecast F3-4, but turned out to be the upper end of a F5, which made conditions a bit bouncey coming back from the IOW to Chichester Harbour.
The DSC alarm went off, and hitting the "plot position" button put it less than a mile or so away from my current position. A follow up call came on Ch16, but the lady was obviously v.stressed, and couldn't give her position, or vessel name/type, only that the skipper had gone overboard, and that they were somewhere out of Chichester Harbour. There were several vessels in the area, but it wasn't at all obvious which was the one in distress until I was only a few hundred yards off.
By the time I turned up, the yacht had drifted a bit from the original position, and the skipper was in the water hanging on to the stern, not looking too happy, but still hanging in there. Another sailing yacht was on scene, but they couldn't get close because of the choppy sea. I might have tried to deploy the tender, but it was wavey, and I could see Hayling Rescue (aka "Frank") coming thundering through the chop, so shouting encouragement and relaying a few msgs to Solent Coastguard seemed like the right thing to do.
Within a couple of minutes, Frank and a lifeboatman had the skipper on board (they had to put a man in the water to get him out), and the yacht under tow: all in a days work for them. Then two lifeboats turned up. One asked if I was okay!
Anyway, the point is this:
There is no way that the lady on the radio could have issued an accurate position report, but she managed to hit the red button, and the DSC alert did it for her. In an ideal world, she would be fully trained in distress procedures etc.
In the real world, I think that a skipper was saved by DSC today.
Until today.
It was forecast F3-4, but turned out to be the upper end of a F5, which made conditions a bit bouncey coming back from the IOW to Chichester Harbour.
The DSC alarm went off, and hitting the "plot position" button put it less than a mile or so away from my current position. A follow up call came on Ch16, but the lady was obviously v.stressed, and couldn't give her position, or vessel name/type, only that the skipper had gone overboard, and that they were somewhere out of Chichester Harbour. There were several vessels in the area, but it wasn't at all obvious which was the one in distress until I was only a few hundred yards off.
By the time I turned up, the yacht had drifted a bit from the original position, and the skipper was in the water hanging on to the stern, not looking too happy, but still hanging in there. Another sailing yacht was on scene, but they couldn't get close because of the choppy sea. I might have tried to deploy the tender, but it was wavey, and I could see Hayling Rescue (aka "Frank") coming thundering through the chop, so shouting encouragement and relaying a few msgs to Solent Coastguard seemed like the right thing to do.
Within a couple of minutes, Frank and a lifeboatman had the skipper on board (they had to put a man in the water to get him out), and the yacht under tow: all in a days work for them. Then two lifeboats turned up. One asked if I was okay!
Anyway, the point is this:
There is no way that the lady on the radio could have issued an accurate position report, but she managed to hit the red button, and the DSC alert did it for her. In an ideal world, she would be fully trained in distress procedures etc.
In the real world, I think that a skipper was saved by DSC today.
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