EPIRB or SeaMe - our decision

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tomg

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You may remember I asked which, with limited funds available, should we buy. Thanks for all the very helpful replies which aided our discussion. We have decided on the SeaMe on the argument that, for our type of sailing, a catastophic close encounter with a ship would probably be more likely( but hopefully very unlikely) than a fire or collision with an unseen object leaving no time to make contact by VHF. We are preferring to invest first in avoidence. On the other hand we will try to stretch the funds to also buy a prsonal locator beacon for a crew-member to be wearing at all times. Thanks for your help.
 
I recently bought a PLB and was interested when I called Falmouth to ask a simple question re registration, that I could also put my boats name down on the form so that the PLB would be registered to the boat in the same way that a larger EPIRB would be. I do a lot of solo sailing, so the only difference between what I have and a "fully fledged" EPIRB, is battery life when actiovated - 24hrs commonly for a PLB and double that for an EPIRB. I appreciate your logic however I am coming from the problem the other way round - deep sea rescue first priority - aid to collission avoidance 2nd. Will look at sea-me poss later this year. Good luck with it !
 
Be interested to know where you brought your SeaMe as we ve tried to contact the company over a warranty issue and emails are bounced and the phone is unanswered with messages not returned....

W.
 
We are thinking of getting a Sea Me but are now concerned following last conrtibutors remarks, would value any other experiences!!
 
This is slightly off point but related.

On my boat I have a common type aluminium reflector that was bought new a few years ago. it is made so that it hangs vertically ( ie, not in the "catch rain position".)

A couple of days ago I found an old reflector that came from a previous boat and it has mounts on it so that it can only be mounted in a "catch rain position".

My point is when was the knowledge, that these should be used in the "CR" position, lost from general sailing knowledge.

Or is this something that just me and the manufacturer of the newer reflector missed.
 
"We are preferring to invest first in avoidence"

that must be your priority, i would not want to rely on some time pushed big ship captain to look out for you and take avoiding action, even if they could in time

get the boat sorted as much as possible, and buy an epirb, the coast guard suggested a vhf for local trips to me
 
"when was the knowledge, that these should be used in the "CR" position, lost from general sailing knowledge"

Not sure it ever was. I can remember seeing them in the "dry" position 30-odd years ago, so it's certainly no new thing. Maybe if science were better taught (or valued)...?
 
I've sailed about 40,000 nm ocean (Atlantic), some 6k solo. Whenever I saw a ship, I always called up, usually just for a chat, sometimes for a position check, but I always, without fail, asked the OOW if they had seen me on their radar. I was shocked to find that the big majority of those ships told me they switched their radar off, once out of sight of land and out of the normal shipping lanes. Then, when in the Cape Verdes I met the Captain of a merchant ship, he confirmed that they did not run their radar because their crews were skeleton; there was no point in running an instrument which no-one had time to look at. He also said that there was seldom anyone on the bridge.
Which leads me to believe that the SeaMe would be of little or no use and at a big cost, at that!
When I was sailing solo, I did run my radar at night, also whenever I was resting, in the hopes that its alarm might arouse me if it "saw" any shipping, or any heavy rain. I doubt it did - it was a feeble little sound, which needed amplifying considerably, but I never discovered how to do this!
 
This was some time ago now, did you get your warranty sorted out?

I just happened to be looking at the speedseal site and noticed that they are now marketing sea-me. www.speedseal.com I was wondering whether to buy one but what are your views? Is there a product review somewhere, do you know?
 
So you are not exactly happy with seame? £500 is a lot of money to lose.
 
SeaMe: £507.00 (Speedseal)
GME MT400 Epirb: £299.94 (Yachtbits)

Less than £7 over your £800 budget.

Personally I would have bought the EPIRB and an AIS reciever, as

a) You can then see anything over 300 tons
b) You can see if it is likely to hit you
c) You can call it up by name or MMSI to advise them of this
d) A standalone AIS rciever is under £300

After our recent Biscay crossing in poor vis I am convinced that an AIS a must have.

- Nick
 
[ QUOTE ]
After our recent Biscay crossing in poor vis I am convinced that an AIS a must have.

[/ QUOTE ]I often sail in very poor or zero viz with radar....I tend to avoid any tracks that ships are likely to take and if I find that I've got onto one by mistake, I move three miles or so off - the big stuff always trundles along the shortest points, very predictable. I don't feel that AIS would be a real help as I can already see the big ships with the radar. What I'd like is some improvement to radar to pick up smaller vessels, and ideally pots as well.
 
They can't see you on their AIS if you've only got an AIS receiver.... and even then I've seen the AIS unit on a bridge - it was just text readout - no good for Col Avoidance at all.
 
No we are very happy with the performance of the unit. What let ours down was the 'waterproof' control box (ours is fitted to a RIB) - the powdercoat finish has badly deteriorated.

And of course the complete lack of after sales service - we brought direct from Munro Engineering, the manufacturer.

W.
 
No doubt you've asked other vessels to comment on how you appear to them - what sort of feedback do you get? Being a RIB your normal radar return would be almost nil.
 
1. I must have misread that you only had an ais receiver - I incorrectly asumed you has a class b set which tx and rx
2. a stand alone class 'a' set has the option in setting an alarm for cpa's under x, they dont need to look at it all the unit all the time ........... when an alarm goes off you can look and get the cpa/name/time etc - simple
3. most merch vessels now have ecdis, on which ais is normally superimposed, FYI often an ais signal is picked up before a radar return where small vessels are concerned. this prompts the watchkeeper to look along that bearing, and concentrate his attention on that bearing when looking into the radar
 
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