EPIRB schmbirb?

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richardeilers

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Should I get one? I plan to have six months off next year exploring the western Med. Boat's in Barcelona so will go round French and Italian coasts to Sicily - and also head over to Corsica and Sardinia. So, it's hardly
mid-Atlantic stuff - but should I just rely on VHF/flares/mobile phone or pay £500 or so for that extra peace of mind?
Whadya all think?
 
I spent the money but it was more for others' peace of mind than my own. I did have (briefly) Immarsat, EPIRB, SART, VHF, flares and a CD-Rom but gave up the SART and Immarsat. Possible problems are transporting the EPIRB from UK to Barcelona - aircraft aren't keen on 121.5MHz transmitters, registration with UK if you buy it abroad and just because it flashes and goes beep when you test it, is it really working?
If it seems right, buy it.
 
Get an EPIRB

VHF is line of sight, so range is limited. Radio discipline is also crap in Italian waters.
Flares will work once for a couple of minutes at best. An EPIRB will keep going for hours.
Are you serious regarding mobile phones?
What value peace of mind?
 
Well, a mobile might be of some use - seemed to work fair way offshore on a trip up coast to France this summer. But appreciate it'd be no good on any serious passage.
BTW: spoke to a mate a British Airways today and he said an EPIRB would be fine in checked-in luggage.
 
If you can afford it by all means carry an Epirb, although as
you are coast and island following i would not think it is that
important. Transocean definitely. Have you a liferaft??
 
Liferaft? Tick.
I don't much fancy the 'flick a switch and hope it's working, someone's listening' feature of an EPIRB.
Course, another option for the cautious is to get a sat phone...
 
Get an epirb!
Preferably float free version if you are doing a lot of sailing, a colegue of mine was yacht racing and disapeared, there was only a millisecond blip from the manual epirb and the boat was lost and only recently salvaged with no sign of crew. If they had had a float free eprib they would have probably been rescued almost straight away. They were in a 42ft ocean cruiser/racer at the time which had water tight bulkheads. The manual epirb was in a locker - the short blip wasnt enough to send out the position.

What's the cost of life?
 
[ QUOTE ]
.. there was only a millisecond blip from the manual epirb away...

[/ QUOTE ]And hence the EPIRB actually did succeed in doing part of it's job by alerting the authorities that there was a problem.
 
\"What value peace of mind?\"....

... is a quote that cropped up in a few replies.

I can think of loads of other stuff that constitutes 'peace of mind', and rescue gear offers me none whatsoever.

Peace of mind tends to wash over me when I am inspecting and maintaining hull, rig, systems and machinery, and depart me completely when I am checking the dates on flares, and checking for UV degradation on all the bright orange and yellow stuff dangling from the rails.
 
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