Fishing boat overturned in the Dover Straight.

Thankfully the men are safe and sound. Well done to everyone involved, as the conditions seemed pretty harsh.

Incidentally, from the same article, this quote from a Coastguard spokesman:

A spokesman continued: "HM Coastguard is also happy to receive radio checks from vessels if they wish to check their equipment before heading out to sea.

"You should always have a plan on board for ‘what if?’ and make sure everybody on board knows their part within the plan.

"In this case, a passing merchant vessel alerted HM Coastguard and we received an EPIRB distress alert which means we were able to respond quickly and get these four casualties safely rescued."

So this might put an end to discussions about radiochecks?
 
westhinder said:
Thankfully the men are safe and sound. Well done to everyone involved, as the conditions seemed pretty harsh.

Incidentally, from the same article, this quote from a Coastguard spokesman:

A spokesman continued: "HM Coastguard is also happy to receive radio checks from vessels if they wish to check their equipment before heading out to sea.

"You should always have a plan on board for ‘what if?’ and make sure everybody on board knows their part within the plan.

"In this case, a passing merchant vessel alerted HM Coastguard and we received an EPIRB distress alert which means we were able to respond quickly and get these four casualties safely rescued."

So this might put an end to discussions about radiochecks?
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What do radio checks have to do with anything? Did they ask for a radio check instead of a Mayday?
 
From my reading of the report the distress call came from a passing merchant ship and not from the fishing vessel perhaps prompting an assumption that their vhf didnt work. My assumption was that it didnt work because the antena was twenty feet under water and a previous radio check might not have shown up a potentially similar problem?
 
Biggles Wader said:
From my reading of the report the distress call came from a passing merchant ship and not from the fishing vessel perhaps prompting an assumption that their vhf didnt work. My assumption was that it didnt work because the antena was twenty feet under water and a previous radio check might not have shown up a potentially similar problem?
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The radio would not work because the radio operator was in the water.

I wonder how quick it turned over? I suspect they may not have had much warning to call for help.
 
savageseadog said:
What do radio checks have to do with anything? Did they ask for a radio check instead of a Mayday?
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Everything! Being anywhere in a F 8/9/10/11/12 and discovering that "it has hit the fan" being able to call for help is really useful. If you have not checked your VHF with anybody you might think it works, but do you know that it does?

In a past life I was a member of of a Mountain Rescue Team and the golden rule was check your radio before going on the hill and with hourly "welfare checks" we knew they worked. I once spent six hours on a ridge acting as "radio relay" (much like that passing merchant vessel) as the team extracted a severely injured climber from the gully. Perhaps I am over cautious, but having a radio that worked that dark and stormy night (F9) saved one guy's life and ensured that the rescue party was safe.
 
In a previous case like this there was a question about the liferaft not deploying, and it seems possible that in a quick inversion by the time the hydrostatic release fires, the raft could be trapped in its inverted cradle. If this is a registered FV, which it seems to be, and over 7 metres, the raft and release are obligatory, as is the EPIRB which did work. It is entirely possible that the release was not correctly rigged, the MCA checks this but not proof against tampering, or 'making more secure'.
 
Worth repeating in re radio viability: you receive OK, you think it's working, but the inline fuse is corroded, receiving draws less than one amp, transmitting, 7 amps, at which point the corroded connection breaks down.
 
I imagine most people do not object to radio checks per se, but to the excessive number of them.

It would seem that some people feel to check their radios every weekend, with the coastguard, and on full power. This makes having Ch16 on around busy yachting locations tedious in the extreme, and clearly results in numerous people not monitoring Ch16, which rather defeats the objective.
 
Glad to hear crew are safe, re radio checks there was a fairly heated thread a few weeks ago concerning radio checks with C/G, there seemed to be a lot of ‘snottiness’ about Ch 16 radio checks, which is perhaps understandable in a very busy area, but if C/G consider it part of their operations then the ocaisional radio check is surely just part of ones safety checks?
 
SAPurdie said:
Is there perchance a geographical element to the dislike of radio checks? I'm just far enough from the Solent so only hear about ten per day in the summer. Those still further afield my have to wait days to hear one, but within radio range of Cowes it can be wearing.
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Some of the posters should stay well away from busy places like the Straits of Gibraltar as its likely their faces will go bright red and their heads will explode. ;)
 
capnsensible said:
Some of the posters should stay well away from busy places like the Straits of Gibraltar as its likely their faces will go bright red and their heads will explode. ;)
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I wonder if Tarifa are still setting alarms off every half hour asking boats to look out for an inflatable adrift with 6 people on board? We turn the radio off when in range.
 
We used to use the coast radio station at Land's End, you would hear the carrier wave come back for ten seconds. I have proposed on here that we could perhaps have an automatic system, I asked the CG if they thought it worth while, but got no further. You would transmit your name or ID and hear it back as received.
 
LittleSister said:
It would seem that some people feel to check their radios every weekend, with the coastguard, and on full power.
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Utter rubbish, you rarely hear the same yacht more than once, and it's a fair bet that the odd one you hear more often is a charter boat with a different crew.

capnsensible said:
their faces will go bright red
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I think that is probably their standard look.
 
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Re radio checks: in our neck of the woods, RNLI lifeboats out for an evening exercise always give an "Ops normal" call to the CG, every 30 minutes, presumably primarily to show that they still have radio comms. I expect that's the usual procedure everywhere. If it's good enough for them........
 
NormanS said:
Re radio checks: in our neck of the woods, RNLI lifeboats out for an evening exercise always give an "Ops normal" call to the CG, every 30 minutes, presumably primarily to show that they still have radio comms. I expect that's the usual procedure everywhere. If it's good enough for them........
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Never heard of that before. And RNLI lifeboats tend to converse with CoastGuard on a reserved channel (0?), unless it is relevant to other vessels in the area
 
NormanS said:
Re radio checks: in our neck of the woods, RNLI lifeboats out for an evening exercise always give an "Ops normal" call to the CG, every 30 minutes, presumably primarily to show that they still have radio comms. I expect that's the usual procedure everywhere. If it's good enough for them........
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And it's every 15 minutes for an ILB.
Just to check that the thing is still the right way up, we're all still on board, and also where we're planning to go next, in case they need to task us to a job.
 
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