Incorrect calling on the VHF

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fireball

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Well, after the first weekend afloat, I was amazed at the calm, professional manner in which Solent Coastguard dealt with the plonkers using Chl16 to call a marina ...

We heard ppl calling:
Cowes Yacht Haven
Gosport
Chichester Marina
Hamble Point

I'm sure there were a few we missed!!

I can almost understand a "whoops wrong channel /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)" but the guy calling Cowes called twice, was informed by the CG that CYH don't operate on 16 and then proceeded to call "Cowes Yacht Haven, nothing heard, Out" ... surely if you are that THICK then you should not be allowed to own a boat without a professional skipper!!
 
Whenever I pass the Solent I always look forward to listening to VHF Ch 16 as it as close as we get nowadays to one of those glorious Ealing comedies from the 1940's and 50's. It offers fantastic entertainment value, all human life is represented there and the mixture of drama, comedy and farce in unequalled in British Broadcasting.

Whilst it is amusing a couple of times a year it must be a royal pain to have it inflicted upon one on a regular basis.
 
Last weekend there were 3 mayday calls ongoing in the solent and a couple were squabbling on ch16. The coastguard was far more polite than I ever could have been in asking them not to use Ch16. Later in the day when the CG asked a boat for a description the reply came back over the radio, "er, we're big and white". Priceless
 
What is even more scary is to sit on an anchored drilling rig in the med close to the exit from the suez canal.
NATO warships on 16 calling "vessel posn xxx hdg xxx speed xx knots" - nobody answers cos there is no buxxer on the bridge!!!!!!
Fortunately now I am retarded I just sit on my boat and relax.
 
[ QUOTE ]
... now I am retarded I just sit on my boat and relax.

[/ QUOTE ]How did that happen? Too much work in your prime?
 
One of the Maydays was so flustered he gave his position 10deg further North than he actually was. Instead of saying "near Norris buoy" he rattled off a lat/lon which I immediately plotted as near Winchester!
As it happens I was quite close but didn't know 'till I heard it on the FM radio later on.

Glad he was OK.

Cheers
 
That brings back some memories.

I worked on some barely-seaworthy old drilling barges in the Gulf of Suez in the early 80's. We drilled one well just where the Red Sea narrows into the gulf, right in the middle of the shipping lane. We had so many near misses that the driller, who had the pleasure of looking down the length of the barge towards the oncoming traffic, was given control of a massive fog horn to try and get the attention of whatever was coming towards us.

It's a bit nerve-racking to watch the stern of a big tanker belatedly start to appear behind the bows as it starts a long, stately turn past you. We had numerous ships come inside the anchor buoys, which is far too close, especially as the area was utterly infested with massive sharks and we didn't have proper lifeboats, just inflatable liferafts that we'd have to swim out to.

The military weren't exempt from criticism, though. USS Nimitz was one of our closest-calls, coming past us so close one night that our lights were illuminating her sides!
 
You have highlighted something that I think should be widely publicised and sttressed on RYA courses etc.

Even if the position had been correct how many would bother to plot it? As you say its far better to give a distance and bearing from a well known feature( or even just "close to buoy xyz would do)and then give the lat and long. Anyone close will then take an interest and hopefully plot the position.

If ever I need to call a Mayday I certaintly wouldnt rely on lat and long alone. (touch wood I havent needed to in over 35 years sailing.)
 
SCG issued a Nav warning with their weather information on Friday, about submerged pots ... and gave the pos as lat/long ... we sat their thinking ... great .. missed the numbers as we're in the cockpit ... luckily they then gave us an approximate of gurnard point .. - that's better ...
Why not do it the otherway round - I could've run down to the charttable and noted the latlong if we were going near!
 
We noted with some amusement that the further East we got this weekend, the less VHF traffic there was on 16....

We also heard the plonkers calling the marinas on 16..... they should be made to re-take their flippin tests!

I don't know how you guys in the Solent cope with it.... the radio was alive the whole time we were there... it never stopped, and 90% of it was complete and utter rubbish....
 
I heard those transmissions this weekend, big sigh!

Solent Coast Guard have the patience of a saint at times.

Alot of the new VHF sets are dual watch, and show the 'chosen channel' and flick over to show 16. Picking up the mike to transmit after a cursory look at the display, oops!!

Skipper asking someone else to call the marina while he surveys all that is around him with that air of grandeur.

I heard an extremely well spoken 'Lady' asking for Cowes Yacht Haven on Sunday, and there must have been a chorus around the Solent saying, "Not on 16 you wont!"

It is entertaining!

Al.
 
[ QUOTE ]
One of the Maydays was so flustered he gave his position 10deg further North than he actually was. Instead of saying "near Norris buoy" he rattled off a lat/lon which I immediately plotted as near Winchester!

[/ QUOTE ] My geography of darn sarf isn't that precise, but I am surprised to hear that Winchester is 600nm N of the Solent . . .

- Nick
 
SWMBO has asked if we can have a remote VHF mike in the cockpit ... ours has all the channel controls on it as well ... so I'll just have to work out if I can cut the cable and put 2 sockets in and a plug on the end of the mike cable ...

Sorry we missed you on Friday - SWMBO said it was so nice why don't we carry on to Cowes ... well - I'm not going to argue!
 
Tried to find a yacht in trouble once. The lat/lon position was on the sea, not too far from where they really were but when we got on site, there was no yacht. We asked them to confirm the position. We were spot on in a sea crowded with white boats with white sails & blue dodgers looking for a yacht with...........

Eventually we found them by running down a direction finder line. They'd sensibly written down their initial position in case of electrical failure but got some numbers mixed up and didn't check it. They just read the position off the paper without checking. The give away was the position remaining unchanged to 3 decimal places. They were also unable to identify any landmarks like the solent forts or take bearings.
 
The serious issue amongst the gaffaws is that whilst some of us look forward to listening to Ch16 when in the Solent, there are other skippers who have taken to turning down the cockpit repeater speaker so that they do not have to listen to it, so many vessels no longer monitor Ch16.
 
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