Lost yachtsman rescued TWICE after using a ROAD ATLAS to navigate.

The right of the RNLI to be critical of someone who has been stupid twice in quick succession

I think they're entitled to a quiet word. Slagging him off in the Daily Mail just puts people's backs up IMHO.


and then the right of Britons to put to sea in pursuit of crazy endevours. We need the later, they have been a perennial aspect of British life for 40 years. Such ventures would also provide beneficial free copy for the RNLI

Totally agree.


Oh yes I forgot about them, a worrying symptom of the ugly corporate expansion underway in the RNLI. The long term interests of the RNLI would be better served if the Beach Nazi Panzer Grenadier Brigade was completely hived off as "Shoreside Safety Enforcers Limited" and stripped of any RNLI branding.

+1.
 
There are two issue being mixed up here. The right of the RNLI to be critical of someone who has been stupid twice in quick succession and then the right of Britons to put to sea in pursuit of crazy endevours. We need the later, they have been a perennial aspect of British life for 40 years. Such ventures would also provide beneficial free copy for the RNLI if their PR department was not staffed by incompetents.

Agreed.

The PR could have been a very positive message to the general public - outlining general common sense at sea - as opposed to the focus on the inexperience of the individual sailor. Everyone has to learn how to sail - which is not synonymous with being in immediate danger or being dangerous.

Are we heading to PR training for the volunteers on how to deal with hacks ?

I prefer this sort of PR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHIBkQ7_CE anyway - they don't make them like that anymore

No dispute on the excellent job of RNLI service at sea. It is vital, heroic etc etc. I am quite confident that this guy would have been left alone if there was a real emergency elsewhere. So I rule out any debate on directing resources from others.

Anyone considered it could all be a PR stunt from RNLI ? How to get the "safety at sea message" into the press ? Maybe the guy is an "actor" ?
 
(snip)
Anyone considered it could all be a PR stunt from RNLI ? How to get the "safety at sea message" into the press ? Maybe the guy is an "actor" ?

No. Why would anyone consider anything so devious? :confused:

What planet are you from? Or is it something you are smoking? Why would such a profesional organisation consider something so stupid & counter-productive?

I guess that the local guy is annoyed at being dragged out on a shout twice for someone with limited understanding of the risks he is taking & then a reporter takes a "holier than thou" stance.

Just apply Occam's Razor - the simplest & most obvious explanation is most likely to be correct.
 
No. Why would anyone consider anything so devious? :confused:

What planet are you from? Or is it something you are smoking? Why would such a profesional organisation consider something so stupid & counter-productive?

I guess that the local guy is annoyed at being dragged out on a shout twice for someone with limited understanding of the risks he is taking & then a reporter takes a "holier than thou" stance.

Just apply Occam's Razor - the simplest & most obvious explanation is most likely to be correct.

Oh dear..... not sure it is "devious" thinking......

.... from what I see in most papers and TV shows are platforms complex marketing machines manipulating who and what is in the news today. People, events and products.

Obviously I am taking about "passive" stories - when things just appear randomly - not genuine events. Nobody is injured, hurt or exposed.

Don't see why it has to be ruled out. charitable organisations are not managed by saints.

PR = Exposure = Money

No PR = No Money = No Charity

How do you think RNLI does it - with ship shaped money boxes ? Or just wait for a real disaster ?

........ I wonder if there is anyone else smoking something from a different planet out there ?
 
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........ I wonder if there is anyone else smoking something from a different planet out there ?

I'll have some of what you're on, it might improve my bad back. ;)


With the regularity of genuine "Captain Calamities" we seem to get around our coast, would it be worth the devastatingly bad publicity that the RNLI would get as soon as it leaked out (and it would) that they were staging rescues?

Never heard owt so daft! :D
 
Can't say I agree. His life, his choices. People were told not to try to climb the Eiger. They did anyway. Many of them died. Who are we to say they were wrong to ignore the good advice not to climb the Eiger.

it's a free world.

but if you turn up to climb the Eiger in pumps and a T shirt then Mountain Rescue might have a word...


_______________________
 
So there I was the other day, heading back home in my rib from watching the racing in falmouth bay. As I headed up the Carrrick roads I was hailed by a fair damsel and what appeared to be her aging mother, pootling along in a cuddy boat at all of 2 knots, heading towards St Just.

It was obvious the cuddy boat had little equipment.

As I drew close she asked if she was going the right way to smugglers cottage?

I politely suggested she turn 90 degrees and head for the big white house in the distant, then follow the river up stream.

She had not a clue about where she was. Not an inkling.

In this instance a road map would have been a massive improvement.

I wonder if they made it - I reckon it would have taken them two hours to get there.
 
the nub and the Screwfix Sailor

Before you start calling people stupid, let me provide a canned summary and remind you how the thread started off.

The OP reported on a man who went to sea with a road atlas and not a clue which way was up (having to ask directions at a North Sea wind farm kind of suggest this). With me so far?

There then ensued a discussion relating to the costs to the RNLI of being called out on emergencies. I then commented that it wasn't so much the cost that was an issue but the strain on limited RNLI resources and the potential for a tragedy through someone's casual and lazy approach to boatsmanship.

If you have fully prepared yourself and your boat and then you get into difficulties, then that's a wholly different ball game. To go to sea with no more than a road atlas is inexcusable.



you are of course correct

and I agree to calculate the cost of a call out on the basis of dividing total costs by the number of callouts is a bit weird

although.... RNLI resources seem almost unlimited to me

but you introduce the idea of being "fully prepared".



that is a very subjective concept

Look at my own circumstances should I end up getting recued and be on the receiving end of a thoroughly good ragging at the hands of the Daily Mail.

"Completely unqualified sailor in 50 year old boat rescued by the emergency services after going aground. The local RNLI Coxwain said "this is the third numpty this year"

My own circumstances make me an open goal for ridicule

For starters, for the Mail, the boat was born from an idea at a socialist newspaper

I have no qualifications

My uncorrected charts are at least five years old

my nautical almanac is at least three years old

my roller reefing has been repaired using araldyte

the engine is old and has already let me down three times - clearly I am an incompetent mechanic

for communication I only have a hand held radio that runs on AA batteries

and a mobile phone

my flare pack is almost out of date

the lights on the boat are powered from a cigarette lighter socket

my waterproofs were a gift from a neighbour who retired from sailing five years before I started this journey and are least 20 years old

The rest of the time I wear screwfix stuff


headline

"the Screwfix sailor feks up again"
 
How on earth do you get by with a three year old Almanac?

Well, without wanting to confess to the same sin, the tidal curve's still the same shape. If you print the tide times off the internet before you leave, there's not much else that I make regular use of in an almanac that goes out of date... But don't tell the Daily Mail that that's what I said!

Cheers
Patrick
 
Agreed.

The PR could have been a very positive message to the general public - outlining general common sense at sea - as opposed to the focus on the inexperience of the individual sailor. Everyone has to learn how to sail - which is not synonymous with being in immediate danger or being dangerous.

Are we heading to PR training for the volunteers on how to deal with hacks ?

I prefer this sort of PR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHIBkQ7_CE anyway - they don't make them like that anymore

No dispute on the excellent job of RNLI service at sea. It is vital, heroic etc etc. I am quite confident that this guy would have been left alone if there was a real emergency elsewhere. So I rule out any debate on directing resources from others.

Anyone considered it could all be a PR stunt from RNLI ? How to get the "safety at sea message" into the press ? Maybe the guy is an "actor" ?

Hang on a sec - what PR?

All I´ve seen is a piece from the Daily Mail, not a publication to be terribly bothered about even reporting .

Have the RNLI issued a press statement? Might have, I couldn´t find anything on their site.

But don´t let that get in the way of slagging them off based on what one hack managed to put together.
 
I don't have any almanac, although the kids bought me one for Christmas once, I never actually found a use for it.
Almanacs... bless their cotton socks. A quaint 1970's concept that went the way of hostess trolleys and Babycham I thought?

I occasionally have a mid season panic attack and purchase a £1 annual tide table, otherwise I am 100% silicon chip dependant.
 
Hang on a sec - what PR?

All I´ve seen is a piece from the Daily Mail, not a publication to be terribly bothered about even reporting .

Have the RNLI issued a press statement? Might have, I couldn´t find anything on their site.

But don´t let that get in the way of slagging them off based on what one hack managed to put together.


I didn't slag off the RNLI - they do a great job. Take that back :(

I accept the use of "PR" was misplaced - oops.

All wanted to do was stand up for the sailor - he owns a boat - I respect that, I feel his pain.

I felt he didn't get his say in the story, just ridicule... too small a voice.

He was just a guy out on his boat for goodness sake. Out sailing one day and now he's been sent to the naughty step.

I don't expect the press to have any empathy, but their story seemed wholly based on the comments they attributed to RNLI - ok, so we all accept it was just the guys on the job - but to Joe Bloggs, they are synonymous with the whole organisation.

Maybe what I meant to say was .................the RNLI, as a major organisation dedicated to safety at sea, could have influenced the story positively - whether during or after the fact. They could have published a response, for instance, reminding everyone about on safety and offering help to the poor sailor.

I am sure the hacks would have printed it the next day without much hesitation.

Hope the poor guy hasn't been put off
 

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