Mayday, Pan-pan, Securite.

[powerskipper]

There is a reason for this post; I would like to ask the forum a question. Could the forum members please post the circumstances in which they have made a Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite call?

The reason for this is, When I teach VHF courses I use scenario card of different situations to discuss what type of VHF call would be used ,
e.g.
Rubber matt
Rib 9.6m Hand held VHF/DSC
Position is given.
Man overboard, 1 person left on board.
Approximately 4nm off shore.
Wind 4-5 5ft swell.



Or Zippy Zee
Hobby Cat, Hand held VHF/DSC.
Position given,
No wind and you are drifting out to sea on a spring outgoing tide, at present you are approximately 3 miles off shore.
Wind 0

So if you would like to post what happened to you and if possible what the coastguard did or the RLNI, it would be of great help to me and would be interesting to read./forums/images/icons/cool.gif
I have posted this on the MB forum as well.

Thank you in advance for any help./forums/images/icons/smile.gif



<hr width=100% size=1>Julie ,
IMOSHO of course,/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[HenryB]

Julie,

I've broadcast Securite calls about 3 times while on passage from Cyprus to Crete after our navigation lights failed and we were just displaying an all round white light. I did it when I saw ships approaching near to us. We received no acknowledgement from anyone, nor did we get run down!

Our message gave our name, position, course and speed and the fact that we just had an all round white navigation light.

The wind was about F6 on the nose and the seas were 2 - 3 metres.


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[charles_reed]

Why the confusion.

MayDay = imminent danger to life.

PanPan = need help but unlikely to die

Securité = watch out there's an anomaly around which could result in danger to other vessels.

So:-
Rubber matt
Mayday if the one person aboard has any doubt as to their ability to get the man overboard back on board.

Zippy Zee
Securité - unless the crew reckon they'll not get home in time for tea. In which case I'd go onto vhf0 and find out if the inshore's around to give me a pluck back.

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[bedouin]

Rubber Matt - depends a bit on the skipper's confidence. If I were skipper I would put out a Mayday but I would also agree with someone confident enough in their abilities of getting back to the MOB in not doing so - after all you can always put out a Mayday 5 minutes later. I can't see any reason for using Pan-pan or securite

Zippy Zee - doesn't really warrant Mayday as there is no immediate danger, but I wouldn't quarrel with a skipper who did. If I were to make any call it would be a Pan-pan - although if I were drifting into shipping lanes then a securite could also be appropriate.

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[Equinox]

Mayday - Distress
Pan-Pan - Urgency
Securite - Safety

MAYDAY calls are usually made when you deem your vessel to be in 'grave and imminent danger'. This covers scenarios such as sinking. Unitil a few years ago, a MOB was treated as a PAN-PAN but that has now changed and a man overboard is now initially a MAYDAY. It may be reduced to a PAN-PAN once you feel you have the situation under control.

A PAN-PAN is broadcast in urgent situations. I have heard these broadcast for emergencies such as fire or explosion onboard.

SECURITE is concerned with the safety of navigation. Buoys reported out of position, floating objects in the water that are a danger navigation are all covered under the securite call. Also I have heard vessels that have suffered a black out broadcast their position and other info.

Hope this helps.

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[Rustyknight]

A few years ago, we fouled a pot marker in the Alderney race. After turning south, I was below plotting the posistion on the chart, with the g/f at the helm. Heard a bang under the hull, and then the engine coming under heavy load. Although I shot up into the cockpit, by the time I'd got there the engine had stalled.... and the g/f had let go of the tiller, which swept across the cockpit before breaking at the rudder head as the 6 Kt ebb tide ran under us.
After a quick check below to see if the saildrive deep sea seal was leaking, back up top to assess the situation.... about 30 yards astern was a big orange bouy, with about 10 yards of rope to a small green metal bouy, then the rope went out of sight underneath us, with a weighted bamboo pole floating alongside. The strength of the tide was pushing water up against the stern, with some coming up over the low cut transom into the cockpit.
With at least another 4 hours of ebb to go, going over the side was not an option.... especially as I can't swim. Also, the rope was to far away to reach and cut....
With the g/f starting to panic, I put out a pan pan call and it was answered by St Peter Port radio. After talking with them, they called Alderney Radio (by phone I think, as the station was closed at that time in the morning) After making contact with Alderney radio, the Alderney lifeboat was launched to come and assist us.
Whilst waiting, I checked for water in the cabin again, and then spent my time catching the waves breaking into the cockpit in a bucket, and calming the g/f.
On the arrival of the lifeboat a crewman jumped over to us, then a tow passed in order to get us facing uptide and take the wieght off the fouled rope..... enabling us to reach it and cut us free. After that, a tow into Braye...... and a trip ashore to thank the lifeboat crew.
After that we dried out alongside at Mainbrayce and cleared the prop (the anode had been crushed around the shaft by the rope) and Roland made us a new tiller from an old mahogany step he had (so grateful thanks to him!!) Then on down to St Peter Port to get a marine engineer to check out the engine mounts etc etc.


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[powerskipper]

I hope this will help explain what I am after.
What I do when teaching VHF/DSC to a class is give then scenarios like the ones posted above and they have to decide what type of call to use or what action needs to be taken,/forums/images/icons/smile.gif Then it is descussed as a class.
This is to stop them from calling Mayday for the slightest thing, so any real life examples are what I was looking for. The more variety the better as a class will have all sorts of people who use the water as students. Thank you to those that have replied so far./forums/images/icons/smile.gif


<hr width=100% size=1>Julie ,
IMOSHO of course,/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Chris_Stannard]

A few years ago I saw a boat sailing rather strangely, going down tide towards the Hurst Narrows with a strong tide against him, and with the only person on deck sitting out to leeward, I ran alongside for a look and could then see that the guy had a bad head wound and was slumped over the guardrails, luckily for him with legs wither side of a stanchion.

I put two of my crew onboard and took him in tow. We put out a "pan medico". My crew members, looking round the boat, thought that there had been someone else on board, and we then put that out as a "pan" and a full scale search was organised by the Coastguard, including the SAR helicopter, two inshore lifeboats, and just about everybody at that end of the Solent.

The Yarmouth Lifeboat brought a doctor out, and also put one of their crew on the boat to help my crew who were not very experienced. The Coastguard managed to esrtablish, from the name of the owner and his address that his crew had left the boat and he was sailing single handed so the search was called off.

Incidentally, although the person rescued subsequently thanked the Yarmouth lifeboat crew, no one ever thought to say thank you to us, although two members of my crew had risked their lifes to get onboard his boat in a very rough sea.

C'est la guerre I guess but I wonder if my guys would be so willing next time?

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris Stannard

 

[mikesharp]

The incident was during a cross channel race to france where an unforecast storm blew up when most boats were at least half way across.
After attempts to run before winds of 40/50 knots, which were thwarted by a 360 degree wind shift over about 6 hours, we reached our destination harbour entrance to find our engine only ran for a few seconds before conking out because the fuel tank had shifted and water had flooded the tank through the broken breather pipe (water level thought to be a failed deep sea seal due to a plastic bag tournique around it).
We were unable to safely enter harbour under sail because of the sea running and a rather tricky entrance through cross currents and overfalls.
A number of other boats were in trouble and although we were taking on water we were able to manouver and make way under storm jib alone and did not believe we were likely to sink.
One boat close to us had issued a Mayday because of a health problem with crew and in the circumstances we issued a Pan Pan to avoid the local lifeboat having to decide who to help first.
After some 6 hours of sailing between the inner shipping lane and the harbour entrance (but not too close) another lifeboat from further along the french coast took us in tow and we gained the harbour under tow and with our sea anchor deployed to avoid overtaking the lifeboat through the narrow entrance.

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[Solitaire]

Interesting - what would you do in this situation then? In main channel of Southampton Water and engine on a small petrol powered boat has failed - this is a true scenario. What call might be made in this situation? What call was made and why? Answers on a post card or I'll just wait and see what response comes back.

<hr width=100% size=1>Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk>Serious</A> Fun

 

[tome]

We assisted a boat in this very stituation. It was a small fishing boat with failed outboard and 3 very frightened blokes on board who had narrowly escaped being run down by Oriana. Solent CG put out a call and we responded, towing the boat out of the way into the shallows on the Hamble side. About an hour later the Soton Pilot boat came alongside and took over the tow. Can't remeber if they put out a Mayday or a Pan Pan.

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[Col]

I told you the other day about us towing a speed boat with a blown up engine. He was drifting into the exclusion zone at Fawley refinery. We got "blue lighted" by Harbourmaster till he realised what we were doing there. Bloke didn't appear to have VHF but he and his 2 young boys had lifejackets on. He was ever so grateful of the tow.

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[Solitaire]

This is going to be an interesting thread! So not sure if Mayday or PanPan - ok anymore? /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk>Serious</A> Fun

 

[charles_reed]

Gratitude for a tow

I once towed back, from the first port can out of Chanteryne, to which he was clinging, a French powerboat with man and daughter on board.
He'd been trying, unsuccessfully to attract the attention of the capitainerie by vhf, hand signals and hollering, but hadn't resorted to appealing to CROSS.

He was very grateful - it was Sunday and he told us he was late for Sunday lunch and his wife would kill him.

About 4 hours later, just as we were about to leave for Poole, the whole family arrived on the pontoon (6 of them) and presented us with a bottle of 16 year-old Calva.

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[tome]

To be honest, no can't recall and the log entry names the boat but doesn't specify the precise call beyond it being in distress.

If you are teaching the subject perhaps this would be a good example. You are about to be run down by a large Ocean Liner. You have a radio onboard, but no licence. Should you use the radio to initiate a distress call?

The answer is of course Yes.
Tom

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[TheBoatman]

Chris
I know exactly what you mean when you say that your efforts were forgotten. It has happened to me on a number of occasions. Whilst fishing out of Ramsgate I have towed a number of boats off both Margate Sands and the Goodwins. In all cases the crews have been petrified until they start to sail/motor with some decent depth of water under them, only to see them disappear out of sight without a bye-or leave, but I would have to say that I would never refuse to help someone just because the last bloke didn't say thanks. IMHO it's more because they have been frit to death and they just forget to say thanks until much later on, and by that time they can't even remember what you or your vessel looked like?

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[oldharry]

How about this one?

I was about half a mile south of the Helford River entrance, beating out to sea: wind east 4: vis good: flood tide sweeping into the river: sea moderate - up to 1 m.

Boat: flat bottomed 20 foot drop keeler with no directional stability at all unless rudder and keel are down.

The lower rudder pintle fails, causing the rudder to swing up out of the water sideways, resulting in complete loss of directional control.

The rocky shore is directly downwind and we have an estimated 30 - 40 minutes before we are in real danger. Some progress can be made under sail. the water is too deep at that point to anchor.

Decision, once the boat is secured, call HMCG 'Urgent Traffic' on Ch16 informing them of the problem, and requesting assistance. Falmouth CG respond asking if I wish to upgrade to a Pan-Pan.

What would you do?

I decided against making a distress call as several other nearby boats responded and were coming in to stand by, and we subsequently arranged a tow with a nearby fishing boat (who refused any payment! - thanks lads. Bought them all a couple of rounds in the pub later).


Was I right? Although there was clearly a danger of being swept onto the lee shore I was fairly certain we could extricate ourselves with a little help before things got serious.

Or should it have been a Mayday / Pan Pan?




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[BlueSkyNick]

As you have said that help was already at hand, I think you made the right decision.

However, with nobody else around I would have gone for a Pan-pan, sooner rather than later. This is on the basis that its better to give 30 minutes notice of a possible danger, than 5 minutes notice of a definite one.

<hr width=100% size=1>The problem is that God gave men a brain and a penis but only enough blood to use one at a time.

 

[Chris_Stannard]

It should be a Pan Pan in my opinion as you do need assistance before the situation becomes life threatening.

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris Stannard

 

[Chris_Stannard]

It di not deter me from helping, I towed a French boat who had an total electrical failure down the Litte Russell last season. The wind had dropped and we just had time to get them there before the tide turned. The Harbour Master was very helpful and had a boat ready to take the tow as we entered the breakwater. The crew insisted on having us on board for the evening and gave us an excellent bottle of wine.

Only distressing thing was a large number of boats had just sailed by them ignoring their waves etc and obvious need of help.

This also applied to the original incident off Hurst, and it is a sad reflection that many people these days seem to ignore the rule of the sea that if someone is in trouble you help, no matter how inconvenient it may be.

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris Stannard