STATUE
Well-Known Member
Okay, so what do I say now ?
PORTLAND COASTGUARD, PORTLAND CO...who do I call now?
- Thread starter STATUE
- Start date
dylanwinter
Well-Known Member
shhh - just enjoy the radio silence and get on with sailing
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
At the moment, you'll be answered by "Solent Coastguard".
I'm not sure if the plan is still to move to a generic (and awful) "UK Coastguard".
I'm not sure if the plan is still to move to a generic (and awful) "UK Coastguard".
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Use DSC. Whoever it is will call you
Seven Spades
Well-Known Member
If the Scots vote yes it won't be UK coastguard. We won't be Great Britain any more either, we will either be Little Britain(if Putin has his way) or more likely just Britain.
WestWittering
Well-Known Member
WestWittering
Well-Known Member
Well, they were there yesterday - dealing with one overturned dive rhib & a tow….
Di
Must get the hang of the multi-quote thing…
[70521]
Well-Known Member
There is always National Coast Watch...
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
God, don't even joke. For some reason they've been given a radio channel. Most of them couldn't hold it together long enough to ask for their regular radio checks.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
Portland's last day of operations is today. Over 200 years of experience gone, replaced by trainees in Fareham.
Otter
Well-Known Member
Arrogant and insulting. Sure you once worked for the CG, but that doesn't give you the right to slag off a great bunch of people who aren't living off our taxes but are putting in the hours because they are dedicated. Couple of my friends are volunteers, they take a shift each week, sit there with their sandwiches and tea and scan the horizon, report issues and keep an eye on things. Blumin good for them, they're still looking after marine users unlike some who've jumped ship.
oldvarnish
Well-Known Member
You made some very sensible comments about the future of the CG based on your own experience. Don't spoil it with gratuitous insults like this.
snowleopard
Well-Known Member
I had a representative from Coastwatch come to talk to our club. He made the point pretty clearly that HMCG, or at least the people there, did their best to freeze them out. It seems like a good idea to have someone sitting on top of Rame Head looking at what's going on rather than relying on someone sitting in a central office who doesn't even know where Rame Head is.
Ouch, you impune Britain's only genuine coast guard outfit. They can actually pick up a pair of binoculars and see boats.
Having spent 30 minutes in the Fowey NCW hut I will say if I was in serious trouble I hope the NCW picked up my call for help instead of having to deal with an ex. Tesco checkout girl at the Coast Guard reading off an endless list of inane questions on her computer screen while I sink and drown.
Last edited:
I agree they closed the wrong station. Brixham CG had some weak characters on air and if it was not for the peculiar habit of west country yachtsmen who file 66 passage reports everytime they hoist their mainsail the staff down there would need special counselling on how to cope with boredom.
The nail in the CG coffin was the work to rule a few years ago since it only confirmed how little real work was shared out cross too many stations down south. I remember listening to the blissful channel 16 silence for hours on a mid week September afternoon while sailing the length of the Solent during a work to rule. Take away the radio checks and all the storm in a teacup emergencies better dealt with via a mobile phone call to Seastart and there is little else left.
Last edited:
mtb
Well-Known Member
bleeding curtain twitchers the lot of em
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
I was involved in the setting up of NCI in the 1990s, and we kept radios out of stations for good reason.
There are some brilliant NCI personnel, who do their job very well - their own stated aim is "spot, plot, report". But I have a lot of experience of talking to them on their radio checks and exercises, and my statement, whilst perhaps not want they want to hear, is accurate.
One or two shifts a week is not enough to maintain proficiency in coastal radio operation, and in taking on a radio channel, NCI risk tarnishing their own very good current reputation very easily.
They have no need for a radio channel.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
Of course, you're not hearing a lot of the other incidents handled.
oldbilbo
...
Huh? There's a lot on here who don't get that much practice in a season's sailing....
I've misty memories of being unable to raise Falmouth Coastguard from 3 miles away in Falmouth Bay - albeit quite some years ago. I commented at the time that I'd have been better off firing Visual Morse at the watchroom windows. That's if anyone was looking out of the window and could read Morse.....
Then there was the occasion when all 'your' antennae on the North Cornish coast got fried in an electrical storm, and the only way I/we could establish comms re the engine fire we had was by mobile phone.... or by stopping in at St Ives and taking the bus to Pendennis Point. I reckon the NCI are a helpful and useful resource, which don't cost me much. While I agree that a better-funded, better-staffed HMCG would be a significant improvement, that's not on the horizon. Meanwhile, I phone 'em up at Rame Head, when passing, and say hello.... They're worth it.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
It shows sometimes
. Seriously though, NCI are likely to get calls for help, or navigational advice, and they're not qualified to answer those. Even HMCG don't do navigational advice, the implications of getting it wrong are too worrying.Oh I agree with that completely, NCI do a great job - the one they set themselves up to do.
What we have now though is an ambitious NCI management, and an MCA management desperate to slope off work for nothing. That is the slippery slope.
