Radio etiquette

I would have thought the simplest thing would be for the race committee to politely broadcast (prior to racing) that the channel is being used for XYZ event and they would appreciate it if other boaters in the area would mind using another channel.

If anyone subsequently comes on the radio and starts chatting about where they're meeting for lunch etc. surely the race committee might call and politely ask if they change channels?

To my knowledge I cannot remember a race committee ever doing this, I presume as they have no right to enforce this they don't even ask.

In my experience cruising yachties are usually more than happy to stay out of racer's way. Only once can I recall a starboard cruising boat making us duck him on port (he made a point of screwing our upwind leg up), generally the attitude is great and both racers and cruisers get on well together - let's face it most racers are cruisers some days.

It is frustrating if you're trying to get a course or an announcement and miss it because someone else is talking over the transmission.

As a tip, in the Solent 72 is the most commonly used channel for racing.

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In an ideal world the organisers wouldn't have chosen Ch72, which is a public intershp channel. However, the intership channels are often used for this purpose because many yachts, which don't regularly race (as is the case in the Beneteau regatta), don't have channel M2, and often not M1.

I think Beneteau and other race organisers are unwise to chose 72 because it is so popular with yachts for general correspondence; Ch69 or 77 might be better.
The organisers and competitors have no right to the channel and any insistance that others keep it clear is clearly wrong.
Often, when a race is in progress, for speed and simplicity, radio procedures can be abbreviated provided clarity is maintained. A simple 'ten seconds to start' is acceptable; a full 'all competitors, all competitors, this is Beneteau race control...' would clearly be too cumbersome - the fleet would be long gone by the end.

It is unlikely the Radio Communications Agency made the interuption - they do not monitor the airwaves. That it the job of the Coastguard. This was almost certainly a frustrated yachtsman trying to impose discipline.


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Thanks James, this, in essence, is the answer I was looking for. It wasn't a problem on the day, communication was generally brief and well mannered.

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Re: Lecky now too!?

Thats it - all I was told is that there is something brewing. In general I think the marina is very well run, I suspect that they don't welcome interferance and regulation as much as we do because that have plenty of work on their hands without extra regs.

I have thought about it and what they might do but can't conjure up many ideas other than more safety systems in place, oh and of course the charges!

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David
This is going to sound confusing but the problem lays with the radio manufacturers re channel designators. You said that you know M2 = 37, well on our radios it doesn't. It's M. We have no M1 but do have M2 and 80 is seperate.
On radios of different manufacture you can get different designators.
Firstly you have to acccept that there are 3 channels that are used for racing and marina control.
a) 37.
b) 80
c) M2 (as far as I'm aware M2 doesn't have a channel number)

Channel 37 is used for competitor control/contact
M2 is used by the race committee for race management control
80 is primerily marina offices etc.

HOWEVER the radio manufacturers can use a number i.e 37 or 37A or M or M1 or P or P1 which all mean the same channel.

At a recent Ofcom meeting I raised this point with them and their reply was understandable, there's not a lot we can do about it because radios are manufactured for a world market.

In early July I will be responsible for running the safety on the Medway Regatta and during that event we will use 37 for contacting and giving info to the competitors and were necessary use mobiles for contact between the race committee members. This has 2 advantages, 1 competitors can't hear what we are saying and 2 it reduces the amount of vhf airtime thus keeping our neighbours happy from us swapping them with traffic.

Maybe we should carry out a quick straw poll here and ask 'butters to say what their channel designator is for vhf Ch 37

I'll start and say that our race box radio is 37A and the club boats are M.

If all the radios are set up this way we can all talk to one and other.
Peter.

BTW I would shoot the organisers of the Benny event for choosing an intership channel. To me it shows a distinct lack of knowledge?

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Agree with the M/fctrures bit, only by accident did I find out that 37 is one of the M channels. One of the local clubs use 37 for racing, my club uses 17 but often drift off into their local language. (Welsh!)

The radio thing is not a major issue, the organisers did a great job in running the whole event which attracted a lot of cruisers and it was great fun, so maybe save the firing squad for another day:-)

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David
I propose the following to be adopted by all radio manufacturers.
M (marina) = ch 80.
R1 = ch 37 race competitor control
R2 = old ch M2 race management control.

<<<<<<<<<<<<< feeling like like blazing a lone trail here<s>

Peter.

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Re: Lecky now too!?

Hmmm...agree with your comments regarding the Marina being well run, by friendly and generally pretty helpful staff. Also appreciate that they are as peeved about all this hosepipe nonsense as we are.

I know there was a thread on this a while back, but it all got a bit technical for me....do you know where or do you have an simple explanation as to why they have gone?

The notice just says that they "have to comply with regulation x" and when you ask any of the lads they seem as flummoxed about it as me!

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Re: Lecky now too!?

As far as I know the risk to health is the simple reason they have gone. Germs that develop in pipes, in particular in warm weather. The flat hose theory is that they are squeezed out when you put it away in the cassette. If you have your own hose and you get ill, or die (in which case you are very ill) then it is down to you. On the back of that read all sorts of rules regs etc which can be interpreted in many ways, no wonder the lads are confused.

As far as the future is concerned - use your own hose from now on.

I did a quick calculation; there are 17 boats that access the stand pipe at our end.
That is .50p each for us to leave our own 30m hose, squirters, stop valves etc on the damn thing, except that if we did it would be removed!

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Re: Lecky now too!?

All total EU nonsense isn't it.

Still does not explain why it's only the North Welsh marinas that are not allowed hosepipes when every other marina in the UK is. I asked the marina guys this and they said that every marinaa in the UK had to lose their hosepipes, but talking to others on here that is clearly not the case.

Irritating, especially for a compulsive boat washer like me!



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Re: Lecky now too!?

Think that it is to do with the local water authority, as Welsh Water covers the whole of Wales then that is probably the reason why. The other reason is probably that we don't have many holidaymakers in the English water regions:-))

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Interesting to read about your forthcoming role in Medway Regatta, and that you're mindful of the need to avoid swamping the neighbours on Ch37.
I occasionally run events at Herne Bay, and regular Medway YC comms are frequently very disruptive to us, about 30+ miles away. Whitstable YC also use 37 and suffer as well. If you have the authority to ask MYC to enforce a 'low-power rule' when using their fixed sets, and keep the messages brief, we'd be grateful down here! 'Upnor Line' is a frequent culprit.
I even heard someone using an MYC callsign asking someone else to book a restaurant table last weekend.....

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Cantata
This is a problem that I have been trying to address for a while now and I can only apologise, I have recorded in the notes to competitors that all initial comms should be at 1W because we are all relatively close however once we start the racing it will spread out over some 15 nm of river and I must return to 25W to maintain a safety factor. We very often have to talk with our ribs to get them to escort large commercial ships in the Thames and Medway fairways and 1W is not an option. Due to the fact that our CRS (Upnor Line) is mounted on a corner up in the tress there are several blind spots between us and Garrison Point so members (and visitors) do tend to broadcast on 25W to make sure they get through. BTW you also come steaming into us as well and seeing as your racing is all just offshore with close line of sight contact I would have thought that you could have worked on reduced power<s>.

The bottom line is, I don’t want to unduly upset our neighbours and promise to try to keep it to a minimum.

Peter.


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Thanks for the thoughtful response. Bit shocked you can hear us at Herne Bay (Heron callsigns) as we have just the one 25w-capable fixed set , and it has a huge notice on it saying use 1w. Good luck with the regatta!

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