Rescue, correct procedure

[fisherman]

plus equipment, seems to have paid off here.
Sailor rescued from damaged vessel 600 miles out at sea

 

[Stemar]

Epirb and vhf. VHF should be standard equipment for any boat in the open sea, and I reckon an EPIRB should also be standard for anything more than a cross channel jaunt. Plus an emergency vhf antenna - the one on the mast won't be much good if the mast's gone swimming

 

[fisherman]

- the one on the mast won't be much good if the mast's gone swimming

Damn, hadn't though of that, and my doom laden paranoia, (or prudent caution), is usually pretty comprehensive.

 

[Supertramp]

I recall the same boat was rescued by Achill lifeboat off W Ireland in September. At least he had safety gear and the boat survived.

 

[Bilgediver]

Epirb and vhf. VHF should be standard equipment for any boat in the open sea, and I reckon an EPIRB should also be standard for anything more than a cross channel jaunt. Plus an emergency vhf antenna - the one on the mast won't be much good if the mast's gone swimming

I have made emergency antennas using 300 ohm ribbon feeder and assembled inside ccapped plastic pipe from B&Q.
Dimensions as website Mine is di ensconced to operate oth on Ham and Marine bands..

I used enough coax to hoist it up the mast on the flag haliard.


http://www.w4cll.com/m0ukd.htm

 

[RogerJolly]

To lose be rescued once, may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness.

I recall the same boat was rescued by Achill lifeboat off W Ireland in September. At least he had safety gear and the boat survived.

To be rescued once may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness. How much is this costing the tax payer? How much CO2 released?

 

[14K478]

What does "rescued after the yacht lost power" even mean?

 

[Sandy]

To lose be rescued once, may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness.

To be rescued once may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness. How much is this costing the tax payer? How much CO2 released?

The RNLI are a charity, the cost to the tax payer is £0.00.

 

[Supertramp]

To lose be rescued once, may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness.

To be rescued once may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness. How much is this costing the tax payer? How much CO2 released?

In both cases he was at sea in remote areas and in wild if not extreme weather. I carry the same sort of safety gear, hope never to use it and try to read the weather and sea state before and during a passage to avoid damage, discomfort or worse. More or less.

I agree that two rescues suggests a pattern but we don't know the background of his experience, decisions and boat.

For all of us venturing offshore singlehanded there is an element of "there but for fortune go I".

 

[oldharry]

To lose be rescued once, may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness.

To be rescued once may be regarded as a misfortune; to be rescued twice looks like carelessness. How much is this costing the tax payer? How much CO2 released?

Accidents and accident rates are completely unpredictable. Have you never had a trip where one thing after another went wrong? Nothing to do with preparedness. Just life throwing tis random dice each day. Which is why we prepare.

I have owned a variety of cars for nearly 60 years, and never had a serious accident: Normally y cars remain in fairly good nick, but I had one that just seemed plain unlucky. It was scraped twice in a year while parked outside my house, then written off by someone driving into it. I have parked cars in that space for over 20 years, and the replacement has been there three years + without incident. Why was that one car damaged so many times, while all the rest remained intact?

 

[fisherman]

Have you never had a trip where one thing after another went wrong?

haha! Fri 13th. Got to the boat, found wife's car keys in pocket. She got a lift to work but, car blocking gate, the builder had a delivery 1 ton of sand, had to shovel it over the hedge. 0900, oil all round the boat, leaking oil cooler. Bypassed it, refilled oil, carried on. 1600, fog, ships all round, Sir Galahad alongside suddenly drops a white flare and turns sharply, mob exercise? While I'm distracted oil alarm went, wtf?? stopped engine, oil gone, burst pipe. Still able to fix it but no spare oil to refill the engine.
Home behind the lifeboat.

 

[Bilgediver]

The RNLI are a charity, the cost to the tax payer is £0.00.

We have to foot the bill for the A400 out of Brize and if they deploy the rescue package that is another £12,000 pounds and double that if a second one is required if first not caught by the casualty.

The current packages are 3 elements on a single long line so they do not usually fail to straddle the casualty. Conditions here seemed to have dictated a vessel providing a lee which enabled the casualty to be taken on board.

The A 400 does have Marine VHF frequencies available and can update MRCC..

 

[14K478]

I persuaded my former employers to sell two ships - an ice class Seaway size bulk carrier thrown together in East Germany and an offshore crane ship built (badly) in Singapore on a Jim Sherwood deck ship hull - on the grounds that they were unlucky. As indeed they were. Not only did we stop having mishaps, but the company's revenues improved,

 

[RogerJolly]

I used to have a lucky boat, eg:

Engine conked out once just on tying up to mooring.

Exhaust elbow gasket went and spat cooling water everywhere, but just on arriving Haslar marina.

Broke free of mooring and came to rest on Port Solent's pontoon with minimal damage (neither to itself or other boat).

Dragged anchor all the way up Frogmore creek, Salcombe and beached itself without a scratch.

That's the boat rescuing me from my own sketchiness. Would have been better to work on maxim 'the more I maintain the luckier I get' (to paraphrase that golfer).

 

[lustyd]

The RNLI are a charity, the cost to the tax payer is £0.00.

Well strictly speaking the RNLI cost the taxpayer millions in lost taxes from gift aid, but yes we certainly don’t pay them.

 

[Supertramp]

I lost my alternator while on a singlehanded passage from Strangford to Anglesey. It actually stopped the previous day but it took a while to link the symptoms together. It was a rough trip with steady 30+knts and the wind from well forward of the beam. I had no real idea (at the time) how long my batteries would last and if the engine would restart when needed. All ended OK with an adjusted destination (Moelfre instead of Cemlyn) and the discovery that the engine battery would run the engine for days without charging.

What was interesting on reflection was the decision making such as not making for my pasage plan shelter on IOM in case I had no engine and how easy it would be for something else to go wrong and turn a drama into a crisis. And how much more tiring it is when stressed. I agree with Roger Jolly that checking, maintaining, planning and caution all increase the odds in your favour.

 

[Concerto]

Epirb and vhf. VHF should be standard equipment for any boat in the open sea, and I reckon an EPIRB should also be standard for anything more than a cross channel jaunt. Plus an emergency vhf antenna - the one on the mast won't be much good if the mast's gone swimming

I do not sail in open waters. I not have an epirb or AIS but I do carry a PLB and an emergency VHF antenna. The PLB is on my lifejacket and would only not be operational if I entered the water unconcious. This I find is adequate to locate me and talk to other shipping if I lost my mast.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I lost my alternator while on a singlehanded passage from Strangford to Anglesey. It actually stopped the previous day but it took a while to link the symptoms together. It was a rough trip with steady 30+knts and the wind from well forward of the beam. I had no real idea (at the time) how long my batteries would last and if the engine would restart when needed. All ended OK with an adjusted destination (Moelfre instead of Cemlyn) and the discovery that the engine battery would run the engine for days without charging.

What was interesting on reflection was the decision making such as not making for my pasage plan shelter on IOM in case I had no engine and how easy it would be for something else to go wrong and turn a drama into a crisis. And how much more tiring it is when stressed. I agree with Roger Jolly that checking, maintaining, planning and caution all increase the odds in your favour.

If it's a diesel engine, you could disconnect the battery once it's running and it would keep going; the engine does not need an electrical supply when running. No electrical components are required to operate the engine; only to start it and to operate ancillary equipment. OF course, certain things would change this - the most common is an electrical fuel pump. But if you rigged up a gravity feed, the engine would work without the pump.

Of course, petrol engines DO require a supply of electricity to operate the ignition system.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

What was the correct procedure? The article beyond announcing and successful rescue is almost pointless as a learning resource.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

What was the correct procedure? The article beyond announcing and successful rescue is almost pointless as a learning resource.

It boiled down to carrying an EPIRB and a VHF radio, and using them effectively to start the SAR process.