billskip
Well-Known Member
Not really, you still get complaints with people wanting to police others and complaining.
Run aground at low water? Put your anchor out!
- Thread starter wonkywinch
- Start date
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
Unless your at a Star Wars convention, Mos Eisley Cantina.
Mister E
Well-Known Member
Is this not the correct procedure for those that are not certain in an emergency. Much quicker and no confusion trying to concentrate on pages of instructions.
ylop
Well-Known Member
If your grandchildren are the people then lift flap and hold down the button is probably the most important thing they can do. I don't think you need to be "up to date" on proper procedure OR following through manuals to transmit an effective basic mayday. Make then a grandchild specific instruction card, with a simplified message. But whilst kids saying help [1MIN] help [1MIN] help will get attention, it will risk being assumed to be kids mucking around.
Mister E
Well-Known Member
Yes maybe I should teach them to use a sextant to get the position and a lead line to get the depth.
Alternatively as they are going to be very upset keeping it really simple and have the professional do their job is also an option.
Alternatively as they are going to be very upset keeping it really simple and have the professional do their job is also an option.
ylop
Well-Known Member
Well if you want to be stupid about it.
You are making the professional's job harder, taking longer to get you the help you need (and your grandkids safe).
Never Grumble
Well-Known Member
I sent my wife on the VHF course, not sure she enjoyed it but I feel more confident that she would get the message out if I went over the side. People spend a relative fortune on boats, berthing fees but dont get a VHF licence
snowbird30ds
Well-Known Member
Me and Swmbo did the course at the same time, it just made sense.
finestgreen
Well-Known Member
There's quite a lot of self-interest reasons why you might not choose to buy a 60ft yacht and sail it without training, and almost none restraining you from misusing a VHF.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Quite, but the point about licensing is that the statistics from countries that have introduced it don’t appear to support its effectiveness against stupidity.
Pye_End
Well-Known Member
Although on paper it sounds obvious, but when you then try to demonstrate statistically that a licenced skipper is safer than the system we have in the uk it becomes less obvious. You also need to look at the statistics on yachting accidents v's other water activities, and the numbers begin not to stack up. Eg. dinghy sailers, kayakers, swimmers, dog walkers, paddle boards - all very well represented in Saving Lives at Sea compared with yachts. And then there is the problem of enforcement. Compare water activities with say car driving you will soon wonder if compulsory licencing is enforceable or that (on average) it produces safer sailors. It also becomes a barrier to the sport.
Safety comes from an attitude of mind, usually built from experience (often age), and a whole lot of luck.
Freedom from officialdom is priceless, and increasingly under threat in our daily lives.
penberth3
Well-Known Member
.
I can't imagine anyone hearing that sort of transmission would dismiss it as "kids mucking around". Perhaps you would, I don't know?
I can't imagine anyone hearing that sort of transmission would dismiss it as "kids mucking around". Perhaps you would, I don't know?
Mister E
Well-Known Member
You would hear the upset in their voice.
ylop
Well-Known Member
I’ve only once heard what was obviously a child using a VHF on Ch16. Their message was slightly longer than “help” but unintelligible, so contained no information that I could use to see if I could assist. The CG also clearly couldn’t understand it. It didn’t seem to result in rescue assets being launched. If you can work a PTT switch and make a voice call you can press the DSC button which was my point. Importantly it also automatically turns the radio to 16 and High Power awaiting your voice call. Grandad may have been on some other channel at the moment of the crisis.
How many times have you heard “station calling CG say your name again over” - you are placing a lot of faith in a single syllable being communicated with enough meaning to be understood. I’m not saying children, or indeed anyone, needs to stick to the official script. In MrE’s shoes I would have a simplified set of instructions on a card beside the radio for child use. Actually if I was always in mobile range I’d possibly suggest DSC then 999 would be better - the phone doesn’t need PTT and is duplex comms.
Mister E
Well-Known Member
You have made my point exactly in that a young child is going to be upset scared and any talking they do unintelligible.
Hence the simple red button then help, to be repeated.
The professional will know exactly where the call is coming from and probably be able to understand the one word.
Hence the simple red button then help, to be repeated.
The professional will know exactly where the call is coming from and probably be able to understand the one word.
thinwater
Well-Known Member
I'm actually surprised that most of the untrained don't use their cell phones to call for help. In the US it would be 911.
Not sayin' this is the best way, only that it is what I would expect.
In the case of a non-emergency (most soft groundings) I would deal with it (kedge off) or wait for the tide, and if that did not work, either call private towing or call the USCG with my cell on a non-emergency number. I have done this for small problems in the past, and it worked well and they told me that yes, for many situations the phone is better. Most estuaries and close in coastal water have good reception.
[The instance I remember most clearly was medical. My wife is diabetic, a freak wave splash shorted out her blood glucose monitor, causing me to change our plan from a remote anchorage to a long run to a town. Because of the distance I might be coming in after dark, the channel was complex 5 mile corkscrew, and because of a very recent huricane, I was pretty sure the ATNs would be off station. They were, and the USCG called me back and gave me the correct lat/lon for each marker (they are not charted for this very changeable area). The phone was the best answer, and the USCG told me that was preferred in this sort of non-emergency situation. It was "interesting" running the channel with big breakers around, and the markers being, in many cases, on the wrong side of the channel. But we had marked the locations on a chart with wax pencil, and I sat on the roof with binoculars while my daughter drove.]
Not sayin' this is the best way, only that it is what I would expect.
In the case of a non-emergency (most soft groundings) I would deal with it (kedge off) or wait for the tide, and if that did not work, either call private towing or call the USCG with my cell on a non-emergency number. I have done this for small problems in the past, and it worked well and they told me that yes, for many situations the phone is better. Most estuaries and close in coastal water have good reception.
[The instance I remember most clearly was medical. My wife is diabetic, a freak wave splash shorted out her blood glucose monitor, causing me to change our plan from a remote anchorage to a long run to a town. Because of the distance I might be coming in after dark, the channel was complex 5 mile corkscrew, and because of a very recent huricane, I was pretty sure the ATNs would be off station. They were, and the USCG called me back and gave me the correct lat/lon for each marker (they are not charted for this very changeable area). The phone was the best answer, and the USCG told me that was preferred in this sort of non-emergency situation. It was "interesting" running the channel with big breakers around, and the markers being, in many cases, on the wrong side of the channel. But we had marked the locations on a chart with wax pencil, and I sat on the roof with binoculars while my daughter drove.]
lustyd
Well-Known Member
911 works in UK and EU too, just like 112 work in the US.
When there’s signal.
Most coastlines are challenging for signal since mobile phones need line of sight to a transmitter and the sea near the coast is usually too low and shadowed by land.
The US has famously poor coverage so strange that you’d use that as an example. Much of America can’t even call 911 inland.
finestgreen
Well-Known Member
My favourite was "Station calling Solent Coastguard for a radio check, reading you loud and clear"
ylop
Well-Known Member
Yes but it’s taken several posts before you mentioned the red button. You said your guests were told to hold down PTT and say help, and repeat at one minute intervals that’s rather different from make a DSC distress call (with vessel details, positions etc) then repeatedly say help
ylop
Well-Known Member
Well they might - we don’t get to overhear those comms so we don’t really know how frequent they are. From what I see on fly on the wall documentaries 999 isn’t the immediate reaction of many people - they seem to call a loved one ashore, which strikes me as crazy. Last week “saving lives at sea” came on and IIRC a guy had got a nasty injury in a kayak, he called his partner who then called the ambulance who told her to call CG. It’s weird for me who since about 8 yrs old was drummed into me you call 999 and ask for coastguard if it’s at sea.
It’s actually quite hard to find a non-emergency number for a UK CG ops room. They seem to have moved away from publishing them.