Saving lives at sea - observations on TV prog

lpdsn said:
How did the coastguard know his engine had failed if he didn't call for help?
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I assume someone informed the CG, or maybe they called local vessels for a tow on C16. I think we can take it as read that if he'd called for emergency help he wouldn't have been on the TV complaining about how it was handled. I've got a feeling it wasn't even his boat, he was a guest.

If anyone wants to investigate I've remembered it was Michael Burke, thread about the incident from the perspective of the Daily Mail, rather than Burke here:
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?166700-Celebrity-Yacht-Rescue


Incidently on re-reading: " ..Hmmm, seems to me that slagging off the rescuee in the press/tv/Facebook/Twitter is standard operating procedure for the RNLI... I accept I was wildly overstating the case. None the less the issue is a real one.

I think we've rather lost sight of my first question/point in Post 6. Anyone have a definitive answer to that?
 
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Mark-1 said:
I assume someone informed the CG, or maybe they called local vessels for a tow on C16. I think we can take it as read that if he'd called for emergency help he wouldn't have been on the TV complaining about how it was handled. I've got a feeling it wasn't even his boat, he was a guest.

If anyone wants to investigate I've remembered it was Michael Burke, thread about the incident from the perspective of the Daily Mail, rather than Burke here:
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?166700-Celebrity-Yacht-Rescue
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If they felt the need to communicate on VHF 16, with the coastguard or otherwise, then clearly they didn't feel confident they had control of the situation. If they were treating it as some form of crisis you can't blame the Coastguard/RNLI for acting on that.

I've lost the engine on a number of occasions and have dealt with it. Only time I've got on the VHF was to let a marina know I planned to sail in, which was fair as I'm sure they wouldn't want people sailing in without warning - they actually got their workboat and threw me a tow line for the last 20 yds.

Of course there may one day be exceptional circumstances that require me to call for help or to inform the coastguard in the full knowledge that there's a fair chance they'd send the RNLI even if I didn't ask.
 
lpdsn said:
If they felt the need to communicate on VHF 16, with the coastguard or otherwise, then clearly they didn't feel confident they had control of the situation.
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I've put out a call on ch16 when we discovered that we'd lost a flare bottle containing everybody's wallets, phones, and car keys, somewhere in the southern half of Southampton Water. It wasn't exactly an emergency though.

Pete
 
lpdsn said:
If they felt the need to communicate on VHF 16, with the coastguard or otherwise, then clearly they didn't feel confident they had control of the situation.
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Burke's complaint was about the RNLI slagging him off to the media - they had the media waiting on the pontoon before the boat had even arrived. Whether or not it was a real emergency was irrelevant to to his point. (FWIW Burke said it wasn't an emergency and a tow into Yarmouth doesn't feel like an emergency to me.)

Maybe my memory is wrong but I'm thinking now he was a guest on the boat so even if it *had* been a true 'captain calamity' story it shouldn't have been about him.

Can we get back to recovery to Ribs now!?
 
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Angele said:
I think he was talking about Rimas. The Russian guy.
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Indeed. I think he was Latvian though.

He did seem to achieve a lot for someone who hadn't a clue, before fate finally caught up with him. Certainly enough to undermine an argument that crossing the channel is proof of competence.
 
TangaraToo said:
The guy did state in the program that he had tried to sail out of the shipping lane but wife started to panic when boat heeled.
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I've known people who have 'sailed' for years without using the main and see the genoa as a slightly scary thing to roll out when the wind is just right. They travel to different countries and for them it's a floating home with a reliable but not thirsty engine. I went on a 3 week cruise on ours on engine alone after we'd found a crack in the mast on the day we started and had to choose between booking a hotel or using it as a motorboat.

I was less embarrassed than I expected when motoring on perfect sailing days as half the other boats were doing the same. So I would not call in those circumstances but don't blame them at all.
 
Mark-1 said:
Incidently on re-reading: " ..Hmmm, seems to me that slagging off the rescuee in the press/tv/Facebook/Twitter is standard operating procedure for the RNLI... I accept I was wildly overstating the case. None the less the issue is a real one.

I think we've rather lost sight of my first question/point in Post 6. Anyone have a definitive answer to that?
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What was the question again? About using kit to recover people from the water?

If so, the definitive answer is no, Atlantic class RIBs don't carry any such kit. We grab the casualty near the bow, walk him back aft to where the sponson is lower, and then turn him around so he's got his back towards the boat. Two of us then grab him under the arms and hoick him in. Once he's on his way up then belt loops or whatever are fair game to gain extra purchase.
 
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Juan Twothree said:
What was the question again? About using kit to recover people from the water?

If so, the definitive answer is no, Atlantic class RIBs don't carry any such kit. We grab the casualty near the bow, walk him back aft to where the sponson is lower, and then turn him around so he's got his back towards the boat. Two of you then grab him under the arms and hoick him in. Once he's on his way up then belt loops or whatever are fair game to gain extra purchase.
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Ta!
 
Juan Twothree said:
What was the question again? About using kit to recover people from the water?

If so, the definitive answer is no, Atlantic class RIBs don't carry any such kit. We grab the casualty near the bow, walk him back aft to where the sponson is lower, and then turn him around so he's got his back towards the boat. Two of you then grab him under the arms and hoick him in. Once he's on his way up then belt loops or whatever are fair game to gain extra purchase.
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And I'm not sure which of last nights casualties would have been better served by slowly rigging a recovery system and hoisting them aboard even if such things were carried - 1/2 of them were into d classes with less space than an Atlantic and nothing structural to help with lifting. The other 1/2 were on e-classes in a fast moving tidal stream in the dark with lots of other hazards to dodge and potentially a recovery system to derig before being able to make best speed to the defib on the pontoon.
 
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