Sunsail Mayday, Portsmouth harbour

[oceanfroggie]

With 15 minutes until low water we heard a Mayday called just outside Portsmouth harbour. . . .

I was thought:

Mayday = Grave AND Imminent danger
Pan-Pan = Grave OR Imminent danger

With only 15 mins left before LW, softly around in benign sea state, she is hardly listing, so doesn't seem a mayday, but probably a pan-pan, although neither 'grave' nor 'Imminent' seemed to apply looking at the photo above. However two risks come to mind, passing wake bouncing her, and there may have been the risk of water ingress after she floated off had the keel struck a hard object on the sea bed as she ran aground.

If in doubt Pan-Pan would have seemed a sensible call in this case, unless they were unsure of the time of LW and therefore concerned she could have rolled well over.

 

[ctva]

Mayday is grave or imminent danger to vessel or life. If the vessel is in grave or imminent danger than by default, so is the life of people on board.

Pan-Pan is not in imminent danger but advisory of an incident to either vessel or person for which assistance / advise MAY be required at some point.

What happened to common sense??

 

[Bobc]

If you're out of the main channels, surely you just put the kettle on and wait.

Sending out a Mayday is plain ridiculous.

 

[sailorman]

If you're out of the main channels, surely you just put the kettle on and wait.

Sending out a Mayday is plain ridiculous.

was it a YM on charter

 

[Neil_Y]

It's hardly a Pan, more all ships is anyone passing with shallow draught that could pull us off please.

It is a bit of a concern as others have said that it could become more common for people to call mayday when it isn't and thus get in the way of a real emergency. Especially in a busy area like the Solent, lets say you have a head injury on board that needs an immediate evacuation and medical care whilst someone has gone aground and is busy on Ch16. I hope they moved them off 16 pretty quickly.

But I was always taught a distress call can always be downgraded when you've assessed the situation more fully. I put out a mayday once downgraded once we knew more but at the time we were taking on water so possibly not that much time to get a call out.

 

[benjenbav]

If you're out of the main channels, surely you just put the kettle on and wait.

Only after first covering up any identifying marks (such as the name of the craft).

Unless... damage/crew member with an urgent medical condition/USS Behemoth is also trying to enter Portsmouth via the Inner Swashway etc.

 

[lpdsn]

Presumably a light grounding with no apparent damage. So being a Beneteau they'll probably have to cut out the internal grid and re-bond, so I suspect the charterer will have waved goodbye to his deposit.

 

[henryf]

It's hardly a Pan, more all ships is anyone passing with shallow draught that could pull us off please.

I think you'd struggle around these parts. In some Southern Asian countries you'd be in with a chance. I believe they call it a "happy ending".

Henry

 

[JumbleDuck]

That is odd - when I did the VHF course Mayday was for imminent risk to the vessel too, in fact I thought that the "life" bit was an afterthought.

It was originally grave and imminent danger to vessel only. The RYA decided off its own bat to add grave and imminent danger to people, much to the annoyance of the Marconi man who did my VHF test, but the rules subsequently changed and it's now officially risk to vessel or life.

 

[Topcat47]

Except at neeps, I'd not take my Nic 26 out through the inner swashway anywhere close to low water. The recent dredging hasn't removed the drying lump at the edge of the main channel on Hamilton Bank, which is very shallow in places. It's not hard to touch in such circumstances. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing but the vessel should have left using the small boat channel out to 4Bar buoy and maybe only then turned south.

WRT MayDay, it's the skipper's call. idle speculation is no help whatsoever. The coast guard no longer has "local" knowledge. If you remember, when Lee-on-Solent closed and the MRRC moved inland to Fareham a lot of experienced coast guards were made redundant, from Falmouth, Weymouth and the Solent. I'm sure a similar situation exists in Scotland. I don't think there's a presence on the east coast at all now (I got no reply to several radio calls crossing St Andrew Bay a couple of years ago. Wouldn't have happened on Ted Heath's watch.....

 

[oceanfroggie]

It was originally grave and imminent danger to vessel only. The RYA decided off its own bat to add grave and imminent danger to people, much to the annoyance of the Marconi man who did my VHF test, but the rules subsequently changed and it's now officially risk to vessel or life.

Agree:

Mayday = Grave AND Imminent Danger, to Vessel or Life
Pan-Pan = Grave OR Imminent Danger, to Vessel or Life

We are getting mixed up with where the booleans apply

 

[oceanfroggie]

Mayday is grave or imminent danger to vessel or life.

I suspect you meant "Grave AND Imminent Danger"

OR applies to vessel or life. Don't you just love boolean logic.

At least that is what is thought on every VHF course

 

[JumbleDuck]

I suspect you meant "Grave AND Imminent Danger"

OR applies to vessel or life. Don't you just love boolean logic.

At least that is what is thought on every VHF course

Perhaps we should make it clear by writing "(Grave AND Imminent) Danger to (Vessel OR Life)" or, for the programmers, "(Grave && Imminent) Danger to (Vessel || Life)"

 

[Angele]

Perhaps we should make it clear by writing "(Grave AND Imminent) Danger to (Vessel OR Life)" or, for the programmers, "(Grave && Imminent) Danger to (Vessel || Life)"

And to take issue with Ocean Froggie, Pan-Pan does not have to be Grave or Imminent. It is just not (grave and imminent). Loss of steering for example, with vessel in open sea and not in an area of high density shipping. So boat is in neither grave, nor imminent danger. But a Pan-Pan call asking for a tow would be quite appropriate.

Using his notation:

Pan-Pan = NOT (Grave AND Imminent Danger, to Vessel or Life)