When to call the coastguard?

rickp

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We had a great few days on the water at the beginning of last week, but saw two situations which caused me and the crew to discuss whether we should call something into the coastguard or not. Both instances where yachts aground, which we spotted first on radar as definite, non-moving returns on drying heights.

The first was on the shingle bank by the Needles - looked to be a 40' french yacht pretty well aground, though not heeling over. It was about low tide and didn't see any signs of distress so we didn't call the coastguard.

The second was well aground on the East Winner bank, just outside of Langstone. Yacht was already heeling well, with an hour or so to low water. Again, couldn't see any signs of distress but they certainly weren't going to be comfortable and the wind was blowing onshore so could be dangerous, come float-off time. As it happens, whilst we were debating this - the yacht called up Solent Coastguard anyway. No GPS, but did have a chart and thought they were on Langstone bar. We changed course to get closer to give Solent a position and description - and asked if we could do anything (not that we could get close enough really). Solent had dispatched the Portsmouth lifeboat and released us.

You can see where we changed course on the track.

So would you have called either of the above in to Solent, or assumed the skipper of the boats would make some signs of distress if that were the case?

Rick
 

rubberduck

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We saw same thing at low tide in the river crouch last weekend, so got a little closer & took a look through binoculars. Yacht was well aground but crew were sitting up top not in distress it would seem, also a number of other boats passing with no apparent concern. We continued out to see the seals at seal island (sand banks at low tide) & kept an ear on vhf just in case. They were still there on way back obviously waiting for more water, but still seemed OK. We are new to this so probably paid more attention to a no doubt frequent occurrence than those more experienced around us.
 

mjf

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Interesting call I agree.

I think its a very weather and tidal situation - also time of day and density of other water users etc. comes into play.


You oftain here CG called by peeps when a sailing boat capsizes only to here that the clubs dinghy is there to the rescue already. I think CG would prefer to hear and stand down than to not be called at all until too late.

BTW - where is the Portsmouth L/B based? Was unaware of this baby.
 

AliM

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We saw them too, and like you had a look through the binoculars to see if they seemed concerned - they didn't and we sailed on. They were there, just beginning to lean when we sailed out on the ebbing tide, and still there nearly afloat again, when we sailed back on the flooding tide several hours later. I can imagine it spoilt their day - especially when dozens of passing boats were peering at them through binoculars!
 

Fire99

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Difficult call this one..
I'm not an expert so i'm following this thread with great interest. My opinion is that you have to use your head. If they dont appear concerned on the boat and you dont believe they are in any danger or pose any danger to other boats then i guess i wouldnt call the coastguard.
However even if they seemed happy enough but you felt they may potentially be in danger or cause a problem for other boats then i think a courtesy call to the coastguard would be the best option.
As said before id rather call the coastguard and use their better judgement than leave anyone at risk.

Difficult one though as you dont want to bug people unnecessarily.. (or waste the Coastguards time)
 

DAKA

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Grounding there they should have been notified IMO, but the skippers can be so proud they dont want anyone to know.

There was a filmed incident in the Humber a few years ago where the skipper told the Coast guard he didnt want help repeatedly.

Humber rescue still went and got a load of verbal from the skipper.

As the tide came in the Yacht was pushed further up the sand bank and his engine wasnt powerful enough to break free.

After taking water over the top he agreed to let the lifeboat tow him off.

If he had ever gone around out side UK waters where you pay a percentage of your boat value I think he would have sunk !
 

rubberduck

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Talking of wasting CG time, last weekend the amount of radio checks going on was just silly. CG clearly not amused & telling everyone that called in that they were over-spoken by many others. We wanted to test out our vhf after a repair, but decided to leave it till another day. Many people lack common sense it would appear.
 

Fire99

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I have called the Thames coastguard twice in the past 7 years boating both with Pan-Pan messages where i've had trouble and they have been 1st class and i have to say personally i have great respect for what they do.

I think they, and the RNLI are two of a very select number of organisations who seem to help people unreservedly and this shouldnt be taken for granted.
 

burgundyben

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I called them recently, I could see from the house a yacht having some trouble recovering a rib in Southampton water, walked down to the beach and watched for a few mins, clearly not everything was going to plan so I watched for ten mins or so then called from mobile to coastguard, explained what I was seeing, apparently it had already been radiod in, was blowing hard at the time. I suppose better safe than sorry.
 

mitchc

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For a radio check I call another boat...I usually try to pre-arrange with a friend/neighbour in the marina beforehand and call on a little used working channel.......or would asking for the CG radio check early morning/late at night be a better option?
Most CG stations are too busy responding to calls from boats that have grounded to want "unnecessary" radio check calls... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
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IMHO, it's a judgement call based on your assessment of the potential danger that each yacht was in. Quite clearly the yacht stuck on the E Winner was in danger so I reckon you were obliged to call the CG. Similarly, any boat stuck on the Shingles is in potential danger IMHO because of the strong tides/nasty sea that can occur there so I would have called the CG on that one too
In my experience, the CG prefer to know about any incident rather than not know so I would always prefer to call them but, obviously, the call is far more useful to the CG if you have detailed info on position, type of vessel and persons on board
 

peterb26

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If there is a problem of any sort, the lads and lasses at Lee on Solent would sooner know about it in the early stages, when its a minor drama.

My guess is that every ops room is the same.

As far as the Radio Checks go - its perfectly correct to check your VHF with the Marina on departure. And it does take the load of 67 in the Solent. (Thats for those that use 67 anyway)
 
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