Why do some of us expect the RNLI to act as a marine recovery service?

[chanelyacht]

Surely the question should be "Why do some of them expect the RNLI to act as a marine recovery service?". None of us would behave in such a manner.

The Coastguard performs triage on calls and it is their decision, or not, to task the RNLI. If the CG in the softer parts of the Kingdoms regularly task the RNLI for non-emergency situations, you can hardly blame the numpties for relying on the service. (Touching wood as I type!)

We only request the launch of a lifeboat. The Ops Manager or DLA at the station decides whether to go - and if it's a commercial tow type job, the decision is very much in their hands.

I know my south coast colleagues regularly refer casualties to Sea Start, and for tows we usually put out an "any vessel to assist" broadcast first.

 

[Boathook]

NO

Bloody daft idea, loads of people on the beaches & cliff walks would die.

Please go have a read of the RNLI site to remind yourself what they do.

I know what they, support them and try to get others to join, even beach users. Just thought that I would be more controversial than usual.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

What the correct solution is I do not know, with a new to me boat this year I should be careful what I say. I am aware that I am a high risk boat for the next year or 2

Maybe that leaves another question (should it be for another thread), maybe some one should make a survey?

How would you feel if you had to call the lifeboat?

Personally I would say ashamed mistakes can happen but as a boat owner I should be able to get myself home.

Relax. All the real sailors on here will have made mistakes in the learning phase and some of us are still doing so. You can expect to run aground, you can expect to frighten yourself, you can expect to have to deal with a broken engine, with too much wind , with miscalculated courses and port entrance times. Dont let anyone kid you that they have never made the same mistakes because they have.

I happily use my own mistakes as examples to students ( I teach the shorebased courses) of what not to do. Most of them are funny in retrospect though few were at the time.

I'm lucky ( and I do mean lucky) that I have never had to call out the lifeboat though I have been helped into port by one. How would I feel if I had had to call out the lifeboat - well relieved obviously, annoyed with myself if I had been stupid and proud of myself if I had handled the situation calmly and with practical common sense. And I'd use it as an example in the classes. One thing for sure - I would not hesitate to call them out if needed just because it might be embarrassing in the club bar.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Was that the...

Well said.

We were embarrassed by being taken into harbour by the French Lifeboat as reported earlier, but not at all ashamed and the French crew were well aware of the dangers in the Raz de Sein where we were and that they were 8mls away making a late call potentially very serious.

Having had our engine problem sorted we spent the night on Audierne marina hammerhead and later had another Brit boat rafted outside us. This was a boat returning north after a race to the Morbihan that had taken them through the Raz in very light wind conditions and they had a little bit of 'well you could have sailed' attitude. Our case was different however, because southbound with no wind and no power you still couldn't hit the rocks if you tried but once the northbound tide was running you very easily could. The funny thing was that a few months later we saw a picture of this very same boat parked very neatly on a rock and high and dry, totally out of the water and balanced on it's Scheel keel.

...that was racng, cut it v. fine on the ebb, and went on firmly by the concrete beacon on the Brehat side of the Lezerdrieux entrance?

 

[Robin]

...that was racng, cut it v. fine on the ebb, and went on firmly by the concrete beacon on the Brehat side of the Lezerdrieux entrance?

I just thought it a tad ironic that I had listened to one of their crew tell us how they had managed to get by the Raz with no wind, the implication being to question why we needed a tow. The fact was that we too had passed by going south with no wind when the tide swept us away from the rocks, our problems came later when still becalmed and still engineless we were being swept back northwards and towards the rocks. Still as SWMBO is fond of saying, what goes round comes round...

As I said, I am embarrassed by it, but not ashamed. We didn't call the lifeboat, we requested a tow via the French CG and got one from a French trawler. The CG sent the lifeboat without discussion with us and the first we knew about it was when the trawler dropped the tow and told us another boat was coming to take over and lo and behold there was the lifeboat. We have framed the receipt for our 750 euros fee and stuck a pic of the lifeboat in the log.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

So the..

I just thought it a tad ironic that I had listened to one of their crew tell us how they had managed to get by the Raz with no wind, the implication being to question why we needed a tow. The fact was that we too had passed by going south with no wind when the tide swept us away from the rocks, our problems came later when still becalmed and still engineless we were being swept back northwards and towards the rocks. Still as SWMBO is fond of saying, what goes round comes round...

As I said, I am embarrassed by it, but not ashamed. We didn't call the lifeboat, we requested a tow via the French CG and got one from a French trawler. The CG sent the lifeboat without discussion with us and the first we new about it was when the trawler dropped the tow and told us another boat was coming to take over and lo and behold there was the lifeboat. We have framed the receipt for our 750 euros fee and stuck a pic of the lifeboat in the log.

.. the Ancient Greeks were right to fear 'hubris', in case the Furies were listening