Would a radio be useful?

[Searush]

Searush, though the emergency call facilities of VHF must be a comfort, even if you don't use the radio much.

It isn't a good idea to rely on others to rescue you.

Generally it is a good idea to only take risks that you know you can cope with if it goes wrong. Sure, accidents & breakages can happen, so you need the relevant bits to deal with that while bobbing up & down out at sea.

On a canal, the bank is never more than a short walk away, although you may not wish to get wet & muddy, walking home is always an option. Rivers, with their currents, overhanging trees, variable widths, weirs etc are a tad riskier, but still mostly fairly safe with forethought.

 

[Jim@sea]

In your case I would buy a second hand VHF radio for perhaps £25 then if you find that on canals it is useless then you have not wasted too much money.

 

[ontheplane]

I wouldn't bother.

I was on rivers and canals when a lad and no-one else uses them - so no point!

If you did get an "emergency" - unlikely on a canal - then put a call out, no-one's gonna hear it!

Just take a mobile.

 

[gsturgeon]

I wouldn't bother.

I was on rivers and canals when a lad and no-one else uses them - so no point!

If you did get an "emergency" - unlikely on a canal - then put a call out, no-one's gonna hear it!

Just take a mobile.

Absolutely true, what is the point. Use your mobile as if you had broken down on a motorway.

 

[£0:(]

I've used my VHF very infrequently on Loch Lomond (where I do most of my boating), but I have used it a few times for emergencies; thankfully none of them where I personally was in danger.

One time I ended up liaising with Clyde (now Belfast) CG, when I came a cross a sinking jet ski with a man and a young boy clinging to it in the middle of the loch. I dragged the riders aboard my boat and the CG dispatched the LL Rescue boat to assist.

It is also useful for the odd conversation with the commercial (pleasure) traffic on the Loch.

All that being said, Loch Lomond is 27miles long and 6miles wide, so perhaps a little wider than a canal ;-)

I have also taken the odd Canal boat holiday on the French Canals, and it seems the horn is the method of choice for communication there.

Yes, i fancy Loch Lomond. It is a shame that the little river to the sea isn't navigable, but then 26 miles by 6 miles is a lot to be going at.

That rescue sounds exciting and interesting. thankfully no-one hurt or worse.

I've had time to read that document posted by prof pat pending, above, and I am decided that I am going to do the course and get radioed up. I do want to progress from the canals to rivers and lakes, and then maybe estuaries and then coastal, so i may as well get on with it now. But that document says that there is commercial vessels which navigate rivers. All-in-all I think it just makes good sense to be equipped to use radio. It could all be a waste of time, but i think i will like boating, so I'm going to get on with the job. That document convinced me. I don't want to be down near Manchester and find i can't go on the Ship Canal or River Weaver, or somewhere just because i haven't got radio equipment.

I think use of the horn sounds a good idea, once for going to the right, twice to the left, three for reverse, then you have to honk back the same to say that you have heard and comprehend their intention. I need to find information about honking rules.

26 miles by 6 miles. Lucky you. I'm going to go there, and the Calidonian, and the Union, and the estuaries.......if I can sell my damn house...someone ment to come this am but cancelled. Spent 8 hours cleaning to showroom condition and flowers and casserole on the woodburner, then a cancel. If anyone wants to downsize (85k), it is a viable option. Superb area neighbourhood, market town, fields and hills and moors, open fires and stoves, flag floors, all re-wired, all decorated, carpeted, all original traditional, good home-owner neighbours. Incredible views. No traffic. 2 miles to canal. No....ah, well.

 

[£0:(]

It isn't a good idea to rely on others to rescue you.

Generally it is a good idea to only take risks that you know you can cope with if it goes wrong. Sure, accidents & breakages can happen, so you need the relevant bits to deal with that while bobbing up & down out at sea.

On a canal, the bank is never more than a short walk away, although you may not wish to get wet & muddy, walking home is always an option. Rivers, with their currents, overhanging trees, variable widths, weirs etc are a tad riskier, but still mostly fairly safe with forethought.

I think you are right about rivers. I can imagine that they can sometimes be very tricky. I bet people could tell some real stories about experiences on rivers, when you sometimes see plastic hanging from tree branches where the river rose to, probably in a matter of a few hours.. Rivers are very dangerous. Me, well, I could manage if I hit a rock and sunk, or got caught in a current and stuck under a bridge. But the person I might be sailing with might not be so capable of getting out of the situation as myself. That is the worry, the biggest worry, that I would be hampered to their speed or strength. I've been up mountains and then found that the person i was with couldn't walk down at anything other than 4 inch foot shuffles, and it has been, I kid you not, after midnight!!!! when we got back to the car. Never in a million years could i have imagined that would be the case as they bounded upwards. But it was a good lesson. It also happened coming down the Matterhorn (not the final top bit, just the place the choppers fly into, which we walked up glasiers to past sherpas), and we missed the cable car back down because of someone 'not being very good' at walking down a rocky path, so had to walk down to Zermat. The guy at the hotel at top of cable car told us the path, then hesitated and took a good long serious look up and down at us, and after some deliberating silence he said, "Yes, you are young enough". Christ, I thought. We were only 35! It was a long, long blistering way.

 

[£0:(]

In your case I would buy a second hand VHF radio for perhaps £25 then if you find that on canals it is useless then you have not wasted too much money.

I'm right with you on that. I suppose i'll have to know just what the radio has and doesn't have....need to know my onions, or it might be false economy. But, as I said earlier, i'm decided to get into it as i travel further afield as i learn boating, so, well, I'll just have to learn what is what before i know what to buy. Infact, I was wondering if my outboard would power it, and still keep the starter battery topped up. Once I've launched the boat I'm going to measure what amps it puts into the battery and then see if there will be enough for the radio, as i want the batteries for heater and telly.

 

[£0:(]

I wouldn't bother.

I was on rivers and canals when a lad and no-one else uses them - so no point!

If you did get an "emergency" - unlikely on a canal - then put a call out, no-one's gonna hear it!

Just take a mobile.

I suppose that once i have started boating I'll find that radio on a canal is no use at all. I know you are right. But I'll do the course and learn all about it, and maybe get one if i begin to venture further. I do think that canals are dangerous, potentially, a slip, a trip, a fall....a windlass cracking someone the bonce because someone is fiddling about and takes the safety ratchet off when you aren't looking. I suppose a mobile is the best answer for that type of thing.

 

[£0:(]

Absolutely true, what is the point. Use your mobile as if you had broken down on a motorway.

Yes, in theory..........today i wanted to make a call, in a town centre, but 'limited service only', which seemed to be absolutely nothing at all, and then remote places with no signal. I think it is always a potentially risky business, always combinations of things which could come together and catch you out in ways you could never have anticipated. Belt and braces for me. A handy bike and a torch to find help. I am a bit apprehensive I think, not for me, but for others. But you are probably right that there would be no point.

You know what i think, Sturg, I think I fancy a pint, so that is where I'm going right now. I'd buy you one if you was here, so i'll send you a virtual pint now........there you are, sturg, a pint of Abbot Ale. Ha, ha.....I bet other people are thinking, 'Yes, I could do with a pint, too', and their mind turned to the pub or a pack of 4. Ha, ha. Cheers