Yachtmaster - Flags

[JumbleDuck]

Much the same as spotting Flag A.

Which judging by the usage I see means "I have a diver below, or I have had a diver below in the past, or I may have a diver below at some unspecified point in the future".

 

[alant]

Really? Those ruddy great container ships don't just call them up on the wireless?

Hmmm.. .ABP Southampton's website suggests otherwise:-

Of course they call them up on 'radio', VHF 64 from memory, whilst about 20/30 miles off the Nab.
Pilot boat then goes out from Southampton. Think "wireless" was used by the Titanic though.

 

[alant]

Really? Those ruddy great container ships don't just call them up on the wireless?

Hmmm.. .ABP Southampton's website suggests otherwise:-

Pilots not available West Solent, cos it's not controlled by VTS/ABP, line starts somewhere around Lepe.

 

[alant]

It is information and what you do with it is up to you. I would use it to determine if a vessel requiring a pilot was being approached by a launch that had a pilot aboard and would therefore be transferring people at sea, underway, that may determine my actions. Much the same as spotting Flag A.

Bit like the pilot pick up point marked on charts, small boats/yachts might find it a bit congested with large ships awaiting boarding. Not a good place to tarry.

 

[[163233]]

Of course they call them up on 'radio', VHF 64 from memory, whilst about 20/30 miles off the Nab.
Pilot boat then goes out from Southampton. Think "wireless" was used by the Titanic though.

...and if there's no G flag they just turn round and go home?

 

[lpdsn]

Have a pilot on board,...

Also flown if the master or one of the officers has a PEC.

Quite handy in working out what they're likely to do before entering the channel.

 

[johnalison]

My favourite, though I have yet to use it in anger, I learned from my old Yachtsman's Weekend Book. It is "OL", which means "heave-to or I will open fire".

 

[Baddox]

My favourite, though I have yet to use it in anger, I learned from my old Yachtsman's Weekend Book. It is "OL", which means "heave-to or I will open fire".

My favourite, though I have yet to use it in anger,

"Zulu" which means "I need a tug"

 

[ghostlymoron]

Do RYA YMs get to have a special flag or burgee?

My Dan Buoy has an Oscar on it. Never used but its on the back of the boat. If I practice I tie it up JIK. does having it ready count as use?

I suppose in theory I should use Q when I cross the border. I never do. No complaint's yet.

Is Q required now with the EU rules? Do they care?

Is recognising what I see on an other vessel use. At least use of knowledge. is it Useful?

I would say the YM isn't all its cracked up to be if a YM is not expected to know the meaning of A. I am sure most other divers would think the same.
Or again someone claiming to be a YM not recognising what the O on my dan bouy means.?
NC already mentioned.

Other common ones B, Q, G, H, do they matter? maybe not. useful knowledge? doesn't hurt.

I would have thought a YM would be expected to know maneuvering signals E, I, S, even if they don't recognise the flag.
And Sound signals T, M, D.

I suppose you could argue I am out of date.

You don't need to know the corresponding letter but you should know 'diver down' for instance. Likewise you should know what dah dit dit in Morse means but its not necessary to know its 'D' for exam purposes.

 

[alant]

You don't need to know the corresponding letter but you should know 'diver down' for instance. Likewise you should know what dah dit dit in Morse means but its not necessary to know its 'D' for exam purposes.

Dit Dit dah more important IMO.

 

[laika]

You don't need to know the corresponding letter but you should know 'diver down' for instance.

Well that's a whole other thread....
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?357319-PBO-561-Diver-down-flag

 

[ghostlymoron]

My favourite, though I have yet to use it in anger, I learned from my old Yachtsman's Weekend Book. It is "OL", which means "heave-to or I will open fire".

I'm going to display that permanently. I may also install a small canon on my foredeck.

 

[{151760}]

I'm going to display that permanently. I may also install a small canon on my foredeck.

So that he can bless them?

 

[Jungle Jim]

My favourite, though I have yet to use it in anger,

"Zulu" which means "I need a tug"

I read that in the middle of a bronchial cough. It didn't end well :ambivalence:

 

[Malabarista]

Thirty years ago ( how scary is THAT?) i was a morse instructor. Pongo so only 12-15wpm unlike you proper sailors with awesome speeds. Just realised that i have forgotten almost all…early onset p'raps?

 

[fisherman]

My neighbour, now deceased, was signals with the force trying to get up the road to Arnhem: interesting yarns we had, over my homebrew and his whisky. I got hold of a US WW2 shortwave radio, we rigged an aerial between the houses, length of earth wire. With careful tuning just off the frequency (presumable because it was not ssb??) we heard hams from as far as Australia. Also, two yanks having a chat, broadcasting at 800w (hams are very ready to have peeing contests about the kit they use). They were only ten miles apart. When a Norwegian tried to join in they gave him the cold shoulder.

 

[Daydream believer]

Thirty years ago ( how scary is THAT?) i was a morse instructor. Pongo so only 12-15wpm unlike you proper sailors with awesome speeds. Just realised that i have forgotten almost all…early onset p'raps?

My wife's uncle Claude was a very keen radio ham call sign- George 2 Dog Peter Queen
One day whilst reading some wartime releases about Bletchley park where he was stationed during the war as a morse operator, he read that there were only 9 operators who could read 2 morse messages at a time. One over the other.
He declared that he was one of them & had no idea that there were only nine who could do this & did not know the others who were in the same place. They were not allowed to know each other.
He was assigned a group of spies & could tell if any were compromised by the way the morse came in. If he reported it he would then be given instructions on how to reply so that false info could be sent back as if we had not guessed that the spy had been caught.
He would also listen to certain German transmissions & could tell if it was the same German transmitting by the way the morse came in
He was part of a morse club & sat in a small room tapping away for hours to people all over the world.
His garden in Shefford was bristling with aerials & his small room was just a mass of home built radio equipment

 

[JumbleDuck]

One day whilst reading some wartime releases about Bletchley park where he was stationed during the war as a morse operator, he read that there were only 9 operators who could read 2 morse messages at a time. One over the other.

I am told that that was a pretty standard Marconi operator skill. The Internal Fire museum in SW Wales has a complete ferry radio setup, and the owner told me that an elderly Marconi man came in one day and showed him the trick. When they are that good I don't think they hear it as a code needing translation - it's another language and following two streams at once presumably needs the same sort of skill as following two streams of spoken English or BSL at once.

He was assigned a group of spies & could tell if any were compromised by the way the morse came in. If he reported it he would then be given instructions on how to reply so that false info could be sent back as if we had not guessed that the spy had been caught.
He would also listen to certain German transmissions & could tell if it was the same German transmitting by the way the morse came in

Again, identification of operators by their "fist" was very standard practice, and all competent morse operators could do it. Apparently it is even possible to send morse in a sarcastic way, During the war, experiments were done to disrupt operators' fists by attaching vibrating weights to their wrists.