Toys for the boys

[Mike Garside]

Brian's right. Like him, for the same reasons, I clocked my first 30Knm at sea without a radio either. But I did eventuall get a VHF.

And the argument for radio versus telephone is that the broadcast aspect of the radio transmission allows you to respond to an all stations distress call as well as benefit from other helping hands close by. You can't do this with a mobile phone.

In fact, on the way back from the SOC bash in Cardiff, just after we had passed Padstow, Falmouth Coastguard put out a radio call for boats in the area to go to the help of a couple of windsurfers in trouble.

Using the VHF, we offered to turn back but a local fishing boat was already closer and we were not needed. With only a telephone we would have been completely unaware of the emergency.

Yes, radio's important. But to prioritise it ahead of the safety provided by pin-point navigation achieved with GPS is, in my view, bonkers!

[Keith Hart]

Good point Brian. Okay then, who has voted for radar and why?

Keith Hart

[wavelength]

non of us are immortal or infallible and getting lost is not the only cause of distress at sea-far from it. The day that the boat suffers a catastrophic dose of damage from a semi sunk container or whatever you may well need help. If u can fix it then you would not use the vhf anyway but if not u will need some help from the emergency services or passing fellow boat owners. To say i do not want to put others lives at risk just does not wash - if u are reported overdue the services will look for u anyway so why make the job so much harder by not carrying vhf onto which they can home in and save time. The less time a lifeboat or a CG team is searching then so much less is the risk and so much sooner are those resources freed up for someone else who may be in desperate need . Does this self help policy extend to not carrying flares? Nobody sets out to be a casualty but if the worst happens we should be in a position to do all we can to help ourselves and also those who may come to our aid

[Mike Garside]

Point well made, Dave. Interesting to read what you have to say, especially as you yourself are a coastguard.

I wholeheartedly agree that a radio should be carried. I'm not quite sure, though, whether you are are advocating a radio as a higher priority than GPS. Personally I put GPS first and radio second.

What about you?

[wavelength]

Radio first - by a long way. Buy the boat, trailer(cept Keith [mines little and lives in my boot] of course), engine and radio-then look for the toys. We are perhaps lucky round here in that we have a number of boat clubs who are active all year, they are out cod fishing in the depths of winter, and all of them carry vhf - ok they use it for chattting most of the time but they rarely need outside help - if someone has a problem then a word or two over the vhf alerts everyone out there and another boat will sort it without the authorities ever being involved.
As a CG we get all sorts of incidents (as does daughter on the lifeboat)-but thats life, things go wrong and there is a lot of goodwill towards people who have done all they can to avoid the problem and then to make life easier for SAR if they do become a casualty. After all the only people for whom nothing ever goes wrong are those that do nothing!

[Keith Hart]

None of the above! Okay, what then?

Keith (hmmmmm) Hart

[batfalcon]

After all these crimes you've solved, can't you discover WHO is responsible for the radar vote ?
I have someone in mind.........

[Mike Garside]

OK Dave, I guess it boils down to what you do, where you go, and when, why and how you do it.

I can see that from your perspective, working your chunk of the North Sea with a lot of other mariners that know the waters and each other, a radio as number one priority makes sense.

On the other hand, making an extended voyage into unknown waters and doing so without, first and foremost, GPS is courting disaster. Particularly so at RIB speeds. Making a landfall on a new coast line, using only dead reckoning, aint my cuppa tea.

Hardly any of the vessels I have ever come across at sea (except those flying the Red Ensign - and there's hardly any of those these days - or the Stars and Stripes) keep any sort of listening watch. And if they do they seldom speak English.

I sure wouldn't like to rely on the crews of Portugese, Russian, Korean or Arab fishing boats to come to my aid if I called out HELP!