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Boat fire and EPIRBs


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Nope, the article says he called it in on cellphone, as well as activating the Epirb. Does not tell us anything about response times to Epirbs. I stand by my statement this can be 5 hours or more.

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When he has cell phone communication is an EPIRB really needing to be set off? Assuming he didn't set it off as a reaction to, say, his phone getting wet or going flat, he had already notified coastguard of his position and predicament, appeared to be not that far out ( water taxi responded being my indicator for this assumption ) and was not in imminent danger personally. 

 

I would not have set off the EPIRB in this case ( unless the phone died ). What do others think?

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probably a bit of overkill

 

but in the cell call they probably asked exactly where he was

 

and he couldn't say...

 

still, would have thought, "sitting next to the big, black smoking, burning boat"

 

would have been enough

 

two-boats-burning-richard-brooks_16x9.jp

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I guess that giving all assistance to your rescue is very wise. And also, I have yet to be stranded somewhere watching my ticket out of wherever somewhere happens to be turn into a wreck so maybe my calm and collected " I would not have used the EPRIB if cell communication were good " comment might have become a "F*** me, come and rescue me ASAP !!"

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Yes I tend to think what was the downside of setting off the EPIRB?

 

A machine goes bing in Wellington, and with the details attached they match it to the phone call. They now have confirmation that the location they had interpreted from the phone call is / isn't accurate. If they loose cell phone comms (battery / water / coverage) they still have something solid to use all for a the cost of a few electrons and perhaps a phone call or two

 

It's not like he fired it off because his cat was stuck up a tree and in fact he was able to get home on his own...

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I think here is a reason we should now consider AIS beacons for coastal rescues as more useful that EPIRBS. An AIS position signal is instantly available to an AIS equipped vessel, and anyone with a smart phone and Marine Traffic.com loaded. (I'm assuming here that the site would transmit emergency signals as well as current ship traffic) 

No waiting around for satellites to pass over, then establish comms to a local vessel, via the patchy coastal VHF system...

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EPIRB/PLB's are reliant on another vessel hearing them, regardless of where you are they will be picked up, of course timing does then become a factor,  Otherwise you could get the situation of "use an AIS beacon here if you can see ships or otherwise use an EPIRB" starts getting messy, especially if you are in an area of less dense traffic

 

and in reply to erice, SAR is a government responsibility, not Coastguard.  Coast guard is the service provider that shows up to rescue you but on behalf of RCCNZ or Police.

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No other vessel can 'hear' an EPIRB or PLB. They communicate with satellites, which communicate with a rescue centre, which then communicates with Police and Coast Guard resources. This all takes time. A private vessel near by would need to be diligently listening to Channel 16 to be notified and respond to the distress. 

Both DSC and AIS, with boats suitably equipped, identify a nearby distressed vessel straight away. No waiting time. 

For coastal distress situations I think further discussion on what is best needs to happen. I think EPIRBs may have been superseded for effective response times and potential rescue. 

EPIRB/PLB's are reliant on another vessel hearing them, regardless of where you are they will be picked up, of course timing does then become a factor,  Otherwise you could get the situation of "use an AIS beacon here if you can see ships or otherwise use an EPIRB" starts getting messy, especially if you are in an area of less dense traffic

 

 

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having sold my boat with GPS connected DSC VHF

 

am looking at connecting the new boat's DSC VHF to GPS

 

seems to me that even if coastguard don't officially monitor the DSC channels all around NZ

 

if i were to press the distress button my lat/long would probably be broadcast near and far and probably be picked up by ak coastguard 

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I'm not absolutely certain erice, but I don't think the coastguard monitor it either!

 

By the way, if your plotter can do DSC positions, take the NMEA out from the radio and put it IN the plotter. Then if you "hear" a DSC emergency, it will be displayed on the plotter directly, making locating and going to the distressed vessel as easy as it can be! 

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that's the bit i don't understand

 

if i hit DISTRESS with my 6? year old $300 vhf radio

 

you and many others would get messages on your 6yo $300 radios with my mmsi + lat/long 

 

but as coastguard don't have a 6yo $300 radio?

 

1 of you would have to pass the details along to them...

 

obviously this is very political

 

so i won't say anymore

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EPIRB/PLB's are reliant on another vessel hearing them, regardless of where you are they will be picked up, of course timing does then become a factor,  Otherwise you could get the situation of "use an AIS beacon here if you can see ships or otherwise use an EPIRB" starts getting messy, especially if you are in an area of less dense traffic

 

and in reply to erice, SAR is a government responsibility, not Coastguard.  Coast guard is the service provider that shows up to rescue you but on behalf of RCCNZ or Police.

oops, made a typo, that was supposed to read that EPIRB's aren't reliant .....etc

 

my bad and quite right Tim

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Coastguard have the ability to ping your cellphone and have it reply with GPS data to let them know where you are.  This can save a lot of time with people reading the lat/long position of the cursor on their plotter and sending Coastguard off to search for them where they are not (happens a lot!).  A lot of the calls to Coastguard (something like about 60% of calls for assistance) these days are via cellphone because many boaties don't know how to use a VHF.

 

Activating an EPIRB automatically registers the event as a Category 1 SAR event which is co-ordinated by the Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington and the bill for that is picked up by the NZ Govt.

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