Anglers saved in Weymouth lifeboat rescue

[Stuie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-12093705

 

They were lucky, on a trip with a professional!

Stuart

Edited December 30, 2010 by Stuie

[Duncan F (bathclaret)]

Blimey - just shows. Jeff Clarke (Duchess 2) is one of the most experienced skippers in the area. I've fished with him a number of times. I'm almost certain there must be more to this story than the obvious....

Edited December 30, 2010 by bathclaret

[Rob]

 

Anyone following Boblin yesterday would have thought we had been drinking, the fog was so disorientating, we used a good old fashioned compass to ensure we were pointing in the right direct, the electronics were too slow to react.

 

Looks like we did well Colin!!

 

Rob

[Maverick Martin]

Glad all were safe on Duchess 2

 

Would agree about the electronics being slow to react when pootling along. Dean and I went aground in Rockley channel when going out last Sunday and got totally disorientated then struggled to find a way out but did it eventually not at all funny on an ebb tide

 

Martin

 

 

 

[Coddy]

Seems others had problems in South Wales also

 

 

COASTGUARD SEARCH FOR TWO BOATS LOST IN FOG

 

Swansea Coastguard are warning members of the public to check weather reports and take appropriate equipment before setting out to sea after two vessels in two days got into difficulty in fog and had to call for help.

 

The first incident happened at 4.25 yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) when people on board a 16ft angling boat contacted Swansea Coastguard to advise that they had run aground near Penarth due to low visibility. They were able to give an approximate position based on their GPS but were not entirely sure of their exact location and so Swansea Coastguard sent out Penarth Coastguard Rescue Team to find the stricken vessel. The Penarth RNLI inshore lifeboat was also sent out to search, but with visibility down to about 80ft at the time it was very difficult for resources to find her. At 6.00 pm both the Coastguard and the inshore Lifeboat located the vessel and it was decided that they would wait until high water to refloat the boat.

At 9.00 pm the vessel refloated and safely returned to Cardiff Bay. The three people on board were wearing lifejackets but did not have a working radio.

 

At 08.49 this morning people on board another angling vessel contacted Swansea Coastguard to advise that they had been out fishing and had got lost in the fog. They thought that they were somewhere near the mouth of the River Usk, near Newport. Again, they were calling on a mobile phone as they had no working radios on board, and the only information they had was that they were near a specific type of buoy that marks the end of a sewer pipe (outfall buoy).

 

Using this information, and location information from their mobile phone, Swansea Coastguard again sent the Penarth Coastguard Rescue Team and RNLI lifeboat to search for the boat. Due to the low visibility it took the lifeboat two hours to search around every outfall buoy in the area and eventually locate the vessel, at which point they escorted them back to their moorings on the River Usk.

 

Bernie Kemble, Watch Manager, Swansea Coastguard said:

 

The break between Christmas and New Year might seem like an ideal time to take out a boat, but low visibility makes it extremely challenging to navigate a vessel safely or to give an accurate location if you get into difficulty. The people on board these vessels were lucky that they had sufficient mobile phone signal to call for help, as neither had working radios on board, and although the first vessel had flares it is unlikely they would have been seen in dense fog.

If you are setting out to sea, regardless of the weather conditions, you should always ensure you have navigation equipment, flares, a working radio and enough lifejackets for everyone on board.

 

 

 

Dave

[Bob F]

Interesting post.

 

It's essential that all our boats have a standard compass on board. For one reason, as you will all remember from the GPS tutorials on club nights , a GPS cannot give a compass reading when the vessel is stationary. The vessel needs to be moving before an accurate compass reading can be calculated by the GPS.

 

So, if you are in fog and moving along at very slow speeds, the GPS may not be giving you an accurate indication of where you are going, or will be slow in updating. Check that the GPS and the manual compass are giving the same reading.

[shytalk]

doing something for a long time doesnt make you good at it !!! and being able to interpret what your electronics are telling you helps

[biggcol]

Bob I know you are busy these days but if I can't get the radar working proper again can I give you a shout please.

 

As a matter of interest Boblin has one fixed compass (when i screw the bracket back on) and a hand bearing compass, also there is a spare compass in the safety locker with flares, first aid kits, life jackets and spare warm clothing. It's a pain putting all this on and off every trip but has to be worth it.

 

Colin

 

 

[niggle]

I can confirm that the compass played a major part in my return on Wednesday due to the slow gps response,hate to think where I would of ended up otherwise

Nige

[Sprinter]

Its true that GPS cant give you an accurate direction at low speeds.

 

However if you can mark your first location on a chart, then in a few minutes (whilst you hope you dont run aground) mark your second location on the chart you will be able to guage your direction, and speed. We all know this of course but it takes a little preperation.

 

I im not going to preach here but if the Vis is dropping use the last of it to locate yourself and plan the nav part of your trip back, If you dont have the tools or knowleddge you shouldnt be out in those conditions (though of course we know that things change and can deteriate quickly, though mostly its forcast).

 

Its just a matter or practice, when i was skippering in the Army we use to go through exercises in plain daylight where we were locked in the cabin with the curtains drawn and forced to navigate through channels, by calling instructions to the helm.

 

Compass and chart is one way of navigating but chart and depth sounder is another method (far less accurate of course) that has its place when navigating fog bound or unknown channels, if you draw 1.5M then tack at 2M back into deep water until your back to 1.5M then tack again.

 

Remember that depth sounders can also be used to check the depth of water to confirm that the place you think that you GPS is putting you is actually the place where you are, not sure if that made sense outside of my own head

 

This was actually fun as you got to practice being in fog in perfect safety, but when it went horribly wrong (it often did) you got to go topside to have a look at the margine for error that you was wrong by.

 

Its good practice and good seamanship.

[Newboy]

doing something for a long time doesnt make you good at it !!! and being able to interpret what your electronics are telling you helps

Ooooo.... do I detect a slight negetive vibe about this skipper.....

[shytalk]

hmmm look at the pictures in the dorset echo the boat still has its radar arch folded down radar dont work to well in the vertical position ???? might have been able to see orions belt or the plough but not newtons cove

[duncan]

somewhat concerned about all these 'slow to respond' electronics, it's cropped up before and, unless boats are running 15 year old plotters (like one of those on Phaeton) I can't help feeling that there are some setting issues at work as well. All my recent (5-8 year old) plotters, small cheap units, refresh almost instantly.

 

obviously the issues associated with being stationary in fog are a different matter; knowing where you are and where you are pointing are solutions to different problems!

 

which brings us back to the Weymouth incident. Whilst I admit to not knowing where this cove is I would tend to back my plotter for avoiding fixed submerged hazards rather than radar; both in terms of getting into the situation and knowing it's there.

 

on the other hand if the craft was underway, and under command, in poor visibility then it is required by regulations to maintain a radar watch.

 

no doubt some clarity over what happened will emerge in due course.

[fisherman1055]

Newtons Cove is in the corner by the end of the North Portland Harbour wall and the piece of land that becomes the Nothe just down from Castle Cove

 

There is no where to go there, it is a blind alley, i used to fish it!!

 

Weymouth boats seem to have a thing about it though

 

many years ago I used to fish the Breakwater competitions and White boats were doing the ferry business

 

of course one year the FOG arrived

 

and we headed north from the central break water and after negotiating the harbour entrance kept going , the skipper had to change direction sharply when the Nothe wall arrived in our vision 30 yards away

Fortunately we did not run aground, I suspect white boats have a shallow draft.

 

Anyway my garmin 550 updates quickly to follow the track in the fog and has got me to Rockley in the pitch black several times

 

any problems set plotter to North up, not track up and this saves updating time

 

I learnt this 2 years ago after circling the same boat 3 times in the fog with the chairman on board.

 

tony

[Coddy]

If anyone is interested here is a link to Weymouth Lifeboat with details of the incident

 

http://www.weymouthlifeboat.org.uk/l...aunch-29122010

 

 

Seems all the skippers electronics went down, so running blind.

 

Dave

[Graham Nash]

 

http://www.weymouthlifeboat.org.uk/l...aunch-29122010

 

 

Seems all the skippers electronics went down, so running blind.

 

Dave

a little like that link on my computer

[Rob]

 

http://www.weymouthlifeboat.org.uk/launche...launch-29122010

[Newboy]

If anyone is interested here is a link to Weymouth Lifeboat with details of the incident

 

http://www.weymouthlifeboat.org.uk/l...aunch-29122010

 

 

Seems all the skippers electronics went down, so running blind.

 

Dave

So out of interest, what would be the 'correct' procedure in this situation?

Anchoring would be no good presuming he was in the shipping channel.

[Graham Nash]

I suppose if all electronics have gone and there is no way of knowing if you are in a shipping channel or not I would have thought PROCEED VERY SLOWLY would be the the recommendation.

 

I may be wrong and will bow to the experience of others.

[Rob]

 

I carry a backup gps which contains buoyage data and I have added a number of waypoints - this runs off it's own AA batteries and\or cig lighter socket if available.

 

Even my phone now would give me an idea via Google Maps.

 

It is all good and well having multiple gps recievers \ plotters, but if they all use the same aerial, same power source (prob boat batteries) & go through the same fuse box unit etc then they are not independant.

 

The safest option is to have two discreet units and of course at least a paper chart and a compass!

 

Rob

[duncan]

I carry a backup gps which contains buoyage data and I have added a number of waypoints - this runs off it's own AA batteries and\or cig lighter socket if available.

 

Even my phone now would give me an idea via Google Maps.

 

It is all good and well having multiple gps recievers \ plotters, but if they all use the same aerial, same power source (prob boat batteries) & go through the same fuse box unit etc then they are not independant.

 

The safest option is to have two discreet units and of course at least a paper chart and a compass!

 

Rob

as a coded boat I would have thought 2 aerials, radio should be direct to battery and on on fuse (with spare on-board like all members will have anyway ) but then again communications weren't the issue here as they called the CG ie they could phone a friend.

 

obviously a very unfortunate set of circumstances where a boat heads out with all it's electronics and looses them at a point it's not noticed (so they don't know exactly where they are - but they are unable to navigate out again with chart and compass.

 

normally we (fishing boats) know where we are if anchored ('cos we choose to be there) or spot the electronics going down when on a drift (sounder spotting) and, again, can put a mark on the chart straight away and 'take it from there' with the compass.

 

these things are always easier in theory - comfort of easy chair etc and it really is good to practice them occasionally.

 

sadly it is often inconsistent with fishing practice as the logical time to do this is when heading in in poor visibility ie switch of the plotter. Loosing it all in thick fog is really unlucky.....

[great white]

If its right that the radar arch was folded, surely non of the electronics would work.

 

an error made many times in Weymouth no doubt, but in reasonable Vis not a huge problem.

 

Very bad skipper error for a charter boat though, anyone carrying passengers surely has responsibility to check the boats kit is working prior to departure especially on a day of poor vis.

 

glad all got back OK.

 

Charlie

[Paul D]

 

I carry a backup gps which contains buoyage data and I have added a number of waypoints ......

 

But all your added waypoints were cod marks

[Bob F]

Colin

 

Yes, if you are having problems with your radar give me a shout.

 

cheers

 

BF

[Newboy]

Very bad skipper ........................

Charlie

You said it right