Sprinter

Hi all,

thanks for the replies.

Derek,

we have moved to the hamlet of truck on the outskirts of Probus near Truro. We are out in the sticks but about 200M away we have the start of the Tresillian river that looks very trouty

4 Miles from the city of Turo but still in the middle of no place, about 20 minutes to the south coast, and the motorcycling roads start outside my front door, in my future i can see a carbon telescopic Bass rod ready for sunday mornings, a big Ducati a Bass rod and a small back pack.... Bliss

And not far from the north or south coast, there will be a small (non Kayak) boat in my future, i just have to convince the wife i won it down the pub, i just wish i had 8.5k to spare of i would grab Small Fry in an instant, until then i will have to stick with Kayaking and my dads small boat.

Charlie, i will bring a rod back and get Chris to sort out a trip with your boy at some point, thanks for the hint

Hi all,

Sprinter here, though I also answer to Paul and have been a member of the club for a number of years.

I thought I would first of all apologise for not making many meetings in the last 6 months it wasn

Hi all

is there anyone going out on Friday to do any codding with a couple of spaces available?

My Son has taken a day off work in the hope of doing some fishing and this seems like a good idea (hes 22 so not a small son), now currently it looks a bit blowey but dropping through out the day but you never know things may change and the blow may come sooner and leave it a little more settled by Friday.

Obviously we are happy to contribute to fuel Etc, let me know if anyone is interested.

Cheers

Paul

Ben,

absolutely superb effort for organising and executing the training plan, moving the club forward, generating a great write up and just being there, you are certainly a great ambassador for the club.

I have no doubt that this will bring members into the club by raising its profile as a safety aware club that is about all small boats, not just Kayaks.

My only regret was that me and Chris could not attend this event as we were seriously hung over after welcoming our first grandchild/neice into the world, nothing else would have stopped us.

I guess we as a club should also thanks Paul (Darnsarf) for his time and effort in running the event and making the guys safer and more confident on the water.

excellent write up mate

Guy's it was good to see you all last night.

I wish i had gone with you now but I had to get my bike fixed just in case we do sell the house.

Still myself and Chris are a bit peeved at ourselves for not joining you both, after last nights chat i was expecting a good report and was not dissapointed.

Good day out guys.

I done disagree with either of you,

but my point was that i think people rely too much in general on GPS and assume that just because a boat has or doesnt have a GPS makes it safe or not, its another aid to navigation (in my view) but its not the only navigation device that should be on a boat (with or without sail or motor power) on the flip side of that a boat without GPS but good charts and skill does not mean that its unsafe. Though the person in question without GPS seems to fall into the unsafe catagory.

As for robust backup devices i am also all for then if you can afford them or have room for them, however the low quality free iphone apps are just that, free and an additional backup that costs nothing to carry and most people have an iphone or smartphone that can load these apps (i had a look and found a compass app for my Palm), I think it would be a good idea to download them if you have a phone that can run them as a very last chance option.

Connected to a DSC radio i agree that the GPS in that configuration is a fantastic idea allowing rapid responce if something goes wrong

Im not anti GPS (looking for one that is integrated with a FF at present)

I am going to probably annoy a few people here but here goes anyway.

The anchor and proper maintenance is obviously essential, however a GPS is not.

When doing my Baltic costal skippers course (Army has to do something when not at war), one of the guys was caught with a hand help GPS and it was confiscated and locked in the safe in Kiel. We was told that we would be taught to navigate and once done we should then only use the GPS for emergencies and to checking out our "proper" navigation for accuracy. Later on when i did my Yacht master theory (still between wars and in Cyprus ) the training on navigation that i had previously been given proved to be invaluable.

Maybe there are a lot of people that have grown up on boats only using GPS, and obviously some boats might claim that charts are not workable on an open boat (though I manage to keep one on my Kayak just in case), but I think that a day skipper navigation course which can be run by colleges would benefit a lot of people (myself included as you forget things when you get older).

there are so many things that can be used as an aid for navigation including seabed depths (very handy in the fog) as well as the standard buoys, bells lights Etc that not using the GPS is actually a worthwhile and extremely interesting thing to do once in a while.

Though I admit that GPS is a very useful Aid to navigation, the people described in this thread are obviously trying to get a Darwin award but if you only have 1 GPS on the boat and it fails as electronics do from time to time ask yourself if you could get home from most places that you have been to, if the fog came down and the GPS broke.

Just a thought (and maybe a little rant)

One final thought that has just occured to me is the iphone actually has GPS built in and there are apps for windspeed and a compass face, it might be usefull to download them as backup devices (i dont have an iphone but saw someone using them whilst paragliding in malasia a couple of weeks back). I m off for a smoke and to see if there are similar apps for the palm.

/wave

Paul

Ben,

put me & Larnica down provisionally, its 10 days after i get back from KL but no guarantee that the wife has not already booked something.

And we may be pushing our luck with me having a play weekend before coming home, unpacking - repacking then taking off again for a fortnight i cant push my luck much further.

But i suspect i will get away with it.

Its interesting thet there does not seem to be any restriction of hand collecting Oysters on that document

That must make them fair game then...

This i will try

I am currently trying t hand over some complex IT systems to the support team in india, they dont understand my accent (there not alone) and wont read the documents i have written, interesting times...

Funny though as we have to call them the "Best Shore Team", i am allways in trouble as i refuse to use those words and call them the "Off-Shore Team"

But i like the sound of this suggestion.

Thanks

I would love to know if he was properly clothed for the time of year.

Drysuits and dive thermals in layers are still the order of the day for me at this time of the year.

I guess there is a lesson for us all though, if anyone was to fall out of their boat at this time of the year they would be in trouble very quickly if they could not get back into it quickly, and have a change of clothes.

Hi mate,

i sugest that you use two of the batteries that Zzippy has suggested, one for the FF and light and another just for the pump.

If anythingunexpected happens then at least you have options.

Happy birthday Mark,

have a good day, see you Thursday

Are you getting some nice flounder then Alun?

ok mate,

i will give Ben a call tomorrow and bring the coke

pick me up on the way through Mark or Ben and i will get the cokes in.

the more we take the more reprisented we will be and it will diminish the strength of the commys

objection registered mate, good luck

Jon,

mark lives in this area, hes a local

The key peice of equipment on any boat of any size i the compentence of the skipper i guess, rather than the size of the hull.

Hi,

Thanks Jim for the support.

 

As you have probably guessed from the last reply, I was the person leading the group.

 

The press have tried to sensationalise the event. Quite news day, 16 people involved?.

 

I'm not going into exact details, as I could get quoted from this site. but I have put the statement that I have given to South Today.

Who are going to show footage of the rescue filmed from the helicopter on tonights program.

 

    The group were experienced, trained and fully equipped for paddling the waters around Portland.

    Having successfully negotiated Portland Bill from east to west. The final leg was started. Several small things during the day had compounded to alter the groups original plan. Back up plans were used and whilst the group were heading for a landing spot by Portland Bill, one of several back up plans and something the group was capable off. One person took a swim and was rescued by members of the group back into their kayak. The group had now drifted on to the edge of the tidal race. The decision was then made to call for assistance. All Persons were rescued from their rafted kayaks before darkness fell. The kayaks were rescued afterwards, hence why it was dark.

    I can not praise the rescue services enough for their professional and speedy response, and also the paddlers involved who put their training into practice, making sure the group stayed safe.

 

 

 

Also if any local paddlers to Portland recover any kit, please PM me.

All boats were accounted for, but were short of a couple of paddles, tow lines and pumps.

 

One of the people rescued has some footage of the rescue and will post shortly.

 

Thanks

Nig

Lifted directly from another site, written by the group leader For those that may be interested to put the thread in context here it is

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/v...php?f=4&t=72034

As i said earlier, these seemed well prepared, and its come to light that the coastguard knew all about them, and that they had multiple options and backout plans that the group were all aware of, one of them was being implimented when an incident started teh ball rolling.

To me it reads like the decision was made to call for assistance was done in plenty of time basedon conditions, difficulties and a deteriorating light situation.

Good job i say, saved lives

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/8766356.S..._Portland_Race/

some more info here, the coastguard was aware of them as they had called in a paddle plan prior to setting off.

A bunch of instructors and coaches, initially my thoughts was that just made it worse, however my second thought was if it could go that wrong for a bunch of instructors then the rest of us lesser skilled people may have got into trouble sooner.

I think there are two thingts that i would take from this

1, phone a paddle or trip plan into the coastguard so they know who and where you are and what time you are due back

2, once things go wrong make the call sooner rather than later, especially if its approaching dark.

I am sure a full report will be released giving the details of what went wrong in due course.

Fred,

i was of course playing devils advocate (im bored ) but my point i think was that we all have our own skill sets and comfort zones and what one of us feels is barking mad is perfectly acceptable to another.

The person you saw on a kayak sailing south of the needles in the car park was possibly "Overrun" a club member or more likely to be honest some chap called Richi, I have chatted to Richi on many occasions and his antics frightent he crap out of me, but he knows exactly what he is doing and is an expert in his field.

I think we have some reports from the needles in teh kayak section that may include a trip with Richi, its a good read. He reports on another forum and on many occasions he will paddle over to do some cod fishing only to find that it does not feel right so he will abort and come home, its just a matter or perspective. And yes i think hes nuts as well.

Happy new year

I guess thqat so many things could have gone "other than expected" one of them being the poor sod that became incapacitated through severe sea sickness, not really a drama on a boat with more than one crew but one a boat with one crew where that crew is also the motive power it changes the shape of an expedition dramatically. Sure we could come back and state something like if you get sea sick you should not have been there, but maybe that person had not been in that sea state or had trouble before.

and maybe they would have stayed well clear of the race, or been there at a more forgiving time if that member of the team did not get semi incapacitated through sea sicknness.

Also being "well prepared" could mean different things to different people, to some it might mean having asolutely everything covered, so someone else it may just mean thought skill and preperation to be able to survive something.

My view i guess is somewhere in between. these people had enough training to raft into smaller safety groups when hey got seperated and things started deteriorating, they also had enough sense for teh group outside the race to call for assistance rather than going in after the people in trouble and making things worse, they had the means to call for assistance, and the equipment to survive long enough for the emergency services to arrive as save a difficult situation becoming a fatal situation.

Fred i am not sure what you mean by proper boat, i can only assume that any boat smaller than yours, or any boat without an engine, or sail is not a proper boat. Maybe the club could come up with a definition for what a "proper boat" is a great deal of non proper boats were out training with the RNLI inmproving our and their skills yesterday in an organised event, I am pretty sure the RNLI never mentioned that we should do this again when we all had proper boats.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-12106015

yes there all ok, probably a little embaressed and gratefull to the RNLI, however they were well prepared so i guess a touch of bad luck lead to a few errors that put them in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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.