Getting Someones Attention From Fly Bridge

While running this weekend I am on the fly bridge and others in cabin. How do get there attention when needed? Bell, Radio, Etc.

We have a set of intercoms we got from Sears.com wireless and run on batterys

kartracer said:

While running this weekend I am on the fly bridge and others in cabin. How do get there attention when needed? Bell, Radio, Etc.

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Horn??

Pavlov had that all figured out...Just need to re-train the admiral...

Brief everyone that a change in rpms means FB wants attention.

Greetings,
Exactly!

Charles makes a closed circuit phone system.

We have a remote handset for the (Standard Horizon) VHF radio in the salon. Acts as an intercom, and it puts a vhf radio output in the salon for weather alerts and that kind of thing.

Ski in NC said:

Brief everyone that a change in rpms means FB wants attention.

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Your Admiral must be a lot more in tune with the running of the boat than my Admiral.

I run two VHF radios and hail from the bridge on an open channel running down below. That said, I have to wonder why your friends won't hang out on the bridge with you?

I've found that five or six good solid thumps of my foot on the deck brings them running. Usually kind of freaking and saying "what happened, did we hit something?"

Lutarious said:

That said, I have to wonder why your friends won't hang out on the bridge with you?

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mmmm I was wondering the same......

pounding on the deck works but the results are less than satisfying

A pair of family radios works well.

A hand-held VHF in the cabin also works, but calling can clutter up the airwaves...

-Chris

We don't run from the flying bridge for a bunch of reasons but the boat has an intercom/hailer system that has the flying bridge as one of its stations. So if guests are riding up there they simply have to talk and we hear them in the main cabin. To talk to them we use the mic that's attached to the hailer/intercom unit in the instrument panel.

You had to know this was coming!

We have a set of cheap walkie talkies for that. But I have to remember to turn them on.

Marin said:

We don't run from the flying bridge for a bunch of reasons but the boat has an intercom/hailer system that has the flying bridge as one of its stations. So if guests are riding up there they simply have to talk and we hear them in the main cabin. To talk to them we use the mic that's attached to the hailer/intercom unit in the instrument panel.

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Just curious, but why don't you steer from the bridge?

Lutarious said:

Just curious, but why don't you steer from the bridge?

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Andddd here we go!


(Insert fat man eating popcorn)

Lutarious said:

Just curious, but why don't you steer from the bridge?

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I've explained this before and if one is really interested the detailed explanation can be found in the archives.

In a nutshell, it's because we both hate the sight picture from up there for close-in maneuvering, much preferring to be at main deck level for this where we find it much easier to judge distances, speed, and inertia. Also, we narrowly averted a boat fire while we were driving from the upper helm because my wife happened to go below to get something and smelled what was going on. We prefer to operate the boat from a position where we can immediately hear, feel, and smell anything that might be wrong.

Forgive me for sounding simplistic and of course I do not have a flybridge of my own. Couldn't you just knock on the fiberglass dash panel, side or floor? Would that not echo inside the saloon? Really, most of our boats are not that stinking large and it seems to work pretty well on my front door at home.

CPseudonym said:

Couldn't you just knock on the fiberglass dash panel, side or floor?

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Yes, and it works fine. The downside is that once having gotten the attention of the folks up top or down below one generally has to follow through with communicating what you want their attention for.

Someone going out the door down below to talk to the folks up top works just fine, of course. But in our experience it's surprisingly noisy up on a flying bridge if one has a bimini up because it reflects the sound of the boat going through the water down onto the folks up top. So you end up sort of yelling back and forth unless the person you're talking to is directly below you.

So an intercom does actually make communications easier and a bit faster between upper and lower decks.

Also, and this is a subjective thing, of course, but pounding or stomping on the flying bridge sole is a rather startling sound down below which in effect is like the inside of a drum. So it tends to convey a bit of an "emergency" feel to it which makes the folks down below jump and think there's something wrong when all the folks up top want is more ice.

We have found the intercom/hailer on our boat to be quite useful simply because it makes communications more like simply talking on the phone rather than a "pound on the boat and yell" sort of thing.

Lutarious said:

I run two VHF radios and hail from the bridge on an open channel running down below.

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Isn't it illegal?

Our local brand GME brand VHF has the main unit at the lower helm and a slave unit on the FB. They have an intercom feature, works well, a useful feature. Of course there are specific intercoms, but this saves more wiring, etc

Dom61 said:

pounding on the deck works but the results are less than satisfying

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That's what I was thinking, but since I've never operated from a flying bridge, I kept my mouth shut.

Knock on the "floor" of the flybridge, this works well on our boat. I tried to set up a system of leaving the lower radio set to a rarely used channel and call that channel on the FB radio, kind of like an intercom but that didn't really work out well.

If I operate from the flybridge...it is usually nice enough to leave the cabin doors open. A few knocks gets the attention of those below and a series of mild shouts communicate the necessary info.


Obviously...it only works with my boat and maybe some similar in size and particulars.


From there I can here all warnings and alarms plus any radio comms the below radio is tuned to I addition to the flybridge radio...plus the drone of the engine is audible enough though very faint.


From there I can clearly and accurately see all four corners for close quarters maneuvering (though from below is OK and is where I dock 90% of the time because of my wintery cruising schedule).

kthoennes said:

We have a remote handset for the (Standard Horizon) VHF radio in the salon. Acts as an intercom, and it puts a vhf radio output in the salon for weather alerts and that kind of thing.

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We have the same set-up and it works much better than thumping the floor, honking the horn, bumping the throttles or yelling for help. It is the main reason I added the ram mic, already had a VHF at each helm.

kthoennes said:

We have a remote handset for the (Standard Horizon) VHF radio in the salon. Acts as an intercom, and it puts a vhf radio output in the salon for weather alerts and that kind of thing.

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Ditto except mine is a B&G.

Although we have an intercom VHF, and a wired telephone style intercom as well, the system we use almost exclusively is our cell phones.

Wire in a bell down below , push the button.

Use a code for beer , pee break , or were on FIRE!