Abandon Ship, Part one Be Prepared

Very good Article. This is part 1 of 4. I like the statement it could take up to 4 hours for your EIRPB to relay your position.

http://www.yachtingmagazine.com/blog-post/electronics/safety/abandon-ship-part-one-be-prepared?cmpid=enews022813&spPodID=030&spMailingID=16629714&spUserID=MzQzNTcxMzY4NDgS1&spJobID=212252769&spReportId=MjEyMjUyNzY5S0

May have to copy and paste.

Holy crap the first two paragraphs gave me chills.

Reminds me of what my life raft inspection shop said.

Expect to get wet and tired getting into the raft. Usually you end up swimming to it at the end of its tether, then having some degree of difficulty climbing in--- you do not simply "step into it".

If it were that easy I guess you would not be abandoning ship!!

We did a survival raft drill at Trawlerfest in San Diego a few years ago. On a warm day off the protected dock at the hotel it was difficult to get into that damn floating tent. Doing it under stress off a pitching swim grid from a sinking boat is unimagineable. Not a 1% chance you get into the raft without going through the ocean first.

Every Summer, the Admiral and I practice things like Man Overboard, simulate a boat fire ect. It's the military in me. I figured if we were in such a situation, her training would take over......I hope.

This summer I have arranged with the USCG to do a flare excersise off of Martian Island on the Columbia River, May 26th. We will take our expired flares and train shooting them off properly, so if you are in the area, come by the log pond.

Depending on the price/quality and type of flare you will almost certainly be totally underwhelmed!!!

bobofthenorth said:

We did a survival raft drill at Trawlerfest in San Diego a few years ago. On a warm day off the protected dock at the hotel it was difficult to get into that damn floating tent. Doing it under stress off a pitching swim grid from a sinking boat is unimagineable. Not a 1% chance you get into the raft without going through the ocean first.

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Did they teach you to jum on the canopy and just slid into the opening?

I hope so cause that's the way to do it for real! Doint it that way ups your chances quite a bit....

Fall backwards toward the tent. Hope your ass lands near the hole.

One other point....the comment abut a 406 EPIRB without GPS taking 4 hours to provide a position is almost a worst case scenario. You would have to be cruising some fairy remote parts of the globe or be in the middle of the bigger oceans from my understanding of the system. The briefs I received from the SARSAT people that coastal US waters (and manyother parts of the world...just don't know those)...the time would be rarely more than 1 hr to get a good location on you...generally much less. The one hour time is completely satisfactoy because by the time the SAR unit could even get to you they shuld have the updated position good enough to home in on you.

Even this is based on if you were detected by the older satellites...as the newer satellites fill the constellation...the better detection/location capability should cover more of the planets surface.

So don't sweat it if own a non-GPS EPIRB, the system was designed to work just fine for you (as long as you don't wind up cruising in remote areas or go totally blue water.)

psneeld said:

One other point....the comment abut a 406 EPIRB without GPS taking 4 hours to provide a position is almost a worst case scenario. ...

the time would be rarely more than 1 hr to get a good location on you...generally much less.

So don't sweat it if you own a non-GPS EPIRB, the system was designed to work just fine for you (as long as you don't wind up cruising in remote areas or go totally blue water.)

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That has been my understanding and experience since 1995.