How Important is Safety Gear?

How important is safety gear, ask the 12 people rescued just 14 miles out of Freeport Texas on October 1,2013. They had a radio and were able to call the coast guard, they had life jackets and were able to stay afloat, but was there more that could have been a factor? The answer is yes, these situations are all different.

Being prepared is the best thing any boater can do. Educate yourself, educate your crew, and have more than one safety item available to use. The short list is VHF Radio, Life Jacket (PFD) for each crew member, Life Raft, EPIRB or PLB (both is even better) and a ditch bag full of safety essentials.

A VHF and life jackets did the job in this instance, but consider that the water could have been cold and the VHF may not have worked. Then what? You need a life raft to get you out of the cold water and an EPIRB or PLB to bring the rescue authorities to you.

You can see information on hypothermia in this post 

We strive to provide the best information about safety and help boaters with all of their safety gear needs. We do community outreach and we now offer a leisure boating  Offshore Safety Class for local boaters.

What if Your Rescue Hinged on an EPIRB

From the Coast Guard News, a story about an EPIRB.  Every rescue mission is different, in the event you need to be rescued having the right equipment is truly the difference between rescue and recovery.

There was no moon, and multiple cloud layers and thunderstorm cells blocked any available light provided by the stars,” said Lt. j.g. Caleb Thorp, the Hercules pilot. “The rain was near continuous, which reflected any light emitted from the aircraft and caused our night vision goggles to be useless.  So we secured as many lights on the aircraft as possible to aid the search outside.  We could only see straight down where we saw very rough seas.”

Finally, through the waves and winds, the C-130 crew received a blip on their radar that matched the profile of a sailboat.

Unable to actually see the vessel, and failing to establish communications over the radio, the Hercules crew began to fly over the boat’s location, flashing the plane’s wing tip landing lights to grab the crew’s attention.

The sailing vessel Wolfhound is seen here approximately 80-miles north of Bermuda in the FLIR camera of a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., Feb. 9, 2013. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd class Sarah Bachman and Petty Officer 3rd Class Jerimiah Strombeck

“We couldn’t see anything on the first pass, but on the second pass we saw a light cutting through the blowing rain,” said Thorp. “We flashed our lights and the sailing vessel flashed a handheld light back at the aircraft.”

The sailing vessel, later identified as the 48-foot long Wolfhound, lost all power and was at the mercy of the Atlantic Ocean.  With the power out, its radio was useless, and the four Irish nationals aboard had no other means of contacting a rescue agency.

Within six hours, both of the AMVER merchant vessels arrived on scene, led there by the Hercules crew.  The crew of the 738-foot Tetian Trader eventually came alongside the Wolfhound and helped the crew leave their stricken ship.

On average, there is a commercial ship in the AMVER system that is involved in saving a life somewhere in the world every 33 hours.

The rescue of the crew aboard the Wolfhound demonstrates how the culmination of EPIRB technology and the partnerships between multiple agencies save lives. The only other thing that might have better facilitated this successful search and rescue effort would have been if the sailboat’s EPRIB had been registered and up to date. With an unregistered EPRIB, a distress alert may be delayed before reaching the Coast Guard, often in situations in which there is not a moment to spare.

After reading this story, I would like to remind you to check the date on your EPIRB battery, make sure your EPIRB is registered and consider replacing older EPIRB technology with a GPS enabled EPIRB.

The Coast Guard, World Rescue Authorities and groups like AMVER can only do so much, you have to do your part and provide yourself with the best life saving tools available.

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The Highfield Aluminum Hull Inflatable Boat featured here is 10'2" and weighs 115 lbs. This boat is light weight and rugged. Come see us for more information. 

Life Raft Service

We are a USCG approved life raft service center. We service commercial and leisure life rafts. Give us a call if your raft is out of date. You want to be prepared, especially in these colder temperatures.