SnapseedTHE
KNOWLEDGE
MIKE TAYLOR is an
established boat
and car journalist.
His career began
in 1979 and he’s
written for a range
of publicationsMike Taylor goes behind the scenes to discover the chain of
events that occur when a sailor makes a distress call
A cry for help
As a maritime nation rescuing lives in
peril from the sea around our shores has
been a primary objective for centuries and
came sharply into focus during the 1800s
when several boats were built specifically for
the task. In 1824 the National Institution for
the Preservation of Lives from Shipwreck
was inaugurated and the following year, 15
lifeboats were built under their stewardship.
Today, the RNLI is a hugely impressive
organisation, with 238 lifeboat stations and
431 lifeboats. To get an idea of its size, in
2018 RNLI craft were launched 8,964 times
rescuing 9,412 people. Yet, the organisation
remains a charity, totally dependent on
the benevolence of the general public,
funded entirely by donations. Today, the
RNLI utilises the latest technology to achieve
its objectives and is well advanced with the
introduction of its new all-weather Shannon-
class lifeboat programme, built at their
impressive Poole headquarters.
To clarify the relationship between HM
Coastguard, who coordinate all the rescue
assets at their disposal and the RNLI,
Matt Leat from HM Coastguard’s National
Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) in
Fareham tells us, ‘HM Coastguard
is responsible for the initiation and
co-ordination of all civil search and
rescue activities within the UK’s search
and rescue region. This encompassesthe RNLI, HM Coastguard search and
rescue teams and Coastguard helicopters,
independent lifeboats, auxiliary rescue
services, the police and the support of
other vessels nearby. The RNLI is one of
our declared assets and we co-ordinate
all launches of RNLI lifeboats.’LOCATING
Locating a vessel in distress, such as a yacht
or motor vessel, is achieved in various ways.
‘It’s possible for a lifeboat or a helicopter to
locate someone when all they’ve used to
make the distress call is a mobile phone,
though it’s so much quicker if they have a
VHF radio,’ continues Matt. ‘As for small
kayak-size craft we advocate the use of the
free RYA’s SafeTrx app.’
Continues Seb Pinkard, Area Lifesaving
Manager for the Poole region, ‘A critical
component in any rescue mission can be
the weather. Some lifeboats have limitations
on the kind of weather they can endure,
so forecasting is just as essential for us as it
is for the leisure sailor. However, some
sailors may not have the latest and most
accurate weather forecasting app on their
phone when they check on conditions
before they put to sea.’
‘The benefit of a VHF Mayday transmission
is that every boat in the locality equipped
with a similar device will hear the call so