Yachting Monthly – September 2019

pressing one button and it will provide us

with vital additional information on the vessel

such as type and size, which is crucial in a

rescue. We also recommend investing in a

lifejacket with a Personal Locator Beacon

(PLB), which you can activate if you

accidently fall overboard. This alert will get

picked up in our Mission Control Centre and

will pinpoint your exact location, allowing us

to send assistance more quickly. Another

valuable investment is an Emergency

Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB),

which is designed to trigger an alert if it hits

the water. This is especially useful if your

boat has capsized and you haven’t had a

chance to make a distress call.’

BEST PRACTICE

Before setting off, the RNLI recommend that

the leisure skipper always makes various

checks. ‘HM Coastguard and the RNLI

advocate that all those aboard should

receive safety advice to ensure they know

how to make a distress call’, advises Matt.

‘A quick explanation to the crew of how to

read the yacht’s position on the GPS so

this information can be given as part of a

call for help, is invaluable. Also, it’s essential

to ensure that everyone is wearing a

suitable life jacket – preferably with

attached PLBs – as well as making safety

checks around the vessel.’ Finally, the

RNLI also recommend advising someone

ashore about your seafaring plans and

times. Having someone at home who can

raise the alarm if you haven’t returned home

on time means the emergency services can

quickly start searching the area you last

made contact from.

‘Some systems carry next of kin details

so they can be informed in cases of an

emergency,’ asserts Seb. ‘An EPIRB might

be set off inadvertently, perhaps in a

chandlery. So, it’s essential to ensure the

vessel’s registration details are correct in

order that we can quickly establish the

alarm has been triggered deliberately.’

BEHIND THE SCENES

QAll emergency calls will be routed into

one of the HM Coastguard’s 11 centres

situated around the UK. The coastguard

search position co-ordinator will then make

an assessment over the seriousness

of the situation, categorising it into one

of several levels, such as Distress (equivalent

to a Mayday), Alert, which is aligned with

a PAN PAN call, and so on.

QAt the outset of every emergency call,

the MCA and the RNLI use a rescue mission

information tool with the acronym SMEAC:

Situation; Mission; Execution, Administration/

logistics and Command/signal, which

ensures that all relevant information is

gathered and processed appropriately.

The average launch time

for lifeboat stations is up to

10 minutes, but is often less

THE KNOWLEDGE

TYPES OF LIFEBOAT

All-weather lifeboats (ALBs): Mersey,

Severn, Shannon, Tamar and Trent

Inshore lifeboats (ILBs): D-class ,

Atlantic 75, Atlantic 85 and E-class

Hovercraft: H-class

LAUNCH TIMES & REACH

Response time is up to 30 minutes for incidents

10 miles from the point where the lifeboat is

berthed, with an average launch time of up

to 10 minutes (not including beach launching).

The RNLI’s lifeguards will respond to anybody

up to 300m from the beach within 3.5 minutes

if they are swimming at a lifeguarded beach

with a lifeboat station.

HM Coastguard coordinates

rescue operations from 11 centres