Yachting Monthly - July 2018

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH

MCA needs to get up to speed

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency

(MCA) rightly calls for emergency position

indication radio beacons (EPRIBs) to be

registered. In your news article ‘MCA

urges EPRIB registration despite delays’

(YM, May 2018), the MCA was quoted

as urging people to keep their EPRIB

registration up to date.

I take my personal locator beacon

(PLB) on every trip. It does appear,

though, that the system can’t keep up

with the changes. The solution is simple:

the MCA needs to develop a web self-

service portal, whereby sailors and boat

owners can update their details easily

and remove all the delays. This will also

remove dull admin work from the staff

who can then spend their time on more

interesting work.

The web development will soon pay

for itself. Helicopters cost a lot to run and

the RNLI’s funds should be spent wisely.

Having such a portal will ensure wasteful

shouts are avoided.

We’ve been self-serving our bank

accounts for years. It’s time the MCA

caught up with the times. Richard Hammons

Katy Stickland replies: The MCA is working

on just such a solution. It informed YM

that its IT branch is working to improve

its system to allow customers to directly

input and update their own records online.

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The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is

working on improving PLB registration