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Big Brother is NOT Watching You: When Comms go Bad

Michael Moradzadeh, San Francisco Station

 

EPIRBs, PLBs, AIS Beacons, Trackers, and Strobes
Both these incidents illustrate the fact that yacht safety equipment is useful only to the extent it can be accessed in difficult conditions, that it is in working order, and that the operator is thoroughly familiar with its operation.  They also illustrate that guiding a rescue vessel into the vicinity of survivors in the water or in a life raft is not the end of the rescue problem. There remains the problem of visually spotting the victims among waves or swells, often in low visibility conditions.
Coastal and Offshore Communications Guide

The CCA Offshore Communications Committee has prepared an in-depth overview of offshore communications methods and co

Short Range Communication Recommendations
... As we were the fastest boat, we had the least amount of time to prepare for spinnaker sets and douses, gybes, configuration changes, and most importantly, communication. This was evidenced by some truly terrible spinnaker sets, botched take-downs, shouting, possibly some hurt feelings, and a general feeling that we weren’t performing like a team. But no one got hurt, the boat was undamaged, and despite several fire drills, we won all three races.
VHF and SSB DSC Calling

(video d

DSC Radio Check: Fast, Easy, and Automatic

Since the discontinuation of SeaTow's radio check service, the US Coast Guard recommends all VHF checks be held

Group DSC Primer for Fleets and Safety: Group Calls on your VHF and SSB
Not just for safety anymore, DSC can be used to contact another boat for purely non-emergency reasons, such as find other boats positions and automatically plot them on your chart-plotter Not only that, you can set your radio to be part of a “group” to send and receive alerts intended for a fleet of vessels. This capability may serve any fleet, be it yacht club, regatta, race or just a group of friends.
VHF Channel Changes

While working with fellow CCA members on a comprehensive marine safety manual, I found that the powers that be have p

Lessons Learned During a Winter Delivery

Despite my better judgment, I was coerced into delivering a 40’ cruising sloop up the coast from Oceanside to Moss La