On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:31:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Those 3 guys sitting on an upturned hull in the Gulf for a week does
NOT inspire in me much confidence in the CG.

you mean just because the CG searched an area the size of the state of
minnesota? how much should they have searched?

No. I mean just what I said. One week, no find.
I do NOT intend to rely on the CG for offshore SAR without
a SAT phone notification that the EPIRB/PLB distress signal is legit.
Unless you tell me otherwise.
Then I'll think about it some more.

We recently listened on our marine VHF radio as USCG dispatched a
helicopter several hundred miles out into the Gulf in reponse to an
EPIRB signal. That is a major commitment of resources and exactly
the right response. An EPIRB broadcasts the exact lat/lon of its
location and a coded serial number registered to the owner. If the
owner has followed procedures, his contact information plus a
designated alternate is contained in a database accessible to USCG.
We are mailed a confirmation form every two years where I have to
certify that our contact information is still correct.

The procedure when USCG gets an EPIRB alert is that they attempt to
contact the registered owner or the alternate to determine if the
alert is legitimate. If they get an affirmitive response or no
response, they initiate a search at the reported location if resources
are available, and also broadcast a repeated information message on
both VHF and Single Side Band radios.

If we get into trouble offshore my money is on the EPIRB and USCG
assuming we are in US waters at the time. If elsewhere, USCG
attempts to contact the organization appropriate for that region,
Bahamian Search and Rescue for example.

I find it easy to understand why the boat was not located by the
search since they did not have an EPIRB. They were a long way out on
a small overturned fiberglass boat which probably had no effective
radar signature at all in that position. There's a good chance the
boat had a dark colored bottom, quite possibly blue. The men on top
would be virtually invisible from any altitude at all. Their VHF
radio (assuming they had one) would have been disabled by the capsize.
Given their overall lack of foresight and preparation they probably
had no handheld VHF either. In my opinion they were lucky to have
been found at all.

Just like the football players from St Pete Beach, they were a
disaster waiting for a place to happen.