So in no particular order I have installed a 'stealth' switch in the AIS system, what this does is to interrupt the AIS transponder so it continues to receive but no longer transmits. So to all intents and purposes your vessel disappears off everyone's screen who is AIS enabled . Only to be used in case of pirate attack. Long way down the road but it's an easy modification. Probably a complete waste of time but the components only cost about a fiver so hey ho you never know.
Next on the list was a liferaft, this was a case of run around the house to get back to where you were. We looked into various options in England however costs for shipping to Northern Ireland were looking rather steep, we got one quote for £200 +VAT, needless to say we went back to CH Marine just down the canal from us
We finished up buying a just certified commercial raft which Paul down had just got in , he let us see it before a service ( inflated ) and again we compared it to a "yachty" raft, in this case a Plastimo which Paul was also servicing. Apart from the obvious difference in materials the other major difference was in the freeboard, in comparison the Plastimo was very shallow ( read WET).
Our new raft had also got an easy enter rigid entry slide ( not visible in this shot, it's on the other side) if you have ever had to get into a liferaft wearing usual foulies and wellys etc. you will understand the significance of this. More importantly it was made of heavy duty materials and just serviced. Paul and Joe also gave us some in date flares and other bits and bobs, and so the deal was done. We originally wanted the raft to be up to SOLAS B specification but we soon realised that if all the SOLAS stuff was packed in the raft it would need servicing every year as it would to all intents and purposes be a commercial liferaft, so we went for the ISO 9650 part 1 option which means a service interval of three years and we intend to carry all the SOLAS stuff in a grab bag. We now need to mount the liferaft in its canister on deck and fit some form of cradle and an HRU. ( Hydrostatic release unit, this deploys the raft automatically in the event the boat sinks ) unfortunately this means my least favourite job ever, drilling holes in the boat, best have a few dry runs to get the placement just right and put off the dreadfull day!
An EPIRB ( emergency position indicating radio beacon ) was next on the list, we also obtained this from CH Marine. A Mcmurdo G5 GPS model.
Of course we needed to update our OFCOM licence and also inform MRCA, but it can all be done online these days, assuming you can get past the as usual, rubbish web presence of the government. It took me six attempts and a password reset to amend our existing licence.
This little thing ( when activated ) will send a distress message via satellite to the rescue co-ordination centre in Falmouth saying that we are in trouble, the beacon has a unique hexadecimal number that will identify it as our beacon, hence family will also be informed and hopefully we will be rescued, the beacon guiding our rescuers to our exact location anywhere in the world, for 48 hours anyway!
Thinking about all this worst case scenario stuff can all be a bit depressing, of course in reality we hope that we never need any of this equipment.
However, as my very good friend Lenny is very fond of saying " it's better to have and not need, than need and not have". Quite right Len.....
Apologies for the amount of MLAs ( multi letter acronyms )
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