for ringing it through mate.

Good work on calling Cockburn sea rescue after the police did not respond. Give Cockburn a call to get update, they may also want some details from you for the police report.

Did you call the water police as it would be interesting to know why they did not respond or contact Cockburn sea rescue themselves.

We have had some issues with water police not taking calls serious and waiting from confirmation from other sources before launching a search.

well done again.

But it makes you wonder why the boat didnt use radio or mobile to alert authorities. Now he has blown 3 flares. But in the end alls well.

Neels

Yes most everybody has a mobile these days,interesting the police failed to respond it could have cost them there lives there needs to be an inquiry into the matter.

Nah we just rang the normal police and they said they will deal with it and keep us uptodate but they didnt.
But i think calmer is right too got a good catch last night after that incident will post up soon

Just spoke to Commander of Cockburn Sea Rescue. Apparently vessel ran out of fuel, radio did not work and mobile battery was running flat. Also could not read GPS to give position. Each time Cockburn asked for position it was showing on land.

Sort of guys who should sell thier boat and be banned from going on the ocean.

Good thing they had 3 flares too,

Just wondering, if anyone cares to answer, do people just rely on their offshore pack when they go out at night? only asking as I've only ever been checked for an offshore pack at the ramps, legal requirement as i understand it is you must carry your offshore pack beyond the distance required but you must ALSO carry your inshore pack as well as the offshore. every time i've been checked i just flash my offshore and its righteo off ya go.

Reason i ask is if your out at night away from a built up area where SAR choppers and boats have the luxury gadgets of FLIRs and radars and in a situation where you would be relying on your flares especially if you were in the water without the vessel, you'd be pretty much screwed at night for pin pointing your postion with an offshore pack. Sure you could see a parachute flare from far away or even a couple of miles away but they'd have a very hard time finding the source of the flare, which of course is the reason for the hand held red flare that only comes in the inshore pack...

I was never aware of this requirement and always just had my offshore, thats all that was ever checked and i was never questioned or informed on the requirement for the inshore pack by fisheries, rangers or whoever checked(doubt they were aware aswell), just food for thought.. mayb i was the only one who didn understand it. You wouldn't run into any dramas really out off perth like these guys or built up areas but away from help could be nasty situation....

And why should everyone try to blame the police and in particular the water police for these idiots not being able to take care of themselves? I have been on the water for almost 40 years, including time at the Water Police (4 years) and I have my coxswain ticket, so I believe I can speak with some authority.  It shits me that we have this culture in Australia that we try to apportion blame onto everyone else.  It appears to me that these people put to sea in an poorly maintained vessel without much knowledge on how things work or how to navigate.  even if they didn't know how to read a GPS, they should at least be able to say they are located X number of miles SW of Woodmans Point or where ever they may be.  This is exactly the type of (irresponsible) skipper the RST was meant to prevent from getting out on the water and putting other people at risk.  There is only one person to blame here - the skipper.

I am a firm believer that the person you see in the mirror each morning when you brush your teeth is the person responsible for your future.....

That's my dumbie spit for the month!

and the reason that mobiles are not required safety equipment is that they cannot be tracked using a radio directional finder (rdf) which the larger police and rescue vessels carry.....

I don't think the rescued skipper blamed anyone. The person who reported the flares said they had not heard back from the police.

I agree with you Randall 100%, the skipper is responsible for the boat and his passengers and to ensure they arrive back safely. Damn lucky there was flares cause there was nothing else.

Its not the skipper I am concerned about.  Its this culture we have of blaming the police when they don't turn up to help us.  In a lot of cases the police need to respond, ie when peoples homes are being invaded and people can't protect themselves.  We should be concerned when the police can't attend those matters.  And if idiots like this continue to use up the resources of the police, or in this situation the volunteer sea rescue groups, then there will be a tragedy when someone truly does get into a life threatening situation.

The volunteers put their own lives at risk, dealing with these irresponsible idiots.  Running out of fuel is not a distress situation.  Put an anchor down and sit it out for the night!  Tell someone where you'll be....  all those things that the responsible people on this site would do as a matter of course!

Damn luckly there was someone to see the flare, recognise it's significance and report it! (well done jakeu420!).   It appears the one thing the skipper could do was read the instructions!

Sadly we [sea rescue vollies] have to put up with the idiots as well as the right minded boaties. It doesn't matter where you go you will always find them, or more often than not they will find you.

Some of them have you wondering how they even got out of bed by themselves. it makes it very difficult trying to tell someone how to use a particular brand of GPS over the radio when you have only fiddled with that type once or twice and you cannot find someone who is a whiz with it to get the idiot to let you know their location without having to activate their epirb. Had one fairly recently where that happened, he stated where he thought his position was and we had a boat head there to get him and couldn't find him, as it was after notifying water police what was going to happen and getting it activated he was some 27nm north of the position he gave us. The same person has been rescued about 5-6 times before to my knowledge and there is nothing we can do to prevent it occurring again. Its a nice [NOT] feeling when the on duty radio operator rings you up and says the so and so has logged on and has headed to the islands knowing that we will probably get a call out later to go and get him.

Its not just Carnarvon who has one, all groups will have their own problem child who always has a knack of getting in to difficulty.

The water police have an acronym for YACHT ---yet another c#$t having trouble, so true, 90% of our tow jobs are yachties who have run aground or something has crapped itself. Most of them are the motor doesn't work so they have to get towed in and out of port or they are in so much of a hurry to get somewhere that they cannot anchor [if the winch works??] up to get some sleep that they are so tired they cannot even function properly. One today, an old chap on his own sailed non stop for 9 days in a 7 metre yacht from Dampier, called up at 0300 for a tow in [was 13nm out] told to wait till a respectable hour as he was in no danger. Called him up at 0700 and went out to get him, 12nm NW after he said he was south of town [ blamed GPS ] couldn't tow him above 6 knots as was forcing water passed his shaft seals and he needed to keep pumping bilge out and his stand by outboard was flicking water in to the cockpit. After twice finding an anchorage that suited him, we towed yet another yacht out after he ran aground while heading out for a fish [new owner who warned us a week back that he is new to boating] then had to call up another skipper and crew to tow him off the bank and back in again this evening. Thankfully the last one makes donations towards the fuel we use and attends our sundowners each last Friday evening of each month.[all welcome]

being a yachtie from way back, i'd like to say "don't pick on them".....but sadly its true! idiots are idiots whether they have an outboard or sail....the ones with sails just take longer to get into trouble.....

Ide be careful using expired flares even if they are in "good condition" i serviced liferafts for a year, plenty of flares disposed of as soon as past the date (its law) but by all means keep the extras on your boat.

yep i keep the expired falres on my boat too, did ask the fisheries guys when they checked us once where we could dispose of them if it came to it. He had the same reponse....more flares are better than few, even if expired!

Once out of date by a reasonable period I'd dispose of them.

Cant remember who exactly it was (not fisheries, whats the other?), but we got checked and West End once, and they said that for non-surveyed vessels, your flares are allowed to be out of date as long as in reasonable condition. It's highly unlikely that they will go bad just past the use by date. Its more for being sure that they're new, rather than that they go off by that date and only work sporadically after that date. That being said, if I had some expired, I would get some new ones as well. Better more than fewer, and if you need to use a flare, you are going to want one that works.

In certain fields they call it the Swiss cheese model. Each piece of safety gear is like a layer of swiss cheese. The more layers you have the less chance there is of all the hole lining up the whole way through your stack.

Got a phone call from Denham sea rescue at around midnight last night, they had picked up a radio call from a pro boat trying to call us at Carnarvon about a possible flare sighting on the west side of the islands. On the way down to the base I checked the boat ramp car park for cars and trailers then contacted the boat and notified local police.

The sighting was an orange light to the SE of their position making it near the gap between the islands. The coppers trace the car rego and went to his house to find out where he was fishing and ETA. No luck there or next door with his neighbours, same as I got trying to call him on radio.

Anyway at 0200 I spotted a boat lights entering the channel and checking it out found it was the boat in question. They had fished the Lady Joyce wreck [inside the islands] and also spotted a light, possible meteorite to the SE around the same time as the pro boat sighting. They had made a note of it and kept on fishing. Once we put the two sightings together it was clear that there wasn't an emergency and wrapped it all up.

Having his radio turned on would have solve the problem inside of 20 minutes instead of over two hour and lots of ground work by the police tracing regos and waking people up to get all the facts.

is it not a requirement that you must have your radio turned on at all time????

Yep, must be turned on at all times.

Reminded him on that while the coppers were right there and also informed him that the radio draws less power than his sounder and gps until you hit transmit.

Too many just turn the radio on IF they sign on then turn it off again until the time to log off. Dot should call them up and if no answer give them a "why not"or fine them.

keeps our  out of date in/off shore to use first if in trouble, then we have the current up-to-date in/out shore flares to use as well.  So all told we have two of each flare just in case one doesn't work, also my mobile is fully charged before we go out.