Float Plan Database????
- Thread starter woodster
- Start date
wellll now sunny spoken in a gabby hayes type voice back in my day my first cell phone came in an oak box with a crank on the side ...sure do miss that old phone it would call the cat fish up pronto
Before anyone assumes (there's that term again) anything about the SVRS, be aware that in the Pacific NW last summer it was mostly not working. I had several different customs officers tell me that the program was a disaster that was forced on them by honchos back in Washington.
Loren
I just wasted a couple of hours trying to download this app and get it to work on my android notebook. If they are going to use technology for everything at least get it to work before launching it.,
In the UK you can file details of your vessel with the CG on a 'CG66' form either on paper or on line. Then if you wish you can radio in a passage report on departure, purely voluntary and cancel it on arrival. If you fail to report arrival no huge search is started, the information is only there for their assistance IF your family friend or concerned individual calls and says you are missing, it gives them some pointer of what to look for and maybe where to start. We live in the USa these days but when in the UK used only to call in a passage report if we were going offshore or long distance, like to France say, not for a quick trip across the bay. The CG66 contained details, even pics, of the boat, its description, colour of hull, topsides and sails etc, equipment carried etc like radios, distress signals, liferaft,anything that might help ( for example) a helicopter search identify you from the hundreds of others out and about. They even had an arrangement with the French CG to pass info back/forward re vessels calling in plans or safe arrivals. This system aided us once many years ago when we were cruising french waters and USA family were trying to contact us because my wife's father had died in the USA, they contacted the US embassy in Paris and London who between them got the UK and French CGs involved and we got a message within hours after VHF broadcasts asking for anyone who knew where we were. No stupid non-working App, just a commonsense ( no nonsense) procedure by some well trained knowledgeable CG folk who were not just another arm of the military and trying to go modern with a 'look how clever we are phone APP'. I think I will stick to carrying simple distress signals, a PLB, two handheld VHFs, a GPS and a cellphone in a waterpoof holder in my ditch bag. plus trying to stay safe in the first instance.
SOrry to be grumpy but SAR at a small boat level hereabouts is third world by comparison with Europe.