survival boat

How are you going to change the EPIRB batteries at sea ????????

 

Depends on the unit you buy. Many have batteries that aren't too difficult to replace. I doubt you'll need a change of batteries, but good to have on hand. A waterproof satellite phone & GPS may be worth their weight in gold. Portable solar recharger for them is also a good idea.

e.g. a 5W device (12V) here is only 16"L x 14"W x .75"H

http://www.amazon.com/Brunton-SolarFlat-Rigid-Solar-Panel/dp/B0024F53E2

If you really want to get simple and survivable it will come down to the boat & your com/nav tools. Everything else is optional window dressing.

 

Plus the old reliable flares of course. The problem with VHF is it's only line of sight communications so any long range voice comm. would have to be a sat. phone. Thats where the EPIRB comes in while not a comm. system per say it does relay that there is a situation at hand. Again it all depends on the pre planning-the money to buy equiptment-and having the time to get that gear into the liferaft. Thats assuming there is a liferaft to get into. I wager there are still alot of bluewater work without rafts. Foolish yes but alot of crusing is still based on a poor mans budget.

 

Yes, forgot the flares.

You're right. It will all come down to budgets. I would argue though the basic items we discussed are the basics. If you get too far off shore VHF radio = useless. Cell phone would be better if you can pick up a signal. EPIRB is no doubt basic & required. Clothing, food & water are required. Buckets double to bail & capture rain water, so they're required. Sat phone, GPS & recharger a step-up, but by many these days standard gear. "Hello coast guard, I'm at (fill in the blank long/lat). Can you come & get me?"

Now that's a rescue plan.

I would also consider a portable fishing pole & some basic lures (e.g. stainless steel spoons) to be critical. If you run out of food sushi is always on the menu. Catch the fish, slice it & eat raw or dry. Many a sailors have run out of food & surived on fish & rain water.

 

When I sail by you in your lifeboat you cant call me on a sat phone... I dont have one...but I permanently , 24 hrs a day , monitor the vhf. All vessels including the rescue craft will. .

Dont jump into the raft without a handheld vhf. A handheld like ICOM is very valuable for rafts in that they use normal replaceable penlight batteries instead of an impossible to recharge internal batts.

The added line of sight range by using an external antennae cabled to a handheld is significant. In a raft Your hand held is many time below the horizon.

 

VHF useless? Some old radio basics with propogation, water reflects the signal. A nice mobile ground-plane on my ICOM 706 would allow me to reach out and touch more folks than boats/ships. Cell phones are unrelaible enough from land. You're gonna have some real money tied up having a sat-phone in a survival boat, if I had one it would be on the mainship being used, then when things blow up, I may not be able to get to it or forget it, your commo gear should already be there in the survival boat ready to go. A nice little mobile HAM rig and stowed antenna would be my choice along with a marine handheld and coax to use external antenna instead of that little HT whip.

 

Some considerations regardless of gadgets:

What is the event causing you to abandon ship-fire, storm, collision, etc.? (Will you be blocked from survival suit, gear, raft, etc?)

How much time do you have to get off- what is fastest sinking? (What is the order of priority for the non-raft gear you will pack?)

How far are you from likely help and how long will it take? (Will the coast guard/other rescue come to get you in Africa? Antarctica? in time?)

What are the outside conditions? ( Will the coast guard, etc. come in time during a hurricane, at night during rough conditions, etc.?)

I think of the climber that was stranded on Everest who was able to call for help and even talk to his wife on a phone, but perished anyway.

Porta

 

Michael-- If and when you happen to sail by me 100% for sure i'll be in my lifboat because thats what i'm converting into my mothership. This will probably be my last build and while i will carry a liferaft if I ever have to leave this craft i don't think i'd want to lookforward to stepping into a liferaft under those conditions. If that bad i think it's time my "in this world sailing" days are over. Been out in some bad one's and i have to be honest I prefer not to do it again. Na don't think you'll ever be sailing by with me in a liferaft.

 

Wave wacker-- a man after my own heart as the Irish in me says. I'm an old HAM man--been out of it for some 30yrs. Just recently bought a new 600watt rig.(transiever) Definately gonna have some gear on board especially with that ground plane--just as good as copper plate, after all running 60watts. on CB was alot of fun in my pre ham days. OOps is that like a legal confession.

 

The FCC spooks will be at your door in the morning Viking!

And I agree that the mainship would be my primary concern, and I'm only heading to the Bahamas (maybe)! I think I'd have inflatble tubes built in the gunnels and cabin top and if I got too far out, hang tractor inner tubes over the sides as the work boats use old tires for bumpers! I have no plans of sinking even if it comes apart!

73's Viking!

 

And speaking of survival boats.....and not to argue about climate change, but weather is getting to have more extremes, hotter summers and colder winters, storms are getting more severe, the recent winter storm, snow in Rome, Joplin got blown away, etc.

Should you have a good A/C-Heat system aboard, is a lighter boat always better?

 

Joseph-Just finished reading a new novel on Scotts expidetion to the south pole. Was first time i knew Him and Shackleton were friends and involved in the south pole expedition. Also that Shackleton made a run for the pole with his own expidition and came very close to being the first man there.Without Shackleton's expiditon"s route thru the final glacier mapped out for Scott he most likely would not have made it.
I have a few good books on Shacklenton. Another guy just as acomplished and just as famous for saving his men is Captain Bob Bartlett of Newfoundland. Famous as one of the best ice Captains in the world and was chosen by Perry for his North Pole expidition.Many say that in addition to getting Perry and his supplies thru the ice so he was within striking distance,he also was within a few steps of the pole when Perry asked him not to complete as Perry wanted it to be a totally U.S. credit and Bartlett was not a U.S citizen at the time. More famous is Bartlett for the Karluk expedition in which he saves his crew thru a feat that matchess any of the great polar explorers. 1913-14. Excellent reading--Bartlett, The Great Explorer, By Harold Horwood published by Doubleday books. It will not dissappoint you.-- Geo.

 

In January's Latitudes and Attitudes mag, there is a story of 3 fishermen who spent 87 days floating around the pacific in an open skiff. Sharks pounded on the boat alot but the worst was two Marlin strikes that nearly flipped the boat. The last one holed the bottom, which was repaired with cork and fishing line. Any idea what that would do to raft fabric?

 

Thats a first for me--Marlin attacking a boat--Wonder what they thought it was. 87 days adrift in a small open boat -- With all our modern gear that can still happen. Dam, for all our faults, humans are amazing. Had an old friend back on the Rock who previous to becoming a Policeman in Bermuda was a young schooner fisherman on the Grand Banks. Can't recall if their schooner sank or several dories got lost in the fog but they ended up three guys one dory and rowed some 150 -200 miles back to land in the month of Nov. All three survived but one guy lost all his fingers from frost bite. Just reinforces one should be well prepared and how important it is to have that grab and run survival kit ready at hand.

 

Maybe Marlin were attacking fish hovering under the boat. There are accounts of triggerfish and such keeping under the protection/cover of a life raft/floating sea weed, debris, etc. in the open ocean, where it is sparse of such. This even provided a source of food for the stranded people within. OTOH, Marlin can be quite aggressive when on the end of a fishing line....

P.