Select to expand quote

ozpricey said..


Hi guys. Great stories. Keep them coming :)

I'm looking into long distance sailing safety gear ATM. Primary concern is comms. Where I'm sailing there is access to nearby islands, though the waters are known to be quite shark infested which poses its own problems.

A design concept I have is a mast tip mounted UHF (thin stainless type) that connects to a 5W handheld waterproof UHF. A challenge may be to maintain waterproofing with the external antenna. 5W handheld are good for 17km (from what I've read). If anyone has experience with ocean UHF comms, please chime in as to realistic distances and the expected range benefit of a mast tip mounted antenna.

Another challenge is how to take weight off my person (backpack etc) and onto the rig somewhere with a low CG to maintain responsiveness. I'm only carrying about 3kg of water/food/PLB/flares/gin initially, potentially more if camping is involved. The nose of the board would be ideal, however I just think it's too prone to mast strike and puling things off any mounts. Now looking at an elastic mesh similar to uphaul but connected to clew to form a triangle and storage component for storing a stowage bag.

If anyone has explored this and tried some solutions, please let me know.

What do people do to ensure foil screws dont wind themselves out? Is Loctite effective or is there a better product for Al/Ti in salt water?

Finally, any PLB brand/model recommendations? I am not looking for anything fancy.

I personally wouldn't bother with the antenna - it may cause more problems than its worth, normally I guess the only time you would be using your radio is when you are in distress which one could be a broken mast - now your antenna is in the water (one of many distress scenarios where your mast / antenna is in the water)

I would just keep it handheld personally

Select to expand quote

ausbinny said..
I personally wouldn't bother with the antenna - it may cause more problems than its worth, normally I guess the only time you would be using your radio is when you are in distress which one could be a broken mast - now your antenna is in the water (one of many distress scenarios where your mast / antenna is in the water)

I would just keep it handheld personally

Good idea, I didn't think of that.

It really depends on the location. Main concern is actually changing wind conditions (drop outs), and meeting the regulation now enforced on us (life jackets, plb, flares, etc). I haven't broken a mast in years (touch wood). Comms wise, down here I've had search and rescue called on me whilst foiling (people freaking out), so more to maintain awareness of the chatter and avoid wasting authorities time.

So far I've just been using my common sense as have others in this post, but not sure if Water Police/WA DOT would see eye to eye these days without uhf blahblah. Doesn't hurt to be prepared anyway.

I think offshore sailing in anything not a boat is not a good idea, unless you've taken adequate steps to ensure your safety and your ability to get yourself out of trouble (even then it's not really a good idea).

If you want a challenge and adventure do some coast runs. You can stay within 1km of shore. You get lots of scenery and stuff to look at. It can be technically and physically challenging. You can turn around any time you want.

Crossing 5-10-20 km of water to an island is not particularly difficult, but if anything goes wrong it's very dangerous. Doing a 10-20-30km coast run can be hard to do, but most malfunctions can be dealt with by drifting, paddling, swimming to shore, or any other kind of self rescue you can be prepared for.

Expecting the emergency services to rescue you has a bit of a scale to it. Putting yourself at risk and having rescue as the only out is irresponsible. Doing stuff where you've assessed and mitigated all the risks, then used rescue as a final backup is fine.

And before you think I'm Captain Conservative (well I sort of am), I've done 9 trips the Himalayas, spending time between 4500-5000m, and done numerous self rescues with sailboard, kites and foils, as well several long yachting trips.

Rule number one of any extreme sport is to have a range of escape routes planned and ready to put into place before things become critical. That's stuff like safe landing options downwind, landing spots accessible with total equipment failure, contacts and support to help you, and alternatives to all of the above. The very last option is press the red button.

PS What you could do is work out a series of legs where you have an island, a channel narrow enough for rational go/no go decisions, and landing options for each leg. Don't forget to take into account the current in the channel and the possibilities of gear failures and weather changes.

Planning an adventure where the risks are mitigated is an admirable thing.

Another good option to reduce risk is to log your trip with the VMR (voluntary marine rescue), and also to tell friends/relative who can look out for you. You can tell them your plan and when you expect to be back. If you don't check in, they try to figure out why.

Select to expand quote

sun fisher said..
Another good option to reduce risk is to log your trip with the VMR (voluntary marine rescue), and also to tell friends/relative who can look out for you. You can tell them your plan and when you expect to be back. If you don't check in, they try to figure out why.

I have a laminated bit of paper and a white board marker, it shows what I'm doing, when I expect to be back and an emergency contact - goes on the dash of my van.