Servicing our Inflatable PFDs

On the continuing theme of safety*, which has overtaken our lives… This morning we were witness to one of those near-tragedies that reminds you how quickly it can all go wrong. A neighbour pulled into the dock and rather than hitting the kill switch she bumped her boat back into gear. This caused it to sheer off and dump her in the water. The dinghy started doing tight circles around her—and terrified she tried to get a hold of it, rather than swim to safety.

It was sheer luck that the prop didn’t get her legs. It circled over her twice before a skipper in another dinghy was able to grab it. The lesson was, ‘always wear your kill switch’—like most cruisers we’re really bad at this. But also, she should have swum away from her dinghy—there was a dock right there to jump up on and other boats to hide behind—a swimmer simply can’t gain control of a run away dinghy.

 

We wear them faithfully at sea, but want to be sure they are still in good condition.

So with that lesson in mind Ev and I continued on our checking and inspecting of safety equipment and pulled out the inflatable PFDs. Ours are West Marine brand and are going on 20 years old. I’m planning to replace mine with one that’s more comfortable—but Ev is fond of his (and loathes spending money when we don’t need to), so we decided to hold off replacing both based on a complete inspection.

Maia orally inflates the PFD

In AU, annual professional service inspections are required for inflatable PFDs—this strikes me as overkill. Personally, we’re comfortable with doing our own inspections on a more ad hoc basis. Roughly what this means is we’ve manually inflated ours every few years and looked them over before packing them back away. This time we decided to go an extra step and pull the rip cord on mine. We wanted to be sure all the seams held with the higher pressure inflation. And I’ve always wanted to pull the cord…

 

The stitching looked good and it also passed the pull and tear test

The manual inflation valve--it's a simple valve and easy to inspect

Before I got to pull, the first step was an exterior inspection for visible wear and damage. We checked that:

1. the cover closures are in good condition (our Velcro is a bit worn—but nothing terrible)
2. the webbing straps have no visible damage
3. the buckle works smoothly and isn’t cracking or aged looking
4. the stitching is all strong
5. and the harness components are all in good condition

 

The whistle worked fine and the string holding it was strong and secure

The spent CO2 cartridge showed some minor corrosion

 Then I pulled the cord. It wasn’t as exciting as hoped—put the thing sure does inflate quickly and puffs up in a most gratifying way. While I inflated the easy way, Maia blew up the other one. It didn’t take long to get it firmly inflated. Then we checked that:

1. retro-reflective tape is mostly firmly attached and more or less undamaged
2. the whistle works
3. the oral inflation tube has no visible damage and lets out pressure as needed
4. fabric itself is in good condition—we inspected around the fold lines and at all the seams especially
5. the inflation valve is in working order

 

Minimum weight is 145.5g for this unused cartridge it weighed 147

The seams and folds all looked in great shape and the bladder was holding air just fine

The next step is to let them sit overnight and make sure they hold air. While they sit we inspected Ev’s CO2 cartridge and made sure it was corrosion free and weighed at least what the minimum weight requirement is (it’s stamped on each cartridge).

At this point though, those old PFDs are looking remarkably good…

* Safety seems to be spreading from our cruising plans and daily life, to my work life with a story for Outside on how to survive a trip and another for Men’s Journal about getting rescued by the crowd…

Free weather books

Steve and Linda Dashew has made two of their very good books available as free downloads! 

If you read ANY weather guidebook, the Mariner's Weather Handbook is probably the best one out there.  Read it, re-read it, and understand it.  Then keep reading it while you're cruising.  His suggestion that understanding the weather is the key to happy cruising is one idea I strongly endorse.

Surviving the Storm offers a lot of good ideas on what to do if you get caught in bad weather.

http://setsail.com/weather-forecasting-storm-tactics-and-successful-cruising/

No pushing and shoving, don't all crash their server at once.

-Evan

What to do When the EPIRB Goes Off

 

 

Evan just wrote about updating our EPIRB. Then we argued for a while about where to keep the thing. Ev says it should go in our ditch bag, which is stored in an easy grab location. Our old EPIRB used to be wall mounted in the port hull until I had a long (and very, very detailed) nightmare about being capsized and trying to get into the port hull and find the thing. Which given its location near Maia’s books and toys meant it was both under water and buried beneath piles of stuffed animals). Seriously—the memory of that nightmare made me ditch half her stuffies and come up with a plan B for the EPIRB.

I’m still not convinced the ditch bag is the best location. But we have two EPIRBs so we’ll keep the new one in the ditch bag and choose a place for the spare that seems more reassuring to me…

Which brings me to, “what the heck happens if we set the thing off?” My sister is first in line for the phone call should something happen. As we were getting all her numbers she wisely asked, "so, what do I do when you're sinking?”

the hope is for a successful rescue

It’s a really good question. Having been witness to a few too many failed rescues I can’t emphasize enough that whoever is going to get that phone call really needs to:

1)      Want you back

2)      Be really organized and prepared to work hard to find you

3)      Have enough information to know when to work quickly

So with a few changes this is what Evan wrote my sister (credit should go to Beth and Evans who he paraphrases heavily--http://www.bethandevans.com/seamanship.htm). Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. We’d like to have the best plan possible. I respect those folks who go out there and take risks and let what happens, happen. But if I’m in trouble—I want to be found:

A high percentage of EPIRB alarms are false alarms. So, the first thing the agency will want to know is "is this a real alert"?  With us, it's a good assumption we haven't thrown the EPIRB in the garbage and had it go off by accident (like someone in Ev’s company did recently). Because our blog is typically updated daily on a passage it’s pretty easy to confirm if we might be in trouble—though we realize we need to do a better job of always including a tag at the bottom that includes our GPS position, direction and speed. Weather info is also a good one for us to throw in there. 

While the EPIRB agency is asking questions it will be a good idea for my sister to ask them a few too:

- the exact location of the emergency signal (latitude/longitude)

- time of the first EPIRB signal fix

- the location and time of the last fix (when the EPIRB batteries ran down) or the latest fix (if it is still transmitting).

This will give her some indication of whether the boat is disabled and drifting or still under its own power/sail, and help "define the optimal search area/pattern." We're a light boat with a lot of surface area, even when the sails are down the boat can drift quite quickly in a strong wind. One data point is we drift at 4 knots in 25 knots of wind with NO SAILS UP.

Locating a cruising boat that is nearby can help with coordinating a search and rescue. We’re not loners and typically go where the crowd goes—so that means chances are another boat may be within a few hundred miles of us. We’ll also be passing along the email contacts of a couple of our sailing guru friends who can hold her hand and offer additional advice.

- The WinLink position map is a helpful way to identify other cruising boats in the region, which can then be communicated with via e-mail. We told her she can look at the map here:  www.winlink.org/userPositions

If she finds a cruising boat near our distress position she can send them an emergency email even if her email address hasn’t been white listed:

Message Precedence Categories

Precedence categories are Flash (Z), Immediate (O), Priority (P), and Routine (R). Flash and Immediate messages are reserved for urgent.

                     

The precedence indicator is included in a Winlink message by adding one of the following to the beginning of the subject line in a message whether originated from Internet email or within the Winlink system.

//WL2K Z/ - Flash (for urgent message use only)

//WL2K O/ - Immediate (for urgent message use only)

Send an email to (the boat's call sign @winlink.org).  e.g. KE7MZB@winlink.org with this: ‘//WL2K Z/Missing boat’ in the subject line. She should give them as much information as possible, a description of our boat and ask them for help and to spread the word amongst other local cruising boats. Ask them to contact authorities ashore too.

- There’s also a map of SailBlogs boat positions at www.sailblogs.com/member_map.php.

- www.marinetraffic.com/ais/ shows a world map with positions of vessels transmitting AIS.  It may be possible to find an email for those vessels by googling their ship/boat name.

She should also post messages at www.boatwatchnet.org/ and the 'Distress call/missing yacht" section of   www.cruiserlog.com/forums/ . This will get the ham nets involved in helping contact/search for the vessel in trouble.

Communications with non-English speaking local SAR people can be difficult. It is useful to involve both the Canadian embassy (and the US embassy—I know we had an American baby for a reason…) and a local yacht club in the country where the SAR is underway. They will both tend to have senior government contacts and be able to communicate in the local language.

Finally, if at all possible, she should get a designated point of contact/communication with our local agency (who will handle the initial EPIRB signals) and the foreign SAR agency (who hopefully actually look for us). This helps make sure that information gets to everyone as it comes up. A helpful site with additional collected information of SAR contacts, procedures and resources is: www.rcc-net.org/ .

One thing to keep in mind is that in many under resourced countries looking for foreign yachts is not a priority and it’s asking them to do more than they do to find their own lost citizens… So the more my sister is able to coordinate herself—the better off we’ll be.

And thanks in advance, Sis…

A New EPIRB

We didn't want to be like Totem - with their 3 EPIRB fiasco:  Totem's 3 EPIRBs.

Our old ACR beacon had to have it's battery replaced.  At a cost of > $300 for a new battery we thought it wiser to purchase a new one and keep the old one as a spare. In Australia, EPIRBs are particularly cheap because every boat more than 2 miles from shore must carry one - even little aluminum car toppers.  So there are a number of local companies competing and prices for a basic EPIRB are as low as $250 AUD.

         Aside - why keep the old EPIRB?

EPIRB batteries are usually good for 5-6 years before requiring replacement, but the batteries generally have longer real life.  No manufacturer wants their battery dying within the 'best before' date so the batteries are rated pretty conservatively.

From ACR's web site FAQ:
 

"Why must I replace the beacon’s battery at 5 years when it has an 11 year lifetime"

 
"The battery does not have an eleven year "USEFUL" life; it has
an eleven year "SHELF" life. Once you install a battery in a
beacon, current is being drawn when you self test the unit during
the first 5 year of operation. There is also a minute current (in
the micro amp range) being drained from the battery, in the rest
state of beacon. The battery is guaranteed to last 48 hours if
activated in an emergency, any time during the 5 year replacement
life. When the "replacement due date" is past, the activation
period of a beacon will start to decline and cannot be guaranteed
any longer"

Why must I replace the beacon’s battery at 5 years when it has an 11 year lifetime?

The battery does not have an eleven year "USEFUL" life; it has an eleven year "SHELF" life. Once you install a battery in a beacon, current is being drawn when you self test the unit during the first 5 year of operation. There is also a minute current (in the micro amp range) being drained from the battery, in the rest state of beacon. The battery is guaranteed to last 48 hours if activated in an emergency, any time during the 5 year replacement life. When the "replacement due date" is past, the activation period of a beacon will start to decline and cannot be guaranteed any longer

- See more at: http://www.acrartex.com/support/faqs/epirb-faqs/#q-4504

Why must I replace the beacon’s battery at 5 years when it has an 11 year lifetime?

The battery does not have an eleven year "USEFUL" life; it has an eleven year "SHELF" life. Once you install a battery in a beacon, current is being drawn when you self test the unit during the first 5 year of operation. There is also a minute current (in the micro amp range) being drained from the battery, in the rest state of beacon. The battery is guaranteed to last 48 hours if activated in an emergency, any time during the 5 year replacement life. When the "replacement due date" is past, the activation period of a beacon will start to decline and cannot be guaranteed any longer

- See more at: http://www.acrartex.com/support/faqs/epirb-faqs/#q-4504

What kind?  We chose a GPS enabled EPIRB. It was slightly more expensive but gives a much faster alert time and better location (non-GPS EPIRBs take up to 5 hours before a position is confirmed and location of +/- 5 km).  If we have to pull the pin one day, I want help as soon as possible.

 We bought a KTI.  Safety Alert SA1G.  Retail is around $290 (the cost to have it shipped to the factory for recoding and then shipped back to us would have added to the cost significantly) but ours was $379 straight from the factory, including shipping, with the factory coding it with a Canadian country code prefix number.  It has a 10 year battery life and 10 year warranty which puts other manufacturers to shame. (I'm looking at you ACR)

Complications of registering your EPIRB:  Our old ACR has a US beacon code so it was registered with the US database which will accept non-US addresses. We couldn't register it with the Canadian registry. As Totem found you can't just register any old beacon.

We had to specifically request that KTI code our beacon with a Canadian prefix. Even then, the Canadian database doesn't have KTI as an listed supplier - so I had to pick a different make and model.  Then it accepted the registration. Whew!