Two Way Communication
For those who attended the recent ORCV/SYC Marine Expo, AMSA’s Lynda Berryman, Advisor Communication Systems, delivered news of some exciting developments around personal safety beacons and the streamlining and acknowledgement of communications.
The development of new Personal Locator Beacons incorporating both satellite and AIS in one beacon along with acknowledgement of receipt of a distress signal is a real boon for offshore sailors, who will be able to reduce the number of devices that have until now been progressively added as yet another item to one’s PFD.
Like all personal beacons, unless you have them on your person when you have an incident, they are of no value in alerting rescue authorities. So it makes sense to put your PFD with your sophisticated distress beacons on before you leave the pen, as you would put on a seat belt before driving in a car.
The technology is rapidly improving, but there are human limitations that interfere with the chain of information that can be life-saving in a situation of distress.
The ORCV has an enviable safety record and is committed to best practices in Safety at Sea. This includes risk management for all races and training programs to share knowledge and experience to reduce risk.
There is also a responsibility for boat owners and crew members to do their own risk assessment for every race and return voyage to ensure the best outcomes.
So on the human scale, “two-way communication” is essential for the ORCV as the organising authority for these races to be equipped with all the information required within the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions from all race participants well prior to the event. The quality of the data provided must also conform to the parameters in the race documents.
In the most recent passage race in Port Phillip, the Winter Series Melbourne to Blairgowrie passage event, 17 crew out of 323 (5.3%), had not correctly completed details for their Emergency Contact (EC) person and/or their Next of Kin (NOK). Your Emergency Contact must be a person with whom the ORCV can contact and explain the gravity of a situation and on confirmation that they have the facts correct they can support the next of kin in receiving the news and dealing with the situation at hand.
So the rules for ensuring we can invoke meaningful two-way communication are -
- Do not nominate yourself as your emergency contact or your next of kin
- Do not nominate someone else in the fleet who is in the race or pursuing other offshore sailing
- Do not nominate someone not living in Australia
- Do not nominate someone who does not have a mobile phone number.
We understand that often the paperwork defaults to the boat owner due to difficulties for crew to get into the TopYacht system. The boat owner has multiple other responsibilities to deal with so why not volunteer to be the Boat Team Manager and undertake the responsibility for ensuring all paperwork for all crew members is up to date and checked before each race. It could be life saving so please help us to help you. The ORCV has a guide to assist you to update and use Topyacht correctly as way to educate crew on using the system correctly.
If you have any queries or feedback, please contact IMT Lead Rosie Colahan at
