Personal Overboard Kit

[Bulawayo]

With four children on board as well as myself and my wife we each always wear a harness at night, as well when there is bad weather. We have several Icom floating hand held VHF's aboard and the duty watch each attach one of these to their harness just in case of the worst happening. Recent checks also shows that their jacket strobe lights are not reliable. We are now looking for a small waterproof LED torch to also attach to each harness / life jacket. Can anyone suggest something that is reliable whilst being robust and easy to operate? We have been looking at dive torches but these can be very expensive. We did use to attach a pack of handheld pencil flares but again found these to be unreliable when we tested them at the end of their shelf life and found most of them dud. These are also not easy to replace in some countries. We feel a good torch could make a difference, especially if it has a strobe function.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

New handheld VHF radio out that is DSC and a strobe, maybe even automatic activation in water?
I'll wait a little myslef, but I will have one for whoever is on deck, maybe it's a Standard Horizon?

On edit, this one http://www.standardhorizon.com/index...85&ProdID=1791



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[Bulawayo]

Hi and thanks for the response. No, we have Icom M23 waterproof / floating VHF's. These are attached by a tether to the users lifejacket with integral harness. There is also an upgraded whistle as the standard ones were rather pathetic. The VHF requires the wearer to be able to use the radio but does enable the person in the water to call to the mother ship and wake the off watch crew. We always turn the volume up loud at night when off shore and there is no other radio traffic. Being honest, it is rare that only one person is on watch as with six of us it is not difficult to have overlapping watches. However, with our eldest twins shortly going off to University we are aware of the need to look over all our routines. Hence the wish to identify a decent waterproof small torch.

[Roy M]

These may be the best solution, so far:
AIS MOB Devices
Man Overboard - Are AIS SARTS the Best MOB Devices? - gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News
SafeLink R10
Alltek Marine ? the AIS Specialists - Products - AIS MOB Beacon

These AIS units will guide, not only you, but anyone in the vicinity, to a lost crewmember, using onboard electronics and chartplotters, which can utilize the autopilot to go directly to the overboard victim, rather than to the spot where they went missing.

[Suijin]

Regarding flashlights, I've become a real fan of these for general duty waterproof flashlights:

Princeton Attitude LED flashlight



Compact, durable, miserly on batteries, and waterproof, and with a belt clip and hole for lanyard. Only downside is that there is no one handed switch, but I have a few other flashlights for that. They would be a good choice for tucking into your inflatable PFD given their profile, lightness, and waterproofiness.

I agree that most of the PFD strobes, at least the ones I've tried, are sketchy. Rather alarming given their relative cost.

[MarkJ]

The wearable AIS beacons are the go.
I would get you and your wife one each, and any of the kids that do the washing up, don't argue back, and you think will visit you in your dotage....

[a64pilot]

Why would the beacon be better than the radio with DSC, a strobe and a way to talk to the mother ship?


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[Roy M]

DSC is great, but not as great as an AIS showing a dynamic position, not only to the mothership, but to any vessel in the neighborhood. And trying to hold a VHF high enough for a clear signal, but close enough to your mouth to communicate, might be a real yoga position for someone trying to keep their heads above splashing waves, in the dark, and afraid. But, perhaps, one day we will have a single object with a strobe, a flashlight, a VHF radio (maybe with two channels, one for aircraft emergency bands), an AIS, and a fuzzy teddy bear to comfort us while we tread water.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Why would the beacon be better than the radio with DSC, a strobe and a way to talk to the mother ship?


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Take that as well..... as well and a small inflatable boat that blows up verrrrry big.


PP do I really need to know how you send you post? there is an option to turn that drivel,off

[FamilyVan]

Not a flashlight, but we use "ACR Electronics Life Jacket Auto Hemilight 2".
Water activated strobe, they're about $17 Canadian, 5 year service life.

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[Goosebumps]

I actually use the waterproof petzle headlight which has white and red strobe as well as power saving, Inuse it in all weather for 4 years now, hasnt led me down, very low on power use, very usefull to work handsfree around deck. co ws in waterproof box as well easy to pack away.

[hoppy]

The Standard Horizon HX870 looks interesting. It seems logical that the next generation should include a MOB AIS function.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Why would the beacon be better than the radio with DSC, a strobe and a way to talk to the mother ship?


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Two reasons: (1) the radio with DSC will only work if you operate it, so won't help you if you have been knocked on the head; and (2) DSC sends out a single position report per operation, whereas AIS gives continuous position which is shown on your plotter.

I have wanted a DSC handheld for this, but they are all too bulky. Besides that, you have always be sure they are charged up. The problem with that is that we may spend thousands of nights on watch, but only be MOB once. So anything which is awkward to carry will eventually just not be carried. Your MOB kit needs to be something you don't mind having with you night after night after night without any obvious high risk of going overboard.


My MOB kit is the following:

1. ACR strobe to backup the built-in lifejacket light
2. Emergency knife.
3. Very small PLB (ACR ResQLink) lanyarded into my lifejacket
4. Recently acquired AIS beacon, lanyarded inside the lifejacket.
5. Dive torch.


In my opinion, the AIS beacon is the killer app for this. The latest ones also send out a DSC when they are first activated. This will set off an alert in the mother ship (from the DSC call) plus guide in your rescuers right to your position.


I would like to add to that a tiny DSC handheld VHF, small enough to go into the other lifejacket pocket, with single-use lithium batteries (so you don't have to charge it every time), but such a thing does not exist.

[SVNeko]

neither of those vhf's has the battery life to really work as described. Personal SART is the way to go.

[msponer]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

My MOB kit is the following:

1. ACR strobe to backup the built-in lifejacket light
2. Emergency knife.
3. Very small PLB (ACR ResQLink) lanyarded into my lifejacket
4. Recently acquired AIS beacon, lanyarded inside the lifejacket.
5. Dive torch.

I'm curious -- why the knife?

Are you able to fit all of that into your inflatable harnesses, or is this in a waist pack or etc? Our inflatable harnesses don't have much room.

1. AIS Beacon
2. Strobe
3. Laser flare

Long ago we only had a signal mirror and super loud whistle tucked inside our inflatable harnesses. A little dubious, but fun to play with.