I wear a neoprene skull cap under my helmet if I'm planning to get wet and the water (or air) is at all "cold" - that seems to work for me but earplugs presumably offer better protection. Outside of playing in surf (which is great, but only a small part of sea kayaking) and practicing rescues, I thi...

Before too long you are going to want a drysuit, dry trousers, dry cag, shorty cag, touring cag and neoprene shorts plus various options to wear under these. Difficult to say what the "best" order to acquire these is as it really depends on what sort of paddling you plan to do and your personal pref...

Curious about the idea of a non-tidal sea leader award though (particularly the advanced version!). Presumably for the Med?

I was told by a current assessor that it's normally obvious within a few minutes whether someone will pass or not. In theory, one advantage of doing it over two days is that if you mess something up on the first day you may get the opportunity to redeem yourself on the second day - although I think ...

If it lives up to the hype, might even be able to make an emergency hull repair at sea. It's available on Amazon (and probably other places) if anyone wants to give it a go. It seems to only go up to 48mm wide though which is a bit narrow for a hull repair. Something like Denso Tape will work at se...

What you need in the way of repair kit rather depends on where you are doing and what you are doing. Someone leading a remote expedition would need something more comprehensive than some doing a day trip with friends where landing is fairly easy. I'm assuming that since you are asking you are more i...

A good review of different flares including laser and LED from PBO here- https://www.pbo.co.uk/gear/led-laser-flares-tested-36341 Thanks - that's quite interesting. It would be good to see a daytime comparison as well. I'll probably get an LED flare but the laser ones seem like a waste of time. I s...

You might want to have a read of https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=132948 (and possibly other threads). I think there is fairly general agreement that with a PLB parachute flares are no longer necessary. Opinions are a bit more mixed on handheld flares - I think having a ...

Don't they have a 3 year warranty? Have you tried getting SH to fix it?

In addition to the above, take a VHF and listen on Channel 12. You might want to consider phoning Southampton VTS before you set off.

It's a COVID-19 thing: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maritime-safety-information-leaflet presumably to keep FM and LW in sync so they don't need a second announcer. I guess the assumption is that vessels operating outside of VHF reception will be able to get the coastguard MF broadcasts...

They're a company limited by guarantee so ultimately controlled by the membership, although the changes a few years ago reduced the amount of control members actually have. Even though BC itself doesn't make a profit there does seem to be an incentive for the executive management to make the BC "big...

I'm aware there have been successful prosecutions under the merchant shipping regulations but these all seem to involve parachute flares fired from (or near) a vessel, so that's not really the same. I'll admit I'm not an expert on the explosives act and associated regulations but they seem to be gen...

You do of course know that would be illegal. I am aware that is a commonly held belief, but I have never seen a credible explanation of which law it would be breaking, and I am not aware of anyone having been prosecuted. To be clear, we are talking about letting off handheld flares in a private pla...

I know people in MRTs that have spent nights searching hillsides on account of out of date flares being let off in back gardens. Obviously anyone thinking of doing this needs to use some common sense but I really fail to see how a handheld flare let off in a typical back garden is going to result i...

I think there's a big difference between parachute and handheld flares here. I won't be buying any more parachute flares but I think handheld flares still have a place - they seem to be a lot safer then parachute flares. I think it's fine to just let handheld flares off in your back garden to dispos...

Just to add to this very interesting discussion, we all seem to agree that carrying and using a VHF in a sea kayak is an important safety consideration. Every sea kayaker I know carries one but very few have the SRC, so here's a question - If I turn up for my Sea Kayak Leaders assessment without a ...

As others have mentioned the SRC (or equivalent) is a legal requirement for non emergency transmissions although it's highly unlikely you'd ever get pulled up for not having one. That said I found the course useful, mainly because you get a chance to play around with some test radios. The certificat...

Thanks - seem to be more questions than answers...

Northern Blue wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:37 am

What's the source for this?

I'd be interested to know how much difference it makes to handheld range in practice - I'm suspecting the difference might not be massive. I think a PLB would be my first choice for raising the alarm in an emergency (and the cost of this isn't far off a PLB) but this could be useful in a range of sc...

DSC uses MMSIs "T" number callsigns are a pre-DSC thing.

If the weather is good enough for the circumnavigation it should be fine for the crossing too. Keyhaven has the shortest crossing, avoids the major shipping lanes further east and has a few places you could leave a car. There are a few places you can wild camp but they can be well spread out - start...

As others have said the range is likely to be the issue here but I have seen a few handheld VHFs stop (effectively) transmitting whilst still receiving so it would be a good idea to check it when you do get the chance.

If they're handheld (rather than parachute) flares I would be inclined to set them off in the garden (wearing gloves / safety glasses, not near the sea and with a bucket on hand to put them in if they don't go off). It's possibly illegal anyway but I think with handheld ones you are unlikely to caus...

Re the repair kit, the expectation at 3* is that you are a competent member of a led group so you wouldn't be expected to cope with major boat repairs for example, and in any case it's unlikely you'd fail because something is missing from your repair kit. I would think about what you would need to c...

One issue that did come to mind, if you start the tracker with alert and you lose your phone, or your phone dies, or you unexpectedly have no signal at your destination, you are not going to be able to end your plan, or alert your emergency contact, who after being automatically texted that you're ...

I've got a 3 piece Romany which I think uses the same clip system as the Rockpool boats. Once the boat is assembled it's as solid as a one piece boat - the only disadvantages are it's a bit heavier and a bit more expensive. I do worry a bit about the strain on the bulkheads when transporting it whol...

I would certainly advocate carrying some handheld / orange smoke flares in addition to vhf + plb as they are good for indicating your location to people actually looking for you - and if there are other people around will be useful for raising the alarm as well. I also carry a couple of parachute fl...

I'm only familiar with sea assessments but guess the principle is the same. I would do the assessment with someone I've at least met before if possible (but would avoid doing it with someone I knew well), my thinking being: a) It reduces the stress considerably b) There are a handful of providers I ...