Help us to help you under tow

Around 80 percent of Coastguard’s callouts are to assist boats with mechanical breakdowns, which need towing back to their marina berth or mooring. The remaining 20 percent comprises the more dramatic stuff of medical emergencies, boats on rocks, boat fires and sinkings.

In all of these instances when boaties head out for a day on the water they never dream they will end up being assisted back to shore by Coastguard Hibiscus. For many it is their first experience of receiving help from Coastguard and, although the skipper of the vessel always stays in charge of the boat, here is a quick rundown of things we need help with if we assist you, in order to get your boat and the people on board back to shore safely:

1. Monitor the radio. We designate a VHF channel to communicate on during the tow – usually channel 06 or 08. This channel must be monitored by either the skipper or a crew member so we can communicate with you while underway. Without this we have no way of knowing whether everything is okay on your boat. We may ask to put a member of our crew on your boat, especially if there are language problems or lack of familiarity with the use of marine radios.
2. Keep the steering wheel or tiller centred while the boat is under tow, as otherwise a lot of drag is created in the water behind us, making it difficult for us to tow effectively.
3. Keep intoxicated passengers out of the way of towing operations, away from the sides of the boat and, where possible, seat them below deck for their safety.
4. After dark, appropriate navigation lights must be used, however you will be requested to turn off bright deck lighting and spotlights as these destroy the night vision of the driver and navigator of the rescue vessel, thereby causing safety issues for both boats.
5. Please refrain from using camera flashes – while we appreciate that people are generally happy to see us arrive and they sometimes think it’s a bit of excitement and want to take a picture, a barrage of flashes going off in the faces of our driver and navigator causes major safety problems as their night vision can be destroyed for some time afterwards.