Question on my boat fit for sea use. cruiser not NB.

[Alan de Enfield]

 

 

Quite right. and therefore you can have a handheld in your locker, or even on your person and listen to it as long as you have no intention of using it for broadcasting.

 

I am surprised so many of you are unaware of this.

 

And what a good thing that is for safety.

 

I would suggest to you, that in fact, switching on and listening to the radio would be using it.

[rasputin]

 

 

 

I would suggest to you, that in fact, switching on and listening to the radio would using it

 

 

Not according to the legislation, using it would be transmitting.

Edited May 3, 2016 by rasputin

[howardang]

It is quite common for boats to be visited by Offcom/MCA to check that tthe correct licences are carried for any vhf radios on board. Certainly I have seen this happen more than once in Coastal marinas, and with the increased use of VHF on inland waters it may well happen there as well. In the event of a visit I don't think the excuse that the radio is only used for monitoring local traffic transmissions will be sufficient, especially when the owner does not have a VHF operators certicicate. I am sure that it would be no defence to claim that you only receive but would not transmit, unless you needed to!

 

Howard

 

 

[Klanky]

 

Quite right. and therefore you can have a handheld in your locker, or even on your person and listen to it as long as you have no intention of using it for broadcasting.

 

I am surprised so many of you are unaware of this.

 

And what a good thing that is for safety.

 

 

You sir, have no idea what you are talking about and are giving out incorrect information based upon nothing more than your own opinion.

 

I bid you good day and leave you to your grisly end........

[honey ryder]

I had an interesting encounter with a 20' open fishing boat (with a small cuddy over the helm)

The chap had gone out of the river Roach in Essex and taken three women with him (his sister, his niece and his girl friend)

they intended on a nice little afternoon out.

it was quite nice weather for it.

 

He had bought the boat a while before, but not taken it out fully. He'd tested the engine in safe area.

the problems started when they ran aground and were stuck for hours on a mud bank causing them to get free of it as dusk was falling.

they headed back into the river, but the weather had turned quite windy.

in the dark, they went straight past the entrance for their river and continued down the river Crouch until they came across lights and pulled alongside me asking where they were. the women were cold and quite scared.

 

turns out the chap didn't know about tidal effects, how to use his vhf radio or how to use his chart plotter (when I looked, it was showing a base map, which means he hadn't actually loaded any additional charts into it, meaning it was useless). He had no paper charts.

 

it wasn't that he was reckless, simply uninformed. He had gone out there and navigated by eye. That's fine on a lake.

 

The boat was fine and was unchallenged in the conditions. Likewise a 20' Bucaneer as OP intends to use is absolutely fine for fair weather coastal use.

The questions should be, what do I have to do to make ME seaworthy.

 

VHF licence + VHF radio

paper charts, compass and basic day skipper knowledge

a book of tide times and some sort of almanac giving local knowledge of areas you can go and at what time/state of tide.

life jackets for everyone on board.

 

everything else you can learn on the go.

 

happy cruising.