The Boating Forum - Contender distress call in FL

The other thread was getting quite a bit convoluted, soooo.....

As of this evening...
Sector Jax reports receipt of the call for the "Contender" going down.
All comms were lost after initial.
Clearwater launched two choppers and Elizabeth City launched a C-130.
So far, all searches have been negative.

Thanks for the update. Hope everyone turns up safe!

Any new information today regarding this?

Any new information today regarding this?

I asked them today what the outcome was. They said they are hoping someone will recognize the voice and report them missing . This was 4 guys on a RIB in the intercoastal

Official report will come out at about 8:30 this evening.
If I hear of anything before that, I'll post.

So another contender has sunk?

Here is the link to listen to the mayday.

http://www.wftv.com/video/25797946/index.html (http://www.wftv.com/video/25797946/index.html)

So another contender has sunk?

no same post the other one went OT with :sleeping:

No, the same one where the post went far off topic and got a bit mean.

From the sound of the call, I think it maybe a prank. The Captain was speaking much to slow and showed no emotion that usually is associated with such an emergency. Additionally, for 27 miles out in a vessel that would not have a high antenna, it sounded rather clear.

From the sound of the call, I think it maybe a prank. The Captain was speaking much to slow and showed no emotion that usually is associated with such an emergency. Additionally, for 27 miles out in a vessel that would not have a high antenna, it sounded rather clear.


Kinda think the same thing but who knows.

From the sound of the call, I think it maybe a prank. The Captain was speaking much to slow and showed no emotion that usually is associated with such an emergency. Additionally, for 27 miles out in a vessel that would not have a high antenna, it sounded rather clear.

Bullchit. A knowledgeable and competent captain broadcasting a MAYDAY will speak sloooowly so those listening can hear and understand him/her - wouldn't you if you wanted to be sure that those listening could understand what you were saying? ;?

And FY and littletunny's information, the Coast Guards' new Rescue 21 VHF System/Antennas can hear most boats VHF transmissions out as far as 100 miles in some areas, and certainly 27 miles as this vsl reported.

I'm not saying that this Mayday was not a hoax . . . . . . . . . . . . am just trying to clarify what has been posted. ;)

has anybody reported friends or family on a 33 contender missing/ late? i gotta call bull chit n this one

http://dailyme.com/story/2010111500003396/distress-call-mayday-mayday-vessel-down.html

Bullchit. A knowledgeable and competent captain broadcasting a MAYDAY will speak sloooowly so those listening can hear and understand him/her - wouldn't you if you wanted to be sure that those listening could understand what you were saying? ;?

And FY and littletunny's information, the Coast Guards' new Rescue 21 VHF System/Antennas can hear most boats VHF transmissions out as far as 100 miles in some areas, and certainly 27 miles as this vsl reported.

I'm not saying that this Mayday was not a hoax . . . . . . . . . . . . am just trying to clarify what has been posted. ;)


Wouldnt a "competent" captain give at least the vessel's or his name??

Or how bout how many people on board?

sounds fake hopefully it is

Dang, look at the resources they used for this call. I hope nobody is in danger since the mission is aborted. I would not want to be the guy that started this if it is a hoax. A quarter million at least in resources???

http://www.d7publicaffairs.com/go/doc/586/951363/

Still, I can't get a specific scenario out of my mind. Nah, can't be....

Bullchit. A knowledgeable and competent captain broadcasting a MAYDAY will speak sloooowly so those listening can hear and understand him/her - wouldn't you if you wanted to be sure that those listening could understand what you were saying? ;?

And FY and littletunny's information, the Coast Guards' new Rescue 21 VHF System/Antennas can hear most boats VHF transmissions out as far as 100 miles in some areas, and certainly 27 miles as this vsl reported.

I'm not saying that this Mayday was not a hoax . . . . . . . . . . . . am just trying to clarify what has been posted. ;)

A competent captain would also be able to give his position. If I ever have to call mayday, it will go like this: "MAYDAY xx'xx.xxx N xx'xx.xxxW. White Cobia going down. Five people on board. DO YOU COPY?

All S&R ops are suspended.
An investigation will be launched (possibly limited to a review).

This may sound far fetched but, TBS has a 33 Contender and live in the area. Has anyone spoken to them to make sure they are OK? I have had some disagreements with them but this is serious stuff. Did they maybe leave for a several day trip so nobody is expecting them now?

id-10-t (http://www.thehulltruth.com/members/id-10-t.html)

Is TBS OK? Don't you know them?

A competent captain would also be able to give his position. If I ever have to call mayday, it will go like this: "MAYDAY xx'xx.xxx N xx'xx.xxxW. White Cobia going down. Five people on board. DO YOU COPY?

Well he gave his position (26 miles East of Port Canaveral), he (and you if it ever came to it), may not have had a GPS postion to give so a distance and bearing is quite acceptable. His description is a little off though, "33ft white boat" is better than a brand name to a helo pilot but under stress not so unusual. You should learn the international format and use it too, the repetition is there to ideally format the message so if it needs work to decipher it the listeners know what should be where. Your use of the term "going down" is ambiguous (to the listener you could be an aircraft for instance). Assume that each part of the message is all that gets through. So "we have ditched" and "we are sinking" imply two different search targets and each could lead to an id from flightplans or coastguard records and thence onto likely casualty numbers etc etc.

Just for completeness, the distress call is
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday
This is name, name, name

If this is all the got out and the VHF operator started to DF on the first words then the rest of the message lets him get a good DF on the source so if thats it he can send a rescue asset down that bearing and possibly get a cross-bearing from another station, no position needed.

The distress message is then
Mayday
This is name
Position (grid, bearing and distance, locality, near landmark etc)
Nature of distress
Number of souls onboard
Any other info
Over - even if you have to leave the radio....

Post an aide memoir next to the radio maybe...

if in a real hurry I would Mayday 3x and give my position before boat name ;?

Question: do CG not have an auto triangulation system that may indicate the area of the call?

if in a real hurry I would Mayday 3x and give my position before boat name ;?

Question: do CG not have an auto triangulation system that may indicate the area of the call?

Good point, the format probably dates from commercial shipping so the vessels name would say a lot about likely route, crew, passengers etc. My boat name tells you jack about me :)

I think there are auto-DF systems but suspect they may still need a manual trigger else they would triangulate everything heard which may not work???

A guest could have made the call who doesn't know how to read a gps.
I explain things to people, most are not interested in my safety rants and most probably are not even listening.

99% I am sure the owner would be in the bilge trying to find the problem and trying to do something about it. By the time the owner would give up trying to save his boat, the electronics may be winked out. Things can happen fast when things are going wrong.

Lots of people also go out so unprepared in the safety gear department (plbs,epirb/rafts) and going 10/15/20 years without replacing/rebedding thru-hull fittings, probably the most common cause of losing boats.

It is easy to make assumptions not having the picture in front of us.

At this point, with the search called off, I do hope it was a hoax.

If not, surely someone would know the boat went out???

This may sound far fetched but, TBS has a 33 Contender and live in the area. Has anyone spoken to them to make sure they are OK? I have had some disagreements with them but this is serious stuff. Did they maybe leave for a several day trip so nobody is expecting them now?


TBS has a 36 not a 33. The 33 was sold to buy the 36. That call sounds like it was on land or inside a cabin of a boat not a CC . I don't know if contender makes a cudy cabin 33 ;?. You don't hear any wind in the call. the wind was quite fierce around hear sunday.

id-10-t (http://www.thehulltruth.com/members/id-10-t.html)

Is TBS OK? Don't you know them?

I will call them latter but I am sure it was not them. Brian is a very seasoned Capt that would not head out the day after we had 11-16ft waves and expect the forecast of 5ft waves to be right.

I want to answer a few questions some of you have had about about the CG's direction finding capabilities. The Coast Guards VHF towers are all equipped with a direction finding antenna. It takes a stronger signal for the DF to lock onto than it does for the receiver to hear. In other words, the fact that the CG heard the call doesn't mean the signal was strong enough for the DF to lock onto. When the DF does lock on, the margin of error is roughly 4 degrees on either side of that line of bearing. Much of the time the CG does not get DF bearings off of two different towers.

DSC is where it's at with VHF. Get a DSC radio and have it interfaced properly to your GPS. Register for an MMSI and program it into your radio. In an emergency, put on your PFD (you'd be surprised how many people forget this step) get out the voice call with a GPS or detailed geographic position if at all possible, then flip the DSC distress switch if time is of the essence. If you don't feel like you have much time, flip the switch. The beauty of DSC is if it doesn't hit a CG tower, all it has to do is hit another DSC VHF for all the vital information to be collected.

The subject distress call didn't sound like the real deal to me. I am not sure I can completely quantify it, but it sounded like a hoax. There was no background noise at all. I would think most people who own 33 Contenders are fairly serious boaters who would know the value of a GPS position. My computer won't load the audio right now, but IIRC, the caller almost sounded third person..."33 foot Contender going down." His language didn't make him sound attached to the boat or the problem.

It happens, but it is exceedingly rare that a large self bailing CC "goes down fast." They float like corks and self bail fast. I am not familiar with 33 Contender constuction, but even if a seacock in the bilge was completely broken off, that wouldn't cause it to go down fast. The bilge would fill, then the boat would still self bail right? It would surely allow time for a detailed VHF broadcast right? If somehow a wave crashed into the cockpit and compromised the stability, I think the background noise on the call would have given some indication of this.

I feel sure at this point the CG would have had a report of an overdue if a vessel had in fact gone down.

anything new?

Dang, look at the resources they used for this call. I hope nobody is in danger since the mission is aborted. I would not want to be the guy that started this if it is a hoax. A quarter million at least in resources???

http://www.d7publicaffairs.com/go/doc/586/951363/

Still, I can't get a specific scenario out of my mind. Nah, can't be....

As for the resource. They were gonna blow off that resource off somewhere else anyway. Rather that be simulated training or just running round.

The only bad thing about this is (if a hoax) that someone who is in real distress could of used that resource instead.

As for the resource. They were gonna blow off that resource off somewhere else anyway. Rather that be simulated training or just running round.

The only bad thing about this is (if a hoax) that someone who is in real distress could of used that resource instead.

There are a couple of things to consider here. Those search crews...if they were searching for you, would you rather their past experiences involve a 90% false alert rate or a 10% false alert rate? In other words, would you rather have a crew that has been desensitized or one that hasn't?

CG crews have fatigue limits which were very likely reached in this case. That compromises response posture and condition for real SAR.

eddy they are good just talked to them

Slightly off topic, but when guests come on board, they should be instructed how to initiate the DSC, if nothing else.

As posted last night, the CG suspended all S&R ops related to this incident.
In due time, it will be investigated, reviewed, and evaluated, as they do with all calls.
Any further speculation will be from the media.
If anything else unclassified pops up from an official source, I'll post it.

sounds fake hopefully it is

I agree. :thumbsup: What a waste of USCG time if it was. If not, prayers to the families.

Nothing in the reports about it today.
Only thing mentioned today is a rescue last night near Middle Brewster Island, Boston.
CG found both.
Second was a 57' taking on water at Sand Shoal Inlet, VA. CG assisted with pumps and escorted to port.
Just another day for the CG.

TBS has a 36 not a 33. The 33 was sold to buy the 36. That call sounds like it was on land or inside a cabin of a boat not a CC . I don't know if contender makes a cudy cabin 33 ;?. You don't hear any wind in the call. the wind was quite fierce around hear sunday.

They sold the flexi-flyer?