I am back to studying my Ocean Yachtmaster course today. Its pouring with rain outside and after listening to an incredible rescue story this week, I thought it was timely to do some research on EPIRB’s
For my faithful non-sailing readers (thanks Mum) EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. By the way Mum, you are on my first to call list, so perhaps you had better read on to find out what this means…
Basically, if you are in distress and are hoping to be rescued by someone, be it on land or on the Ocean, then you are going to want one of these devices.
EPIRB’s and PLBs (Personal Locater Beacons) send a radio signal to orbiting satellites, which in turn alerts a worldwide network of rescue centres that there is an emergency.
There are now also Radar SARTs (Search and Rescue Transponders) and AIS SARTs (Automatic Identification System Search and Rescue Transponders) and also Personal AIS Beacons which provide an emergency signal to nearby vessels only.
They are all classed as Marine electronic distress signalling devices.
Basically, the EPIRB and PLB are good for alerting a rescue centre that you are in distress and the SARTs are good for alerting someone in the near vicinity that you are in distress. At the moment you can’t get both in the same unit, but I am sure that technology won’t be far away.
So – how do they work?
EPIRBs and PLBs are very similar. Once activated, they send a 406MHz distress signal to the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system, alerting rescue centres of an emergency. They also give off another lower powered 121.5MHz signal so that rescuers are able to use to hone in on as they approach.
EPIRBS and PLBs must be registered. EPIRBS are registered to a boat and a PLB is registered to an individual person.
PLBs are usually smaller than an EPIRB so they are handy to carry on your body like in your pocket, they are manually activated, may or may not float, they have a smaller battery that will transmit for at least 24 hours.
my PLB is about 10 years old and quite big compared to the more modern ones.
EPIRBs are larger and are affixed and registered to a boat. They can be either automatically or manually activated and have a larger battery so they can transmit for up to 48 hours. They are always activated when submerged in water and they also have a strobe light.
The satellite system uses triangulation to locate a distress beacon to an area of about 3 mile radius. However there are also GPS enabled beacons which means that the beacon itself can calculate its own location and then transmit this data in the distress message. This drastically reduces the accuracy of the location to about 0.1 miles. You can also get EPIRBs that are paired with your onboard GPS, meaning that the EPIRB constantly knows its location, without having to find its location when it is activated.
The device does need to have a clear view of the sky to be of any use, so an EPIRB that sinks with the boat will not work.
The battery life of an EPIRB is about 5 years, although some can last longer, and it usually needs to be sent back to the manufacturer to be replaced. There is a self-test function that you can used to check that the battery is operating.
All EPIRBs and PLBs need to be registered. This is free to do and needs to be done in your country of residence. The registration details include all sorts of extra information about the vessel and your emergency contacts. This also means that the rescue coordination centre can check to make sure that it isn’t an accidental activation.
If you do accidentally set a beacon off, you should contact the nearest rescue centre straight away to let them know.
The beacon will have an identification number on there which you will need when registering it.
You should ensure that the person on the emergency contact details on your registration might be able to provide additional information about your trip, the names of the other crew on board, your origin and destination etc. You can update the information on your registration any time, and it is worth checking it every couple of years to make sure everything is current.
You should also take care when disposing of old EPIRBs. Remove the battery and mark on the outside to show that it has been de-activated. You should update those details with the registration database as well. Here in New Zealand it is recommended that you take old beacons to the police station and they will dispose of them for you for free.
Click here to go to the New Zealand beacon registration website.
You need to purchase the EPIRB for your boat from the country where your boat is flagged. This is because the beacons are coded to countries. If you buy a beacon in a different country you can have it re-coded.
SARTs (Search and Rescue Transponders) are usually carried on a person or in a liferaft. They send signals to either radar or AIS receivers in the area. They can broadcast GPS data, and if they are coded with DSC (Digital Selective Calling) they will send a distress warning sound out over DSC equipped VHF radios.
This technology means that boats in the immediate vicinity are able to see your location on their radar or AIS and is alerted to your distress.
Make sure your EPIRB is securely mounted in an easily accessible spot. It isn’t much good if you get knocked down and the EPIRB ends up flying out the companion way, and it is pretty useless if you can’t reach bit in a fire.
If you do have to set off an EPIRB and you have more than one on board, just set them off one at a time. As the battery life is limited, and it could possibly take more than 24 hours for help to arrive, keep one as a backup.
Don’t expect that rescue is going to be a piece of cake. The rescue itself could be riskier than staying put – see this example.
I am heading up to the NZ Rescue Coordination Centre next month, so I will write up a report from their perspective once I have visited.
Do you have any good EPIRB tips?
Astrolabe Sailing 
excellent stuff!! Thanks, Viki!
Just in case someone being located in Germany reads those lines: Registration is not totally free, a small fee is involved to register it with the official body (Bundesnetzagentur); however, if registered together with the “Ship Station Licence” then everything coming along with it is included (radio, hand-radio, EPIRB, AIS).
Also, if you buy a used boat that has an EPIRB already you might need to have it re-programmed with new information like (new) ship name, owner name…
LikeLike
Thanks Hubert. Good to know!
🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: Visiting The Rescue Coordination Centre | Astrolabe Sailing
Pingback: Abandon Ship! | Astrolabe Sailing
Pingback: Ocean Yachtmaster | Astrolabe Sailing
Pingback: Liferaft | Astrolabe Sailing
Pingback: Crew Wanted/Available Tips | Little Ship Club Canterbury
Pingback: Presidents Report 2017 | Little Ship Club Canterbury
If my boat is registered in a country other than my country of citizenship/residence (a “flag of convenience”), can I register the EPIRB with my home country, or must it be registered in the country of boat registration? What country, then, will be responsible for rescue coordination?
LikeLike
Good question! My understanding is that EPIRBs have what is called a HEX code – so if you buy a beacon in New Zealand, it will have a NZ HEX code and it has to be registered in that country. Presumably as that is the most likely place that it will be activated (if you think about the number of hikers and recreational boaties using them) so in your case, I would get your beacon from your country of citizenship/residence and have it registered there. Then if you activate it they will get notified and so will the country in the area you set it off in. I don’t think the boat registration country needs to come in to it.
LikeLike
As far as responsibility goes – the country in which your EPIRB is registered – i.e. your home country or place of normal residence – they maintain the registration details for all the EPIRBs in that country. So you liaise with them in regards to who your emergency contact details are, boat details and that kind of thing.
When it comes to responsibility of rescue coordination – that will come down to the country responsible for the area of the world where you activate the EPIRB. If you have a look at this post you can see part of the Pacific and all the different countries ‘patches’.
https://astrolabesailing.com/2016/06/26/visiting-the-rescue-coordination-centre/
The country area in which you are located will get notified when the EPIRB goes off in their area of responsibility and then they liaise with the country in which your EPIRB is registered to find out all those registration details – emergency contacts and that kind of thing. I believe they work together sharing information to assist with the rescue – but the country whose patch you are in is the one that will actually (hopefully) come to your rescue.
Hope that helps! (That is my understanding anyway)
LikeLike
Thanks for this, Viki. I had heard a rumor that it might be necessary to register the EPIRB w/ the country of registration of the boat. I’d much rather have the call go to the US for rescue coordination, than an office in, say, Georgetown or Liberia!!! Cheers, Adam (and sorry about the multiple posts…..I kept thinking the message was not getting through)
LikeLike
All good – and yes absolutely agree! Just buy your EPIRB in the USA and register it there and I reckon that’s all good. Hope you never have to set it off! 🙂
LikeLike
If my boat is registered in a country other than my country of citizenship and residence, can I purchase and register the EPIRB in my country of citizenship, or must it be in the country where the boat is registered (commonly known as a “flag of convenience”)? Which country will be responsible for coordinating the rescue should the EPIRB be activated?
LikeLike
As far as responsibility goes – the country in which your EPIRB is registered – i.e. your home country or place of normal residence – they maintain the registration details for all the EPIRBs in that country. So you liaise with them in regards to who your emergency contact details are, boat details and that kind of thing.
When it comes to responsibility of rescue coordination – that will come down to the country responsible for the area of the world where you activate the EPIRB. If you have a look at this post you can see part of the Pacific and all the different countries ‘patches’.
https://astrolabesailing.com/2016/06/26/visiting-the-rescue-coordination-centre/
The country area in which you are located will get notified when the EPIRB goes off in their area of responsibility and then they liaise with the country in which your EPIRB is registered to find out all those registration details – emergency contacts and that kind of thing. I believe they work together sharing information to assist with the rescue – but the country whose patch you are in is the one that will actually (hopefully) come to your rescue.
Hope that helps! (That is my understanding anyway)
LikeLike
This is excellent information. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Enjoy. I hope you find it useful 🙂
LikeLike
Great post as always Viki. Great to see you “on screen” on the chat with Bill on Pixie.
We our course have an EPIRB on Fluenta (two actually) but PLB’s are great additional layers of safety. We had a PLB packed into our liferaft too so that if the EPIRB did not make it into the liferaft with us we still had a beacon. We also kept a second PLB secured under the hard dodger and that one goes on longer dingy trips where we are more exposed (remote uninhabited atolls in the Marshalls and the Aleutians come to mind …) or comes with me when I am on OPB’s (Other People’s Boats – I did a transatlantic on a Oyster when we had F12 winds, damage and injuries etc so even off-watch I kept my own PLB on my person).
Thanks,
Max
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great advice thanks Max! Lovely to see you too on Billy’s talk! My internet connection kept dropping off as I was driving but I watched the recording again the other day. What a fantastic adventure! Say hi to the family from me! Cheers Viki
LikeLike
Pingback: Writing a Sailing Resumé | Astrolabe Sailing
Pingback: RYA Offshore Yachtmaster | Astrolabe Sailing