21.07.2023
12:00

Uroš did his safety check yesterday, where the race organisers check your boat for all the required safety equipment and systems. Because PURU Transgascogne is a proper offshore race, it requires more serious safety equipment. One of those is EPIRB or emergency position-indicating radio beacon. It is a type of emergency locator beacon for commercial and recreational boats. It is a portable, battery-powered radio transmitter used in emergencies to locate boaters in distress and need immediate rescue.

In an emergency, such as a ship sinking or a medical emergency onboard, the transmitter is activated by water when the beacon is out of the bracket or manually by the ON switch on the EPIRB. It begins transmitting a continuous 406 MHz distress radio signal used by search-and-rescue teams to locate the emergency and render aid quickly. The signal is detected by satellites operated by an international consortium of rescue services, COSPAS-SARSAT, which can detect emergency beacons anywhere on Earth. The satellites calculate the position or utilise the beacon’s GPS coordinates and quickly pass the information to the appropriate local first responder organisation, which performs the search and rescue.

The primary purpose of this system is to help rescuers find survivors within the so-called “golden day” (the first 24 hours following a traumatic event), during which most survivors can usually be saved. The feature distinguishing a modern EPIRB, often called GPIRB, from other emergency beacons is that it contains a GPS receiver and broadcasts its position, usually accurate within 100 m (330 ft), to facilitate location. Previous emergency beacons without a GPS can only be localised to within 2 km (1.2 mi) by the COSPAS satellites and relied heavily upon the 121.5 MHz homing signal to pinpoint the location of the beacon as they arrived on the scene.

An expensive piece of equipment you wish never to use!