Captain Tred Barta - FISHING: Offshore Safety

[marlinmagic]

commercial Type 1 life jackets. Each has a strobe light attached. These lights are tested frequently and batteries are changed every 12 months.

I also add a cheep plastic whistle tied to each vest.
(light is good light & sound is better especialy in heavy fog)

Raymarine life tag system is a great system that is on my to get list. Each man gets a electronic tag that will set off
a man overboard alarm on all electronics both stations, and mark his posistion when he becomes seperated from the boat.

Since I don't have this system yet. No one stays on deck alone. night or day, take turns sleeping.

I also use the spot locater beacon when I go offshore.

Before each trip I fill out a list of who is aboard and there contact information.
A general float plan with our destination, return time, and vessel info.
Plus two custom messages I set up like.

1) everthing is ok, returning on Time (sat night 8/1).
2) everthing is ok, returning late (sun night 8/2)

I fill out a email address for each crew members famly so that they can track our posistion durring the trip,
and get our messages any time including a disstress calls.
(I have the tracking service for $50 a year, location is updated every 10 min, lat & long is sent to the internet map online.)

This year I Broke all 4 motor mounts and the shaft pushed the starboard diesel foward 3" untill the prop hub was rubbing the strut.
We could hear a metalic squeal and felt a vibration, and shut down the engine promptley. We were 50 nautical miles south of montauk,
returning from the fishtails. returned back to branford,ct on one engine,18hr later.

This could have been a titanic moment if the strut ripped out, or the engine fell into the bilge, or broke the shaft and sent it through the bottom .

Carefully inspect your inboard motor mounts before you go offshore, You can't see the rubber because of the oill shield on the top of the mounts.
I had the rubber fail and metal failer. The 5/8" stud broke on one and the mounting feet on another.
Afterwords I found out volvo penta replaced these mounts with a stronger unit.



sincerly
George Murray

[Captain Tred Barta]

Capt. Tred

I'm semi new to the whole canyon fishing thing up here in hudson ,block and atlantis canyons. The last two trips I made offshore. Second to last we lost our life raft over board. We didnt learn of this till the next morning when we where pulling up 1800 of anchor line. What would you do in this situation?

Why is it that commercial and recreation guys cant get allong? Why I ask. We nearly ran over 300 feet of nylon rope on the last trip. thansk god all that happened was we chopped off a few spreader bars and lures and bent an outrigger. It looked like someone that had no clue what they where doing tied up to it at night and left his rope on the lobster gear. The bag was popped it was a mess. Now there is a lure and hook hanging from it.

Tred do you ever make it make to oaklands fishing now that your out west.

Hey Captain Boonebird,

Well, your first question is, "What would I do if I was in the canyon and lost my liferaft?" I would probably keep on fishing, be really pissed off, try to blame it on someone else (the typist, and stepson, Ian) and at least confirm that my lifesuits were handy.

By the way, let me give you the definition of the word JERK. I once headed to Atlantis Canyon about 132 nautical miles. I was determined to fish a warm-core eddy and not put my lures in until I got there. When I arrived at the cobalt-blue water, I went to the tackle room only to find that I had forgotten my nine rods and reels which were at Altenkirchs Bait and Tackle, Shinnecock, Long Island. That said, at least I didn't lose them like you lost your raft.

Good going 'ol boy.

Till Next Tide,

Captain Tred Barta

[Captain Tred Barta]

I also add a cheep plastic whistle tied to each vest.
(light is good light & sound is better especialy in heavy fog)

Raymarine life tag system is a great system that is on my to get list. Each man gets a electronic tag that will set off
a man overboard alarm on all electronics both stations, and mark his posistion when he becomes seperated from the boat.

Since I don't have this system yet. No one stays on deck alone. night or day, take turns sleeping.

I also use the spot locater beacon when I go offshore.

Before each trip I fill out a list of who is aboard and there contact information.
A general float plan with our destination, return time, and vessel info.
Plus two custom messages I set up like.

1) everthing is ok, returning on Time (sat night 8/1).
2) everthing is ok, returning late (sun night 8/2)

I fill out a email address for each crew members famly so that they can track our posistion durring the trip,
and get our messages any time including a disstress calls.
(I have the tracking service for $50 a year, location is updated every 10 min, lat & long is sent to the internet map online.)

This year I Broke all 4 motor mounts and the shaft pushed the starboard diesel foward 3" untill the prop hub was rubbing the strut.
We could hear a metalic squeal and felt a vibration, and shut down the engine promptley. We were 50 nautical miles south of montauk,
returning from the fishtails. returned back to branford,ct on one engine,18hr later.

This could have been a titanic moment if the strut ripped out, or the engine fell into the bilge, or broke the shaft and sent it through the bottom .

Carefully inspect your inboard motor mounts before you go offshore, You can't see the rubber because of the oill shield on the top of the mounts.
I had the rubber fail and metal failer. The 5/8" stud broke on one and the mounting feet on another.
Afterwords I found out volvo penta replaced these mounts with a stronger unit.



sincerly
George Murray

Dear George,

I can't answer any questions for you, because you're not asking any. But this post, and every other post is very important and I'll tell you why.

As I promised, we're going to take the comments from every post and at the end of this year, create a master list of safety suggestions.

Sounds like you've got your act together. Thanks for your participation.

Till Next Tide,

Captain Tred Barta

[Jagsare1]

Thanks Tred, for your offer of a ACR ditch bag. I really appreciate it.

There are many other things I do in my ditch bag. These are small things that I hope will help one day. I have a "wind up" light that recharges itself so I can never be without some kind of light if in a raft. I keep all my pyrotechnics( handheld flares and 12ga shells for flare gun, etc) clean and dry throughout their life. When they expire, I mark the shells with a black X and put black tape around the handhelds to tell me they are expired but I do not dispose of them. I believe that "burn time" is extremely important when you need it. I do purchase "in date" pyrotechnics to make sure I am legal.

I have a pump up horn so that I can always have sound. I also have mirrors for signaling. Dye for aerial locating and smoke for lingering location help.

All this is in addition to the supplies in my life raft which is kept up to date.

A few years ago, in my area, a boat blew up and 1 person eventually lost their life. There were a few things learned from that incident. One of those is that you can't be over-prepared.

[Ironwoodtuna]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many of you know that I am friends with Tred and have hunted and fished with him since 2000. I often disagree with him and I have had many, many arguments with him, yet I wouldn't trade his friendship for anything! I think he's right on this point and Marlin $$$ Calcuttas are wrong!

Like him or hate him, it is funny to see that only crazy Tred is speaking up about the CALCUTTA $$$ and killing these great fish we all love and how wrong it is to be killing these great fish for money.

I guess that since most bloggers hide behind their call signs and don't use thier real names its not something that will get discussed on here very much.

I would love to here from all the millioniares with their take on this point... as well as the tourneys and their sponsors...but, that probably won't happen..
During the years I fished offshore with Tred we only had a couple of whites come up to the trolled rigs and got spooled by a big Blue. I always wanted to catch my own Blue or White Marlin. I also said that even thaough I would like to go and compete one day to possible win a Marlin tourney, it would have to be a RELEASE TOURNEY.

But, that said, this summer I caught and proudly released both my first Blue Marlin around 400lbs. and my son Cody's first White Marlin around 40lbs. It was great and just reenforced my beleifs that if you can't eat it it should go back to be caught again.

I see this entire Presidential race about people being hypocritical like OBAMA want to take away the American spirit and make everyone equal.

I guess like OBAMA those who want to put on these tourneys also want their big sponsors and their big dollars. Who's got the balls to stand up for what is right rather than being political and going for the $$$. Big money could be had if everyone required the tourneys to be RELEASE and not calcuttas.

I look at it this way I stopped selling my Stripers in 1984 just before the collapse of the biomass. It was the right thing to do, in my eyes, but I was already late in making this decission. Yet in reality, I was a year earlier than congress.

I look to make my money by my business, not by the fish I love to catch with my son. Whenever money is involved in fishing or hunting and your trying to subsidize your cost or income its not good. I am not talking about chartering, so don't go crazy, I am talking about saying "Oh I made $400.00 pinhooking yesterday for XXXfish on my day off". Go fish for the sake of fishing and getting something to eat and having fun with your kids or friends.

With all the video equipment that is available today, why do we need to kill these great warriors of the sea??? This is in a way hypocritical because if you shouldn't need more than your word. But we all know that whenever money is involved there will be cheaters! So that's why we need video cameras to verify that you and your crew followed the guidelines and didn't cheat.

But, it is a small price to pay for not KILLING these great fish!

I don't sell my tuna or my stripers and yes, like you I spend a ton of cash going out to catch them. I would live to make a big payday on a tourney one day, but only if it was a release tourney.

All the eatible fish callcuttas I don't have any problem with as long as there are rules and they make since. Take a kid fishing, release a big fish with your kid, it will feel great and your kids will grow up to love you and what you stand for!



Signing out, Marty L. McMillan, XIAO MU JI

[clt_capt]

A good friend of mine was king fishing with his wife for her first time on their new boat. He bent over the rail to gaff a fish and unfortunately a wave hit just then. Over he went.

While his wife was an experienced boater, she didn't know the new boat. She didn't know how to turn off the auto pilot or where the engine kill switch was.

Luckily this was mid-August in 80 degree water. and she was able to figure it out fairly quickly.

My friend said his heart sank when the boat went out of sight.

Thankfully he was able to get back in the boat with nothing more than wounded pride and a lost fish.

Since that day I have made a point of showing everyone a couple of important things about my boat;
1) Where the Autopilot switch is
2) Where the MOB button is on the GPS
3) How to kill the engines
4) How to switch the VHF to CH 16 and how to use it.

A lot of times, I'll fish with only one other person. On a flybridge boat, it can be tough to see where people are. This year I have installed a MOBilert system - One that I hope I won't have to use...

[WAHOONBOX]

I REALLY DON'T HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK.....BUT I WANTED TO TAKE THE TIME TO SAY.....


"THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES WE ALL FACE....AND THAT IS SAFETY"

I HAVE READ EACH AND EVERY ONE THE THE RESPONS HERE AND IT IS LIKE A WAKE UP CALL.....I THANK THOSE THAT HAVE SHARED THEIR IDEAS AND THOUGHTS...ALONG WITH FIRST HAND SITUATIONS

I HAVE BEEN IN SOME TIGHT SPOTS BEFORE....AND HAVING A PREPARED AND COOL HEADED CREW PREVAILED EVERY TIME

THANKS TRED AND MEMBERS FOR SHARING!

[BTH284]

One thing I do like to do when giving people info about where will be offshore, inshore etc (float plan) is also telling them the hull # of the boat. The reason for that is I have my hull # written (sharpie permanent marker) on the back of every offshore life jacket on my boat as well as a whistle and strobe attached. if we do have an accident and in the worst case someone does not get a jacket on, the jacket will float and will have the boat info on it if found. You just never know what can happen when things go down hill fast.

[gottaflylee]

Capt. Tred,
This is a matter that we all take to lightly and should be addressed more in boating forums as well as just fishing forums. I just did a article on this for SFC and was also picked up with North Carolina Sportsman Mag. here is the link if you or any one else would like to view it... Charter Captains and Safety Talks
I run a 50' Ricky Scarborough as a charter boat and give the same safety speech each and every morning before leaving the dock. I inform then where the First Aid kits are located as well as the fire extinguishers, life vests (how to put them on), bolt cutters and so on. Then its on to "Deck Safety," where they can and can't go on the boat and much more. Last but not least, running a bridge vessel, I can not keep up with the passengers, I have them "buddy" with someone and it there responsibility to keep up with each other, if one needs to take a leak or grab a smoke, then they tell the other and if the other has not seen his buddy in 10 minuets, he or she needs to go and locate the other and report to me if not found.
I like the idea of the light sticks for each passenger and to that I will also add a whistle for added safety.
What we do out there is dangerous, not a game. People need to know that they can get hurt in a split second of excitement and they need to be on their toes all the time on the water.
Thanks for an excellent thread Capt. Tred

[weekender]

I think my reply is more for the open CC style of boats but could be for any boat. Is it "macho" to NOT wear your PFD? I see it all the time in the king tourneys. MOST don't wear them while running. They push the boats to the limit to get to the fishing grounds and to make the weigh in on time. I can see taking them off while slow trolling but I think everyone should wear them while running. I can't remember the last time I saw someone use a kill switch lanyard. It wasn't untill one of our seasoned kingfish tourney anglers turned up missing a couple years ago that I started wearing mine full time while running. The missing man was fishing alone on a 30+'er in FL. and they found his boat engine switches on, motors in gear, boat out of gas, never found him. Then there was another guy, this year near Wilmington, crew of three, no one had their PFD on when the boat turned over in rough seas, 1 dead, 2 survied. I'm sure it happens, but not too often do you hear about a boating fatality where the deceased was wearing his PFD. I wear mine while running, you should too.