On Aug 31, 11:09*am, Tom Francis - SWSports

EPIRB signals initiate an immediate response - I know that for a fact
because I accidentaly set one off when I had my first Contender. The
CG will put out a call on 16 with Lat/Lon and ask any near by boats to
respond if able to do so - at least they do it in LIS and neighboring
waters. *I was pretty freakin' embarrassed about the whole thing.

As it happened to me, they had a Falcon jet at New London, scrambled
that and they found me exactly where the EPIRB said I was - five miles
East of SW Ledge off Block Island.

The problem with air searches where there are no corresponding data
sets to work off of is that you have to cover a lot of terroritory at
low level against differing light conditions and you don't know what
you are looking for. Ever try to spot something from 700 feet, black
against the surface of the water? *It's tough. *It's hard on land. How
the hell do you miss four fire trucks, two ambulances in the middle of
a hay field? *I've seen that happen first hand. I've been on SARs in
the air looking for lost hikers in the open desert and missed the
signals and signs. It sounds easy - it ain't.

These guys took a chance without having proper equipment or signaling
devices that they could get to quickly in case of emergency. It's not
the Coasties fault that these guys were morons.

well said and exactly right. the CG works with a computer assisted
search pattern (CASP) that enables them to maintain pretty tight
control over a search. but the chances of finding an overturned boat
are pretty small on the open ocean. and the boat may have drifted
out of the search area due to wind and current conditions.