Question 1

A PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) stored in a plastic container in the wheelhouse satisfies the carriage requirement for a commercial fishing vessel under 15m, as long as it's registered.

Accepted Answer

False False on two counts in the real incident: the PLB was both unregistered and stored in the wheelhouse rather than worn. For a single-handed vessel, a PLB inaccessible after a sudden capsize or a man-overboard event is not meaningfully different from having no PLB at all — it needs to be registered with the MCA Beacon Registry and worn on the body.

Question 2

You need to send a distress alert because the vessel is taking on water faster than the pumps can cope. Which message format and channel/priority is correct?

Accepted Answer

A "Mayday" distress call on Channel 16 / DSC distress alert, giving position, nature of distress and assistance required Grave and imminent danger requiring immediate assistance (e.g. uncontrolled flooding) requires a Mayday distress call / DSC distress alert — Pan-Pan is for urgency without immediate danger to life, and Securité is for navigational safety information.

Question 3

True or False: An EPIRB should be registered with the relevant national authority, and the registration details kept up to date so that a false alarm can be quickly resolved or a real activation correctly attributed.

Accepted Answer

True True. EPIRB registration links the unique beacon ID to vessel and contact details, allowing SAR authorities to quickly verify activations (genuine or false) and contact the vessel/owner — unregistered or out-of-date beacons slow down the SAR response and waste resources.