GME EPIRB credited for saving all 64 in schoolship sinking.

7:49 PM Mon 8 Mar 2010 GMT

'Concordia' West Island College Class Afloat

The Associated Press reported from Rio De Janeiro last week the sudden sinking of the 57-meter 3-masted sailing vessel Concordia and the subsequent rescue of 48 students plus 16 professional crew. Her Captain, William Curry, attributed the capsize to a microburst which laid the steel vessel, built in 1992, on her side and caused her to founder in only 15 seconds; the Concordia went from sailing to submerged in 30 minutes, rendering all of her onboard radio communications systems inoperable. But a GME AccuSat MT403FF EPIRB self-released, as designed, automatically activated, and triggered a rescue operation which saved all 64 crew.

The SV Concordia, registered in Barbados, was built as a floating classroom for gap-year and university students to earn high school and university credits while sailing around the world. She had set sail on February 8 from Recife on Brazil's northwest coast, bound for Montevideo in Uruguay, as the next leg on her 5-month semester 'Class Afloat' program. The 188-foot schooner was said 'to meet all of the international requirements for safety.'

While the sinking off the coast of Brazil will be the subject of detailed investigations by both the Barbados government and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, with findings to be submitted to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), everyone from crew to students to rescue forces ashore and afloat credits the GME EPIRB for alerting the world that an emergency was occurring 300 miles offshore from Rio. The 64 crew rode out high winds and heavy seas in liferafts for 30 hours before search aircraft located them and were able to divert two merchant ships, among which the Philippine-flagged Hokuetsu Delight found 44, and a Coast Guard vessel to pluck the sailors from the South Atlantic 10 hours later.

While there remains some uncertainty in the precise cause of the sinking, it is evident that the training and expertise of the crew, coupled with the vessel carrying appropriate emergency rescue equipment, averted what could otherwise have become a major maritime tragedy. In this case, the GME float-free EPIRB performed as designed, was 'seen' by the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite network, and ultimately brought help in time.

The GME AccuSat MT403FF is a Category 1 EPIRB, supplied in a fully enclosed mounting bracket that includes a hydrostatic release. When immersed to a depth of 2-4 meters, this release will, as in the case of the SV Concordia, open the bracket and allow the buoyant EPIRB to float free to the surface. It automatically activates and begins transmitting on 406 MHz, a frequency 'watched for' by a constellation of satellites orbiting the Earth.

Successive overhead passes by one or more of these satellites, using the Doppler Shift in the frequency as they traverse the sky and relaying this information to ground stations, both alerts a worldwide rescue network that an EPIRB beacon has been activated and computes the location where that signal is emanating. That information, in the case of the SV Concordia, was relayed to the Brazilian Coast Guard who immediately notified all ships in the area of the Concordia's plight.

The sinking dramatically emphasized the risk in an emergency situation afloat of normal navigation and communications electronics being 'drowned' before a Mayday call can be made. The rescue of SV Concordia's crew proves the effectiveness of not only the COSPAS-SARSAT system but also of GME's EPIRB.

GME has been designing and manufacturing emergency beacons in Australia for over 30 years. GME products are distributed and supported internationally by a network of specialist dealers and service centers. GME is exclusively represented in North America by Whiffletree Corporation (Box 27, Bridgton, Maine 04009, T: 207 647 3300) and can be contacted on-line at www.gme-usa.com (outside of North America at www.gme.net.au ).

by George Lariviere - GME