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No Lock Boxes

(39 posts) (18 voices)

Started 11 months ago by Chief
Latest reply from Chief

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BustedRudder
Member

I have been a good consumer. Two spots and a PLB. Leather Lungs is correct, my silver SPOT is now my primary, orange the backup. They will not use a SPOT under recall.

Collectively WaterTribe has single handedly rescued the marine electronics industry. I had to buy a new PFD so I can sport all these doodads on my person.

As Jolly Roger points out SPOT is a M-F operation. If my primary SPOT craps out before CP1in the EC I will not be sitting there until Monday morning waiting for a clerk to take my support call to substitute. I will be somewhere shy of CP2 when my secondary comes on. Does this disqualify me?

This is the worst case scenario for SPOT failure in terms of potential impact to a participant. I read the rules and warnings just now and this is not specified. I have understood (from skippers briefings I assume) that if you arrive at a CP with an inop SPOT you cannot procede. That was prior to the PLB requirement.

Macatawa shared this post http://watertribe.org/forums/topic/spot-emergency-response#post-5348 which shows just how useless a SPOT may be in a disaster.

I don't know what the point of a SPOT is anymore except for the amusement of spectators. If CP logbooks are outlawed then we are TOTALLY dependent on crap technology to participate. Do we really need to have 2 full SPOT subscriptions?

I would like a chief ruling on this.

BR

Posted 11 months ago #
DaveOnCudjoe
Member

The Chief comes across as overly rigid but I have found that when the chips are down he is willing to make adjustments as needed. You won't see me sitting around a check point due to failed electronics. I carry no redundant electronics because I rely on none of them, I do carry back up charts and 2 compasses. Dave

Posted 11 months ago #
Chief
Coastal Vagabond

OK, lots of comments.

We will still have volunteer CP Captains at most checkpoints. Anyone who wants to perform a ritual checkin is welcome to do so.

Every boat is required to have a working SPOT at the start. It is strongly suggested that the SPOT be encased in a waterproof box or bag along with a small packet of dessicant. This is because SPOTs are known to not be as waterproof as they claim. I don't like it, but that's the way it is.

If your SPOT fails we will have some loaners available. If no loaners are available, you may be allowed to continue as long as you verify and consult with the CP Captain and/or the Race Manager. If you are at a location that does not have a CP Captain or Race Manager, you should call your shore contact and they can report the situation. Do this ASAP and keep going. We can handle broken SPOTs this way because of the required PLB which is your real safety device.

The OK message is used to mark all of your major course changes, camping/anchor spots and CP arrivals including the finish line. I have found this method to work rather well and it was used for the EC2012 and UF2012. If your SPOT is broken, checkin with the CP Captain or by phone as best you can. More details will be given at the Captains meeting.

Note that we will be opening up the SPOT practice session on August 1. You will have plenty of time to get things figured out. Until then just define a shared page and use your SPOT for your training paddles.

DO NOT get stressed out over this. After playing with your SPOT for practice paddles you won't have any trouble during the challenge. Anything that might come up during the challenge is part of the challenge and you will deal with it just fine.

Posted 11 months ago #
CleanSlate
Member

I've used my silver spot II (which is outside the problematic ESN range) on at least 15 different occasions and it has always worked fine. I do use it in a waterproof bag while kayaking. My son has used it while backpacking lashed without a waterproof bag on his backpack a few times. My opinion of it is fairly high right now.

It seems to me that the only real solution to swap out a spot unit after hours is to have watertribe have some spares already activated and ready to go and available at the checkpoints. That way Spot customer support wouldn't need to be contacted and people can continue in the race if they are at a checkpoint after hours with a failed spot. If such a plan were implemented, that would mean that participation fees may need to increase to cover the extra subscription cost... But it would be distributed among all the participants (like insurance). It is something to think about. Its all a question of statistics in predicting the number of vessels that may arrive at checkpoints outside of normal Spot business hours with a dead Spot. 1? 2? 3?

Of course the best solution would be for Spot to improve their website so swapping out a Spot could be self-service.

[Posted before reading chief's message...]

Posted 11 months ago #
ZeroTheHero
Member

My spot is working fine, silver or not. Waterproof bag with sneaker stuff in it too. Chief, I guess you are right, it is one less thing to remember but since I already committed the boxes to memory....... Whatever, I am a big boy. Now I have to go throught the read me stuff again but we have to get our spot info to you somehow so that you have it, correct? I'll review that a little later

Posted 11 months ago #
ridged8
Member

Required or not, this is my 1st experience with a SPOT, and I think they are a POS, as mine has already died before I even make it to the starting line. On the phone ASAP on Mon. morn you betcha...

Posted 11 months ago #
ridged8
Member

In the interest of full disclosure, I will say SPOT's customer service have been superior. Very cordial and aplogetic on the ph, and received a new unit today. I give them an A+ so far...

Posted 11 months ago #
LeatherLungs
Member

My unprotected SPOT2 held up fine last March, even though it was soaking in salt water for 7 days, 11 hours, 30 mins during EC2012.

However, I went to use it last week and it was dead. New batteries, WD-40, etc. did not help.

I called SPOT customer service last Monday. I wanted to know if I could send my bad unit in for billable repair even though it was out of warranty. First person I spoke to sounded like a 12 year old little girl. She gave me ridiculous advice and when I asked for her supervisor I was told they were at lunch.

I called back about 15 minutes later and got a very professional woman who not only asked questions first, but honored my warranty even though my unit is 2 months out. So I put the silver model in service as my front-line unit and received a brand new unit in the mail yesterday, which I will make my back-up. I just have to send back the bad unit.

It was touch-and-go for a minute, but I ended up a happy cutomer.

I used it during a 2 hour NCC training row this morning with a re-usable dessicant pack in a zip-lock bag; it worked fine. If I would've done that last March, I might still be using my 14 month old unit.

LL

Posted 11 months ago #
Chief
Coastal Vagabond

There has been a lot of activity in this thread and much of it deals with SPOT problems resulting in failure. Prior to adding the PLB for every participant a SPOT failure could result in a DQ because you would be missing a required safety device. But now the SPOT is required for tracking and the PLB is our required safety device. If your SPOT fails you will be allowed to continue.

But if the SPOT OK message is used for the CP checkin, how will you check in if the SPOT isn't working? Most of the time we will still have a WaterTribe volunteer working the CPs. The CP Captain will do your checkin. If no CP Captain is available, you should call your shore contact who can report your checkin. There really is only one special requirement if you cannot use your SPOT OK message at a CP. That is you must stay at the CP until you successfully report to someone as described above.

With proper care and feeding of your SPOT, the vast majority of you will not have any problems. The OK message system worked very well during the EC2012 event and I expect it will do well for the NCC2012 too.

Posted 11 months ago #

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