Last chance to win Musto Ocean Jacket

by Lorraine Hammacott on 1 Aug 2008 If you fancy winning yourself a top of the range Musto ocean jacket, then you’d better complete the boating habits survey being run by Mobilarm before it’s too late! Closing date is midnight Tuesday 5 August 2008, so there’s just a few days left. In return for answering a few multiple choice questions about you and your boat, you get to enter the draw to grab yourself Musto’s coveted HPX jacket, which is worn by the Volvo Ocean Racers, and which would set you back $1500 if you were thinking of buying one.

Mobilarm, the company behind the MOBi-lert Man Overboard Alarm systems, has been running the survey to better understand its customers’ attitude to safety when they’re on the water, and how that is changing, to assist with future developments in marine safety products.

The company has supplied its MOBi-lert range of man overboard alarms for 3 years but has recently introduced a new device, the Mobilarm V100 VPIRB, to improve recovery times by providing in-water tracking of a man overboard as well as an automatic alarm.

The V100 is the first fully automated locating beacon that transmits a ‘mayday- man overboard’ distress message, and GPS coordinates, via VHF channel 16. If you’re wearing a V100 VPIRB and you fall overboard, the device will automatically sense you’re in the water (there is a short time delay however, so you can cancel it in a false alarm) and after 30 seconds or so, grab a GPS fix and send out your distress call in a synthesized voice to the boat you’ve fallen off, and to any other vessels in the area.

The message is clear - stating that there is a man overboard and giving the exact longitude and latitude coordinates of the person in the water. The message is also transmitted on the DSC data channel 70, so your message will reach every vessel in VHF range and you should be picked up in no time.

'The V100 VPIRB technology provides significant advantages over current personal locator beacon products,' said Mobilarm CEO, Mr Lindsay Lyon. 'The probability of survival in a man overboard event is directly related to the length of time the person spends in the water. A conventional personal locator beacon transmits its emergency signal to a land-based location, while the boat you’ve fallen off may be ignorant to the fact that you’re no longer on board. By sending the distress signal straight back to your boat, your chances of survival are greatly improved because the people in the best position to rescue you know there’s an emergency within moments of you going into the water.'

Another tangible benefit to the Mobilarm V100 is that as long as a VHF radio is on board, no other equipment need be installed - the Mobilarm V100 VPIRB only needs existing industry standard VHF marine radio networks in order to be effective.

Clearly, the type of locating beacon you choose depends a lot on your personal circumstances, but the V100 offers a real alternative if you sail offshore with other people on board and priced at just $749 it is a cost-effective and practical life-saving device that any mariner can use.

The entry form link http://www.sail-world.com/sweepstakes_form_Mobilarm.cfm?SSid=28
Or click on the 'Mobilarm win a Musto' image, (top right)