River Kent, Sedgewick, Lost Boat?

[Harry]

A member of Kendal MRT witnessed 2 paddlers capsise at Sedgewick at the weekend. One boat was recovered but the other one shot off downstream. The two paddlers got out ok and passed a comment that the boat was not recoverable.

Yesterday a red canoe was washed up near Haversham but it was washed away by the rising tide before it could be recovered..this was reported via the police.

Kendal MRT have been requested to carry out a bank search from Sedgewick to the estuary tomorrow (sunday) looking for possible casualties (we don't know if it was the same boat).

Having spent today on a search on the Lune (Fatality - non canoeist) our volunteer troops are a bit concerned about spending another day looking for another potential fatality, particularly as we suspect there isn't anyone to find.

Whilst we would appreciate any information about this particular incident it is also a friendly reminder/appeal to all paddlers to report lost boats to the police so as to avoid the scenario of a boat being washed up and the police asking the volunteer rescue services to search fruitlessly. We will never turn down a reasonable request to search but our services may be needed elsewhere in a real emergency.

thanks

Harry Ashcroft
Search Manager
Kendal Mountain Rescue Team

[Harry]

Kendal MRT carried out a search of the Kent from Levens to Dallam via Sampool this morning.

15 personnel for 3 hours = 45 man hours expended.

Nothing found.

Harry

[lancs_lad]

I would of added this comment to the article on Rainchasers but it wont let me.

It doesnt always work. In July I reported mine to police and coast guard when I lost it in Backbarrow. It turned up 2 weeks later, but they still launched a full scale search! It even made the paper! So they also need to work on their internal communication.

[Harry]

Fair comment

The difficulty lies in the incident logging system which is not really geared up to tie police 'lost property' reports to coastguard alerts as there is no common database across operational areas.

There is a search management conference for Cumbria police & mountain rescue search managers at Penrith next weekend and I will raise this matter there if I can....I'm not sure if we can get the Coastguard into any loop because they are controlled from Liverpool and this would have to work across both Police county and HMCG (MCA) operational areas.

Normally Mountain Rescue teams will only be involved in searching non tidal sections of rivers and the MCA (Coast Guard) would take responsibility for searches on tidal stretches.

Mountain Rescue teams will search (at the request of the Police) for casualties regardless of their suspected condition provided it is safe to do so. Most MR teams now have qualified swift water technicians and all operational members train in searching safely near water. Unless the casualty is expected to be alive it is unlikely that we would search a river at night.

The MCA (Coast Guard) do not normally search following small boats being washed ashore unless there is a reasonable expectation/suspicion that there may be a live casualty needing help.

There is massive potential for a forum such as this and/or the Rainchasers website to assist the rescue services by having a 'lost' section which could be referred to by search/incident managers. It would be quite straightforward circulate the wesite/forum link. Obviously this wouldn't cover all paddlers but it would be a good stating point in trying to establish if anyone is missing.
It would at least be an easy to use cross service resource rather than trying to set up a complex database within the existing systems.

It might even result in some of you paddlers being reunited with your kit!

Any feedback would be appreciated.

cheers

H

[Swimmer!]

Harry.

Another, UK wide, canoeing web site is www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk which has a lost+found section. (Looks like a lot was lost over the weekend, and your lost boat from the Kent might be there.)

A couple of years ago the issue of lost boats and searches triggered came up and there were various discussions and reminders to let the Police or Coastguard know.

However, one issue was what 'phone no. to use. It was generally regarded that 999 was not appropriate, but each local police station has its own number, and if you weren't local to the area you wouldn't know which was the local station/number anyway.

Would 999 be appropriate to report such, or be regarded as a nono.

Dave.

[Harry]

I'd suggest that 999 is a nono.

Trouble locally in South Lakes is a boat could easily end up in Cumbria or Lancashire regardless of which river it was lost on.

Some simple reporting system could be sorted locally amongst the paddling community so if any of thelocal emergency services gets a shout the database could be searched quickly.

I'll have a look at the site you mentioned.

cheers

H

[Jon]

Hi Harry,

Thanks for letting everyone know about the very valuable work that is done by Kendal MRT. It's unfortunate that you and your team have had to turn out on what seems to have been an easily avoided search.

I've made a few changes to the layout of the forum to raise the profile of our lost section and stressed that reporting the loss of a boat must be done... not only to get it back, but to avoid an emergency response.

The forum can be found here: http://www.deathbeforeportage.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13 (http://www.deathbeforeportage.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13)

There's also an RSS feed here: http://www.deathbeforeportage.co.uk/forum/external.php?f=13

[Harry]

Thanks Jon

Just the job.

We may have some progress on Sunday's search thanks to this forum.

H

[Harry]

We are now 99% certain that we have now traced the owner of the boat thanks to the information/feedback from this forum. Thank you for your help and cooperation.

I'm circulating information about the websites/forums to other Search Managers, the Police & the MCA for future reference.

H

[Chrace]

Not sure how official this page is, but here's a list:

http://website.lineone.net/~familykeens/policeno.htm

Might help.

[Jon]

Had this official advice from Cumbria Police:

The best procedure to adopt for the reporting of lost kayaks in Cumbria is to call the Police on 08453300247 which is the general call centre telephone number. The call will then be forwarded to the appropriate divisional area We do have kayaks being washed up on occasions. One of the reasons recently has been due to a number of kayak thefts. I'm sure that should the loss of a kayak be discovered amongst your forum members it would have probably been reported anyway being responsible enthusiasts.