According to Marine Notice 4 of 2015, the Telkom / DOT agreement to provide distress watch will be implemented by 01 July 2015 therefor the following will apply and I quote by paragraph:
"6. 29 Mhz and 2182khz aural watch-keeping by Telkom will cease with effect 01/07/2015.
7. Due to the ceassation of the SOLAS watch keeping by the South African Coast stations on 29mHz it will no longer be appropriate for small vessels to carry 29hMz radios as safety option in terms of item 18, Annexure 2 of the Merchant Shipping (National Small Vessel Safety) Regulations 2007.
Categories of vessels covered by these regulations shall be equipped with VHF Marine Radios to comply with the safety requirement."
My main concern / question is however, the training and certification is very limited, and there is now, if I read this correct, 4 months left for small vessel owners to comply. So I guess guys in my position that have a valid COF extending past July 2015 will have to comply before they can submit their boats for new COF's.
Also with the lack of urgency from ICASA and training facilities how do they expect such a quick turnaround?
For safety sake I'm all for this but seriously our dysfunctional systems, if this was issued in April I would have laughed.
"6. 29 Mhz and 2182khz aural watch-keeping by Telkom will cease with effect 01/07/2015.
7. Due to the ceassation of the SOLAS watch keeping by the South African Coast stations on 29mHz it will no longer be appropriate for small vessels to carry 29hMz radios as safety option in terms of item 18, Annexure 2 of the Merchant Shipping (National Small Vessel Safety) Regulations 2007.
Categories of vessels covered by these regulations shall be equipped with VHF Marine Radios to comply with the safety requirement."
My main concern / question is however, the training and certification is very limited, and there is now, if I read this correct, 4 months left for small vessel owners to comply. So I guess guys in my position that have a valid COF extending past July 2015 will have to comply before they can submit their boats for new COF's.
Also with the lack of urgency from ICASA and training facilities how do they expect such a quick turnaround?
For safety sake I'm all for this but seriously our dysfunctional systems, if this was issued in April I would have laughed.