Crab says
Does that stop them rigidly applying what the computer says and wasting valuable assets in pointless areas?
I had the pleasure of 'liaising with and advising' our CG brethren on far too many occasions, after computers had replaced that misguided and redundant 'local knowledge' from the sector stations.
One case that stands out above all others in my mind was the occasion a 12ft speedboat ran out of fuel 2 miles off Borth (mid Wales) at last light. Because the numerous search assets (Brawdy 1st standby SK, Nimrod, three Lifeboats and a fast fishing boat failed to find it during the night, by dawn the Nimrod (second or even third sortie) was searching off the Isle of Man - a good 90+ miles away. My crew was called in early to replace our 1st S'by (who'd been tasked with a coastal search from St Davids to Anglesey throughout the hours of darkness) and we found the missing craft within the hour, with its three cold but unharmed teenage occupants (no light, no radio, no flares) in the early dawn, 20 miles or so downwind from where it had launched. I had decided to ignore the ridiculously expanded search area that the computer said we should search and which was passed to us by Milford Haven CG. The response from the three ringer in charge at MHCG when I called in to explain the next day was "but surely, how was it missed, Nimrods can find a needle in a haystack"!
Anyone remember that advert?
