Which call?
- Mayday (distress): a vessel or person is in grave and imminent danger and needs immediate assistance. Sinking, fire, a man overboard you can't recover, a serious medical emergency.
- Pan-Pan (urgency): an urgent message about the safety of a vessel or person, with no imminent danger to life. A disabled engine drifting towards a lee shore, an injury that needs advice.
- Sécurité (safety): navigational or weather warnings, such as a large floating hazard. Usually made by the Coastguard.
Sending a Mayday
- DSC distress alert: lift the cover and press the red DISTRESS button for about five seconds. If there's time, select the nature of distress first. If the radio is connected to GPS, your position goes with it.
- Wait about 15 seconds for an acknowledgement, then make the voice call on channel 16, on high power.
MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY
THIS IS yacht SEABIRD, SEABIRD, SEABIRD
call sign [your call sign], MMSI [your MMSI]
MAYDAY, SEABIRD, call sign [your call sign], MMSI [your MMSI]
MY POSITION IS 50 degrees 40 minutes north, 001 degree 15 minutes west
I AM ON FIRE AND SINKING
I REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE
FOUR PERSONS ON BOARD, ABANDONING TO LIFERAFT
OVER
Give your position as latitude and longitude, or as a bearing and distance from a charted landmark. If there's no answer, repeat the call. If you have to abandon ship, leave the radio on and take a handheld VHF and the EPIRB or PLB with you.
Sending a Pan-Pan
A DSC urgency alert may be sent first, then the voice call on channel 16. It follows the same pattern, addressed to all stations.
PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN
ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS
THIS IS yacht SEABIRD, SEABIRD, SEABIRD
call sign [your call sign], MMSI [your MMSI]
MY POSITION IS 2 miles south of Anvil Point
ENGINE FAILURE, DRIFTING TOWARDS THE SHORE
I REQUIRE A TOW
THREE PERSONS ON BOARD
OVER
Mayday relay
A Mayday relay passes on a distress message for a vessel that can't get it through herself. Send one if you hear a Mayday that nobody acknowledges, if the vessel in distress can't make the call (for example, you see her red flares but hear nothing on the radio), or if the Coastguard asks you to. If the Coastguard has already acknowledged the Mayday, don't relay it: keep listening, and stay off the air unless you can help, in which case tell the Coastguard what you can offer.
Call on channel 16, either to all stations or to the Coastguard by name:
MAYDAY RELAY, MAYDAY RELAY, MAYDAY RELAY
ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS
THIS IS yacht SEABIRD, SEABIRD, SEABIRD
call sign [your call sign], MMSI [your MMSI]
RECEIVED MAYDAY FROM yacht KESTREL, call sign [her call sign], MMSI [her MMSI]
HER POSITION IS 3 miles east of Anvil Point
SHE IS TAKING ON WATER AND SINKING
SHE REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE
FIVE PERSONS ON BOARD
OVER
It's the Mayday format with the vessel in distress's details in place of your own: say who you are, then pass on her identity, position, problem, the help she needs and how many people are aboard, as accurately as you received them. If you've seen the distress rather than heard it, say what you saw and give her position as best you can.
Radio silence
- Seelonce Mayday: imposed by the station controlling the distress traffic, usually the Coastguard.
- Seelonce Distress: used by another station near the incident to impose silence.
- Seelonce Feenee: distress traffic is over and normal working can resume.
Cancelling a false alert
Mistakes happen. If you send a DSC distress alert by accident, cancel it on the radio if it allows, then immediately make a voice call on channel 16:
ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS
THIS IS yacht SEABIRD, SEABIRD, SEABIRD
call sign [your call sign], MMSI [your MMSI]
CANCEL MY DISTRESS ALERT OF [date] AT [time] UTC
OVER