Love the story, these RNLI guys.... no sense. Although it reminds me of a story about a fisherman who got curious as to how his EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) worked. A brief explanation on EPIRBS... An EPIRB works by emitting a signal which gets picked up by a satellite which indicates that a vessel is in distress. When an EPIRB is removed from the vessel or tampered with in anyway it begins to emit this signal. This signal gets routed to the nearest Co-ordination Centre to the position for Search and Rescue Action. (very simple explanation) So this fisherman takes his EPIRB off his boat and takes it to the his shed outside his house.... When the Coastguard Helicopter started circling overhead he remembered what the manufacturer told him about the beacon! So he dutifully went outside and apologised to the Winchman, who advised him to wrap his EPIRB in tin foil (one of the tryed and tested methods to stop an EPIRB going off) until he could take it back and replace it. it takes all sorts