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Float plans

What to do if a boat is overdue

If you are holding a float plan and someone has not come back, start here. The steps are in the order the Coast Guard uses, and the first two are the ones most likely to end the worry without a search.

  1. Step 1

    Decide whether you are actually worried

    Not every late boat is an emergency. Wind, a slow lunch, a change of plan and a dead phone all look identical from ashore. The question is whether you have a real concern for the people aboard, given how late they are and what you know about them. If you do, keep going. There is no minimum wait, and nobody will mind you asking early.

  2. Step 2

    Try the boat directly

    Cell phone and text first. If the plan lists a VHF radio, someone with a radio nearby can hail her, and if it lists an MMSI number, that is her radio’s unique ID and the Coast Guard can use it. A boat out of cell range is common and is not, by itself, a reason to panic.

  3. Step 3

    Call whoever might have seen her

    This is the step people skip, and it is the one that most often ends the whole thing. Call the marina she left from and wherever she was going. Ask whether anyone has seen the boat, and when. A dock hand who watched her tie up an hour ago is a faster answer than any search.

  4. Step 4

    Call for help

    If you are still worried, call your local authority that answers marine emergencies: harbor police, the sheriff’s marine unit, or whoever the float plan names. If you do not have a number, call 911 and say you are reporting an overdue boat. The dispatcher connects you to the agency that runs the search, which is faster than working your way there yourself.

  5. Step 5

    Say only what you know

    You will be asked how long she is overdue, what the boat looks like, who is aboard, where she was going, and what she carries. If you are holding a float plan, the answers are on it. Do not guess at the ones that are not.A wrong detail sends searchers to the wrong water and costs the time it takes to find out. “I do not know” is a useful answer.

  6. Step 6

    Keep your phone free, and call back if she turns up

    Once a search is underway the people running it need to reach you. And if the boat comes home, or calls, ring them back immediately and tell them. A search nobody stands down keeps aircraft and crews out looking for someone who is sitting at a dock.

What a float plan is

A float plan is a piece of paper, or an email, left with somebody who is not going boating. It says where the boat is going, when she is expected, what she looks like, who is aboard, and when to start worrying. That is all it is, and it works because the single hardest part of a marine search is knowing where to begin.

You do not file it with the Coast Guard. You leave it with a person: a partner, a neighbor, a friend who will notice. A float plan nobody is holding is a document, not a safety measure.

What belongs in one

The fields on the official form are the fields because each one has changed the outcome of a search at some point. The ones people leave off and later wish they had not:

  • Hull color, and anything that stands out. Somebody scanning miles of water is looking for a color and a shape, not a name. Two white center consoles are the same boat from a helicopter; the blue canvas on one of them is not.
  • Who to call before calling for help. The marina, the destination. Written down in advance, because nobody looks up a phone number well when they are frightened.
  • An EPIRB or PLB registration number, if the boat carries a beacon. It is what turns a distress signal into a name, a boat and a phone call in minutes rather than hours.
  • How many life jackets are aboard, not merely whether there are any. The count tells a searcher how many people could be in the water and how many might be floating.
  • The car and where it is parked, for a boat that gets towed to a ramp. A vehicle still sitting in the lot is checkable by anyone who can drive there, before a single search asset moves.
  • Fuel aboard. A boat cannot be further away than her fuel allows, and that is one of the things that draws the box a search runs inside.
  • A photograph. Worth more than every text field on this list, and almost everyone already has one.

When to say a boat is overdue

Pick an hour before you leave, and write it on the plan. “Call if you have not heard from me by seven” is a decision made calmly, in advance, by the person who knows the trip. “Give it a while longer” is a decision made at night by somebody who does not want to overreact, and it is how hours get lost.

An hour on a clock also beats a rule of thumb. Asking a worried person to add three hours to an arrival time they half remember is asking them to do arithmetic at exactly the wrong moment.

Closing the plan

When the boat is back, tell the person holding the plan. It takes one message and it is the whole other half of the system. If they had already reported the boat overdue, they need to call those people back so the search is stood down.

The official form

The U.S. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary publish a float plan form, along with a step-by-step guide for the person holding it. It is free, it is thorough, and it is the authority behind everything on this page.

Float Plan Central has the form and the guide. Print it, fill it in once, and keep it with the boat.

GoNoGo WX writes the float plan for you from the trip you are already planning, with the check-in times worked out from the route rather than guessed. See how it works.