friend of mine is the cox of the barra lifeboat, had this conversation with him last year.
his take on it, and the CG ops he's talked to about it is, that they are not really concerned about wether someone has done the course and is licenced to operate a radio or not. They would much rather every boat had a radio fitted.
That attitude might be a bit different if you lived/operated out of the solent and that bit of the south coast, thousands more boats down there and some are complete tools
The coastguard had to put a request out on Jonathon Ross's radio show a month or 2 back. One bright spark had keyed his mike on 16 and left it open next to his radio so his mate in a nearby boat could listen to wossy. And its not the first time that has happened down there
Thing is, it turns out the culprit actually turned out to be a licenced radio op as well. Clearly there's no accounting for the nobhead factor in these matters
reporting to the CG on your way out/in?? Don't think many folks do it in these parts. If you were passage making I'd recommend it, simple CG call - 'routine traffic, vessel name, location, destination, course and ETA'
then a 'routine traffic, arriving at destination, and a thank you when you get there'
we liased with em every 2 hours on the trip from inverness to the tyne, if we forgot to call it in bang on 2 hours, they'd give us a shout. Quick exchange of position, bearing & speed' then thats that for 2 hours. Its no bother to them at all, and they are very helpful and friendly