The EPIRB is registered to the vessel, the PLB to the person. Good point, forgot to mention that.

I'm sort of the in the same camp as Greg ... why not get a state of the art PLB, we already have one, then there is one for each of us, that we can tuck in the PFD. And who knows how long my 7 year old EPIRB battery will last, so we might have three.

For exactly the reason you mention, I just purchased a SH HX851 Handheld VHF with DSC and GPS.

cheers, John