A Not-too-expensive radar detector for solo sailor....

[Seajet]

This will be my first season with AIS - albeit web based, for use / experiment on the trip I am hoping to do, Chichester to Falmouth with stops there and back, it's too long since I sailed there.

I am aware of the delay on MarineTraffic.com and think it will still be useful, we'll see as I say it's a bit of an experiment prior to getting full onboard AIS; I've taken this boat across the Channel 24 times without Decca let alone GPS, she now has 2 X GPS inc a plotter, and radar, so I don't think I or the boat will suddenly explode if AIS or for that matter any other system dies off, even if I do decide to cross the Channel.

 

[JumbleDuck]

This will be my first season with AIS - albeit web based, for use / experiment on the trip I am hoping to do, Chichester to Falmouth with stops there and back, it's too long since I sailed there.

I generally run the MarineTraffic app on my phone every time I take the ferry across to Bute, where my boat lives. It's very good for identifying other ships on the Clyde, and although there is some lag, it's fairly low. The two Rothesay ferries pass off Toward, and the app normally shows it happening 30s or less after it has happened in real life.

I don't think it would be a reliable way of dodging things, but I think it would be a pretty good way of knowing that there were things around worth dodging.

 

[Seajet]

Combined with radar, I'd be happy with that as an experiment for this season.

 

[stuartsailor]

AIS vs RADAR : AIS is awesome, but only if the other boats are using it. Fishing vessels often leave it off or in recieve only mode. Marine Traffic only broad casts signals from boats that are picked up by shore stations or linked up via satellite. So many small vessels away from a harbor will drop off. Marine Traffic is primarily a commercial shipping logistics tool.
Radar reflects off objects. Echomax makes transponders that enhance your return, but I don't know If they alert you. SeaWatch makes a detector. No experience with it.

 

[footsoldier]

You are responding to a thread that has been dead for 11 years

 

[Dellquay13]

You are responding to a thread that has been dead for 11 years

And technology even on modest coastal or day boats has come on leaps and bounds, never mind boats of solo sailors who undertake extended passages

 

[Dellquay13]

Maybe a few ships off the Humber might need to check their radar a bit more often though

 

[OCuea]

You are responding to a thread that has been dead for 11 years

This reopening of threads had me really confused for a while , I was just about to post a reply and then saw the date.

 

[OCuea]

I have a CARD - collision avoidance radar detector. Took it off boat when sold it. Great little toy. I drove to a busy seaway to test it. It alerted me to GREAT BIG speed detector cameras !!!! LEDS blinked in front then at side as I passed and then behind once I had passed - I wonder if it works on mobile handheld speed cameras? I won’t be testing that out - not allowed I am sure - but like an American Cannon Ball Run car race device. So it did work with those types of radar - didn’t see any nearby shipping so can’t tell about that. Of course AIS and active radar ‘thingies’ - don’t know right name are more modern.

 

[Rappey]

A friend has a "sea me" . He was crossing biscay and got hailed by a large French trawler telling him he should not be trawling in the vicinity. He replied telling them he is a 36ft sailing boat but thet did not believe him and diverted to intercept him. On arrival they were shocked as his boat looked like a very large ship on radar.
Its a shame sea me is no longer available as it is a simple yet very effective device.

 

[davidej]

Tand the C120s alarm is woefully quiet, would never wake me from a doze. Plus running the plotter/radar all night is going to be power hungry etc. Wanted a little gizmo that'd wake me with a loud screech + low

Can you fit a remote buzzer? We fitted a cheap 12v piezo buzzer to our Garmin which would awaken the dead!