Rivers & creeks
Well-Known Member
Who on earth would be using AIS to aid navigation when near marinas?
AIS always on?
- Thread starter Little Dorrit
- Start date
Egbod
Well-Known Member
Hi, I would prefer moored yachts not to use their AIS. When entering Ramsgate it has been very inconvenient to have the AIS alarm repeatedly going off for moored vessels while trying to contact the marina master on VHF. It took several minutes to make contact. I got around this problem by turning off the main VHF radio and using a. Non-AIS handheld VHF. It all added to the challenge of trying to explore the marina and find a berth with no guidance.
Rivers & creeks
Well-Known Member
Why didn't you just turn off your AIS alarm? Aren't AIS alarms likely in a port like Ramsgate?
prv
Well-Known Member
That's a problem with your alarm system, being too simplistic and/or difficult to control, not the fault of the available data.
There are of course a great many first and second generation AIS displays out there with badly designed alarm systems, so it's not an uncommon problem.
Pete
johnalison
Well-Known Member
Sailors are going to have to accept that ships and yachts will be displaying AIS, whether on passage or in harbour. Although I have gone into stealth mode occasionally when passing somewhere busy such as the Solent, I am not going to concern myself much about the deficiencies in other people's receiving equipment. The only problem I have encountered, which I have mentioned before, is when the number of transmitters locally exceeds the display capacity of my screen, which I believe is 100, with the result that a new vessel will not be shown. This has only happened. When passing the Hook of Holland, but could be a risk elsewhere.
[70521]
Well-Known Member
Interestingly, the manufacture of my AIS kit, Vespermarine, recommend the unit being left on at all times, something to do with acquiring a GPS fix, but by the time I have put the kettle on and made a cup of tea the vessels position is displayed on the screen! Apart from draining a few milliamps I really don't see what the problem is. Personally, mine is on the same switch at the VHF and once I leave the boat everything is switched off.
Saying that I sail in an area where to see another vessel on screen is so rare I am almost tempted to put a entry in the log!
Saying that I sail in an area where to see another vessel on screen is so rare I am almost tempted to put a entry in the log!
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
When I 'stop' all my instruments get turned off. If I'm anchored then I put my phone anchor watch app on.
Re turning off ais alarm when approaching a marina, sometimes if you don't do it soon enough, the alarms come so fast that you have trouble getting to the menu to turn it off!
Re turning off ais alarm when approaching a marina, sometimes if you don't do it soon enough, the alarms come so fast that you have trouble getting to the menu to turn it off!
johnalison
Well-Known Member
I don't think that I have ever turned my AIS alarm on, that is in about five years since I first fitted it. I set a guard ring at one mile and visually check if a target is going to infract. Unlike some people, I spend some of my time in the cockpit, on watch.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Who uses it as an aid to navigation? That said, I quite like being able to see lighthouses on it.
RichardS
N/A
An aid to navigation as in an aid to avoiding obstacles ..... in this case berthed or moored boats?
Richard
Fantasie 19
Well-Known Member
Ditto - who are we going to poke fun at if you make them all turn it off the moment they tie up for three weeks???
matt1
Well-Known Member
Sailing round the Solent I have disabled the alarm, but increasingly am having to turn off the AIS display on the plotter altogether. The proliferation of boats that now transmit AIS data has rendered my 7 inch plotter useless. I actually cant see any of the chart data due to huge clumps of overlaid red AIS targets.
Shame as it was quite useful and interesting for the info it displayed on ships.
Will have to remember to turn it back on when out the Solent!
Shame as it was quite useful and interesting for the info it displayed on ships.
Will have to remember to turn it back on when out the Solent!
ashtead
Well-Known Member
Yes matt1 the fleet of Sunsail boats always seems one of the worst offenders for creating clumps of red but it does I suppose help keep track of the danger.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Not if he's turned the AIS off.
ashtead
Well-Known Member
Was hoping he would keep on in future to be aware of this summer navigational hazard in the Solent as they have to stay together to know where to go next around the course and it might enable him to be able to sail peacefully away before the red splurge got too close.
GHA
Well-Known Member
Another nice bit of programming from Opencpn is a selectable algorithm which makes uninteresting targets (which you ain't going to hit) green and much smaller than the ones which need to be watched.
pvb
Well-Known Member
The AIS alarm on my plotter is permanently turned off. Wouldn't it be nice if leisure plotters could turn off Class B targets, like big ships can? (Waits for predictable flak and denials!)
pagoda
Well-Known Member
Interestingly - in the west (German ) end of the Baltic there are moves afoot to insist that AIS is off unless under way. That makes sense around there as there are 1500+ berth marinas all over the place. Might make sense everywhere.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
My alarm is also permanently off, it'd be unfeasible where we berth. I had it on, on my previous boat when we first moved it here and as someone mentioned above, the alarms were going off constantly and i couldn't get into the menu to turn them off. I would welcome an off setting for class B.
[70521]
Well-Known Member
An interesting thought.
My AIS is down by the chart table and to be honest only ever consulted if I want to know "what that big ship is over there" or glanced at if the visibility is "dire" and I am near the shipping lanes.
