AIS - am I missing the point ?

[Supertramp]

Not to sure what this "harbour" 'mode' is. I can set mine to silent or what some call stealth mode, and the alarm never sounds as I has set all the bits to 'off' as sailing in and near the Solent it would be going off all the time. It still highlights vessels on a converging course in red which is fine by me.

My Vesper has offshore, coastal and harbour profiles. The difference is in the closest approach point with harbour the smallest and offshore the largest. So alarms will sound but only when a moving boat is very close (like in a marina). In the Solent the difficulty is you want a warning about the high speed ferry or tanker you haven't seen yet but don't want the chaos of other leisure boats. Except in fog when it really is useful and most people won't be out. Totally pointless when racing.

 

[PhillM]

This week in the Solent. Transmitting AIS meant that when crossing in front of wotton creek and Ryde the ferry’s could see where I was and that I knew they could. Victoria went ahead by 200 metres and I could see that they had changed course too. Less stress and more confidence that we were safe.

Today in restricted visibility the Wight link didn’t change course so I did. Again more confidence we both knew what was happening.

So AIS is useful from my perspective.