AIS - footnote

[Mirelle]

Some of my colleagues were checking the installation of an AIS on one of our ships at the weekend whilst alongside at Felixstowe. For the record, 3 of 5 ships that passed up the harbour whilst they were oplaying with it either had no AIS fitted yet, or had disabled it (as they are entitled to do, if, in the Master's discretion, the ship's security might be compromised - bit unlikely in Harwich Harbour!)

However I am happy to report that the "Stena Discovery" has one and it works splendidly...

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[Talbot]

That confirms my worry about people using equipment that is reliant on other ships for its information. If AIS becomes the way ahead for us, there is going to be a percentage of people who believe that it provides the whole truth, and thus relax their vigilance. We have already seen the problems that can occur in busy shipping lanes, the thought of the possible carnage due to total reliance on AIS appals me.

Dont say that that wont happen - take the example of GPS. There is a growing number who rely completely on their GPS and dont put anything onto their charts. They are definitely in the poo if the GPS becomes defective or there is a problem with the signal.

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[Mirelle]

I should in fairness say that AIS is not yet mandatory - although it jolly soon will be - the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code comes into force on the 1st of July.

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[rhinorhino]

It is course the poorly maintained, poorly crewed ship which is most likely both to fail to use AIS properly or at all and also to fail to keep a look out.

I would be very cautious about the use of AIS as the primary collission avoidence tool.

On smaller yachts there is the problem that the system either requires a complex combined plotter/radar/AIS and a crew member to monitor it full time or it is virtually useless.

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[AndrewB]

Must be some catching up to do then, when I saw it in operation from Dover CG last December, apart from the ferries very few ships had it.

The information really clutters up their radar displays by the way, they were wondering whether it might cause them to miss detail when all ships are live.

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[Twister_Ken]

Not just AIS

On smaller yachts there is the problem that the system either requires a complex combined plotter/radar/AIS and a crew member to monitor it full time or it is virtually useless.

Sounds a bit like radar, that!

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[Mirelle]

This may be more of a problem for VTS operators than for ships - you can enable or disable responses so that the ships that are of interest show full data and others do not. This limits screen clutter. A ship is interested only in ships which appear to present a risk of collision - a VTS operator is interested in everything that moves on his or her patch!

You are quite right - there is a tremendous rush to fit this equipment going on at the moment. As noted above of four containerships and a ferry the fast ferry and one containership had it and three containerships did not (or had disabled it) as of last Saturday.

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[Amphitrite]

Apart from the problems that total reliance on AIS information by big ships may cause, is there already any hardware available that is suitable for normal yachts?

BTW, this issue is as yet virtually unknown with german yachties and the german yacht press - pherhaps they sleep as usual... When I asked a SIMRAD representative at the "boot" in Duesseldorf, he even didn't what AIS is!

Holger

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[qsiv]

Surely it wont BE AIS in German? As a non German speaker I suspect it will be known as S - given the German propensity for gluing words together it's full name must be along the lines of Shiffsautomataschidentiifikationsystemmitbellson.

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[snooks]

On Smaller yachts

The system is pretty simple to set up if you already use a laptop running Euronav's Seapro software. Then all you need to do is fit a second VHF aerial (although in can be rigged to your existing VHF it's not recommended) wire in the power, plug it into your serial port and away you go.

It has the range of VHF (25 miles or so) so doesn't need to be monitored constantly...but it is only and aid to navigation, not a replacement for it

If you haven't got a laptop with Euronav's software you need one before you can use their little black box

There's a full report about AIS in April's issue of YM which should be out any day.

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[rhinorhino]

Re: On Smaller yachts

I had looked at the Euronav system at LBS. But I don't think this negates my piont. Suppose you have the AIS running on a lap-top below, with a separate radar (either on deck or below) it really needs two people to keep a proper look-out. Although AIS may have a theoretical range the same as VHF who runs thier chart-plotter at that range and in shipping lanes the clutter would very distracting. Yes I know you can put up charts at two different scales, but the screen area is then getting very small.
Have you actually used such a system in anger?

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[Amphitrite]

Re: On Smaller yachts

Well, in german it is "automatisches Schiffsidentifikationssystem", but it is commonly called AIS. (Don't dare say german isn't easy to learn ;-) ). I'll try to get the april issues of YM....

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