In praise of AIS

[Talulah]

In order to provide some balance there was a time when calling on VHF would have wasted an awful lot of time and that time would have been better spent making sure the boat was safe first before taking any other action.
Bit like flying. If an altimeter sais your too low, get some height first and then check the altimeter.
However, with modern technology the balance has swung to communications and you now have a much better opportunity to prevent getting in to a situation where you are dependant upon the other party reacting.
So in a similar vain, if you get a VHF call regarding a collision situation, not so much about agreed courses, or which side to pass on, you would be better off to take the avoiding action first and then respond or ignore the VHF call. The VHF call in itself though prevented the collision in that it prompted the other party to take action.

For people with training circa 2002 perhaps an update is needed as some see rules as rules and without knowing the reason for the rule continue blindly on.

 

[Koeketiene]

I still think it is a risky business telling officers to ignore calls from yachts, no I think it is criminal.

It's never the case of telling bridge officers to ignore yachts - it's just...
We're all human. I've been on the bridge of big ships, and there has been the odd occasion when I've litteraly been too busy (especially when navigating in restricted waters) to answer a VHF call from a yacht.

And I would understand (understand - not condone) that if, after having been called by yachts for several times a day, that a VHF call by a yacht is left unanswered.
Contrary to popular belief, not all bridge officers are in desperate need of a chat/distraction. You may be having a great time on the water, but they are working - and more often than not, just want to get on with the job.

If you think you will be in immediate danger, by all means contact the other vessel. But a CPA of 2NM in open sea does NOT constitute immediate danger.

 

[prv]

Yes but that is generally with pilots on board and is being supervised by the VTS operators.

Actually it's mostly local vessels who won't have pilots - the ferries are the most common, but also dredgers, tugs, bunker barges, etc. The big cruise ships will sometimes discuss their plans with each other too, though that's more about waiting for each other to pass before breaking away, rather than agreeing to pass "green to green" or travel outside the wrong side of the channel. I don't know if the cruise ships take pilots or if they have exemptions as they're in and out all the time.

I don't remember ever hearing this kind of stuff from the vehicle transporters, tankers or container ships though, and your general point stands.

Pete

 

[doug748]

bbg thanks for the additional info. I've still not received a response from the OP (I guess he's got me on ignore)
The reason I asked is I've never had the opportunity to use AIS other than on marinetraffic.com and was interested to know why the OP thought it was so useful on this particular trip. We're potential collisions avoided? Or did it just help to alleviate the boredom of a poor weather crossing, being able to identify other boats in the vicinity?

Apologies Fistral, I misread between the lines of your response and thought it was a loaded question designed to start a row.

I don't have Radar. The passage was in fog, down to 200m at worst and 1/2 mile at best for most of the time. In this situation you have very few other tools at your disposal; without Radar or AIS it becomes a game of passive chance. AIS lets you see the big stuff changing course to avoid you, and setting a 1/2 mile alarm zone gives you a chance to relax a bit now and again. It is still a long days journey into night but your nerves are perhaps just one notch below concert pitch.

One ship of maybe 5000 tons passed in front, very close. I was able to slow down and increase the CPA, I just glimpsed him at about 1/4 to 1/2 mile and he was gone.

Being an old fart my night vision is gone. AIS also solves the mystery of the track of brightly lit vessels at night.

 

[nigelmercier]

Basicly if everyone is following the colregs there is no need to talk to each other.

Which assumes the big boat has seen the little boat dead ahead.

 

[mcframe]

I'm afraid I consider that attitude very naive.
That report is following a case in 1995.
The main butt of the problem was the time taken to identify the vessel to call when avoiding action could have been taken.
It is now possible with AIS to identify and call the ship with virtually no time wasted.

I certainly would not advocate routinely calling ships but given I now know who to call I would add it to my list of options to consider.

My "last resort" - using AIS - would probably be a Securite - "This is Small Yacht $CALLSIGN, I'm in danger of being run down by BigShip $MMSI near $POSITION, they're not listening or altering course, so I'm taking avoiding action but may require assistance shortly..."

 

[FistralG]

Apologies Fistral, I misread between the lines of your response and thought it was a loaded question designed to start a row.

I don't have Radar. The passage was in fog, down to 200m at worst and 1/2 mile at best for most of the time. In this situation you have very few other tools at your disposal; without Radar or AIS it becomes a game of passive chance. AIS lets you see the big stuff changing course to avoid you, and setting a 1/2 mile alarm zone gives you a chance to relax a bit now and again. It is still a long days journey into night but your nerves are perhaps just one notch below concert pitch.

One ship of maybe 5000 tons passed in front, very close. I was able to slow down and increase the CPA, I just glimpsed him at about 1/4 to 1/2 mile and he was gone.

Being an old fart my night vision is gone. AIS also solves the mystery of the track of brightly lit vessels at night.

Thanks doug that was helpful. I can see now why you were siging it's praises.

 

[Cookee]

Apologies Fistral, I misread between the lines of your response and thought it was a loaded question designed to start a row.

I don't have Radar. The passage was in fog, down to 200m at worst and 1/2 mile at best for most of the time. In this situation you have very few other tools at your disposal; without Radar or AIS it becomes a game of passive chance. AIS lets you see the big stuff changing course to avoid you, and setting a 1/2 mile alarm zone gives you a chance to relax a bit now and again. It is still a long days journey into night but your nerves are perhaps just one notch below concert pitch.

One ship of maybe 5000 tons passed in front, very close. I was able to slow down and increase the CPA, I just glimpsed him at about 1/4 to 1/2 mile and he was gone.

Being an old fart my night vision is gone. AIS also solves the mystery of the track of brightly lit vessels at night.

Agree totally from experience, twice on our round Britain trip in limited visibility AIS gave us confidence in what everyone else was doing and enabled them to see us.