PanPan - crew safety?

grumpy_o_g said:
That's got me thinking. I have a smartwatch (Asus Zenwatch) which alerts as soon as the watch drops it's connection with the phone. It should be pretty easy to get the phone's alarm to sound if the phone loses connectivity with the watch (using Tasker for example). Or, even simpler, if I give my phone to someone else to put in their pocket, my watch will buzz to alert me if they go out of range (i.e. overboard) - which doesn't help me, but there are one or two people I care about enough.
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Equipping all the crew with a smart watch does not seem a cheap option. Then the next problem is the risk of the watch needing charging at the very time the wearer goes overboard

The PanPan site does not (yet) say if their gizmos work with both Android as well as iOs

As I have a dedicated tablet now linked to my multifunction display, the PanPan is a very attractive idea

TS
 
PanPan site specifically says Phones and Tablets and doesn't mention platforms. In my experience developers who work on iOS only would say iPhones and iPads.

Can I say I like the concept. But there are one or two things annoying me right now:

- The Name PanPan! There are two phrases that I don't think should be spoken unless needed and they are MayDay and PanPan. I'm from the school of thought a MOB is a Mayday so that's OK (probably) - but I don't like the idea of the crew saying they have a panpan or lost their panpan...

- 200m range for the antenna (according to website). I put it in my lifejacket, LJ takes maybe 5 seconds to inflate fully from me going over the edge. Say I'm going 8knots - so 4m/s it will take 5seconds to activate and get wet (i'm assuming its instant to know its wet once wet) So I'm 20m away from the boat. Bit it records the boat position. Fine works reasonably well on a yacht. On my Rib at 35knots (17m/s) its 85m away... that feels a tad less precise.

- if it looses contact rather than getting wet to activate thats 200m away which feels a lot, although far better than 4 hours if I'm doing 4 hour watches!

I don't think the tech is massively different from the tech already in use for locating lost objects via crowdsource GPS and the missing child trackers... ...I've even seen a child tracker that alerts if the are in water >5seconds, but it requires a connection.
 
It leads you back to the coordinates of the point of loss of contact, not the actual current position of the MOB, right?

Should combine it with an auto AIS transmitter, that would be a bit better..
 
tudorsailor said:
Equipping all the crew with a smart watch does not seem a cheap option. Then the next problem is the risk of the watch needing charging at the very time the wearer goes overboard

The PanPan site does not (yet) say if their gizmos work with both Android as well as iOs

As I have a dedicated tablet now linked to my multifunction display, the PanPan is a very attractive idea

TS
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It's free to me as I already have one. My watch cost about £120 but I wasn't really suggesting it as an option unless you already have a smartwatch. I know when it will need recharging (I typically get 2 days+ and it will recharge in 3 hours or so) but actually the problem, if there is one, is the opposite. If the battery fails then the watch will drop connectivity and it will announce I have fallen overboard.

I agree that, for your circumstances, the PanPan seems a viable option.
 
They do look good, not too expensive except that there's five of us and two dogs. So which ones don't get a panpan unit? Could I live with the guilt of that being the one that goes over the side? The only way to avoid it is to buy all or none and I can't afford all :o
 
Colvic Watson said:
They do look good, not too expensive except that there's five of us and two dogs. So which ones don't get a panpan unit? Could I live with the guilt of that being the one that goes over the side? The only way to avoid it is to buy all or none and I can't afford all :o
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Then its100% harness wearing and and good safety lines set up. I like the idea they have but I prefer preventative mitigation.
 
I think it is a good idea but for anyone with AIS I think for the price difference a personal AIS MOB makes a lot more sense because while an alert that someone has gone over is very important in reality the time and hence distance before recovery can quickly become quite large and devices such as this are unlikely to give an accurate position. This is especially important of course at night.
 
True but not so good for children or dogs. My biggest worry with this sort of thing is that we'll lower our paranoid obsessive watch of the children and outside-means-clipped-on rule with them. I reckon that stops us needing a MOB device.
 
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