Sea-me or AIS transponder?

[pagoda]

Most OOW have been trained to use radar and eyeballs. AIS is not really significant. I visited the bridge of a car ferry a year or so a go and quizzed the guys on what they rely on. Radar and eyes. I also have a friend who is on the bridge of a large cruise ship, and he confirmed that current training is a little old school in respect of AIS. They are obliged to transmit, but monitoring reception is not high on their priorities.

Radar enhancer is the way to go if you are often in among big commercial traffic I reckon.

 

[geem]

We have an AIS transponder and radar. The AIS transponder in my opinion is excellent. Ships see us at about 8nm usually. We see them alter course and usually set a 1nm closest approach distance. Occasionally this may be 1/2nm. We have had ships call us up by name in narrow channels and discuss our collision course and we have agreed who will alter course. All very amicable and stress free. We have had a couple of incidents mid ocean where clearly the watch keeping is poor and we have been as close a 2nm from a large ship. We have radioed the ship by name and explained on ch16 that we are on a collision course. We haven't always had an an answer on the radio but the ship had done a sudden course alteration!
I understand that AIS can now be tracked by satellite. The Ocean Cruising Club now offer this facility as part of membership.
Another nice feature when on long night watches is simply seeing where ships are heading and what they are. We have had a few chats with ships at night when the radio operator is as bored as me and a conversation about destination, cargo, weather or what ever brightens up the watch

 

[LadyInBed]

I visited the bridge of a car ferry a year or so a go and quizzed the guys on what they rely on. Radar and eyes.

Bet it wasn't Red Funnel :sleeping:

 

[Fascadale]

A visit from the past! As the OP of this thread back in May 2011 its interesting to revisit these issues.

In the end I fitted my own boat with a "Dual band Echomax (Sea-me) RTE and an AIS transponder/receiver. At that time I was planning on a lot of solo sailing and I was uncertain that I would have the opportunity and skill to make much of radar; I was also unsure of having the electrical power available to always be able to run a radar.

Over 25K nms later I have still not fitted a radar to my own boat, probably still for the same reasons plus a good bit of inertia. The RTE/AIS combination coupled with a very conscientious visual look out seem to have been sufficient, so far.

That being said, I have now sailed many other boats with radars and I think my views have changed. Modern, quick starting sets which give a very much more intelligible picture are great.

If I were planning any further long voyages on my own boat I would now seriously consider a radar connected to a MFD in the cockpit.

 

[pagoda]

Bet it wasn't Red Funnel :sleeping:

No, but they do have Red&Black funnels

 

[[70521]]

Is it legal for big boats to filter Class B ?
Does it need international law change to improve safety at sea for all ?

It is legal for big boats to filter Class B

What would changing international law do to improve safety at sea for all?

The only time I recall a sailing vessel hitting a big orange ship was when it was racing in the Solent, with lots of local rules in place to stop such an incident happening.

 

[Caladh]

The CG dont understand the difference between the theory and the practice, then. I took avoiding action whilst sailing across the channel, on the starboard bow of a ship. Afterwards, I tried two calls using MMSI from the number picked up on AIS, both cancelled, and twice on Channel 16, both ignored.

As Graham of these forums explained to me, you have to assume the watch officer is a Liberian coke addict who is having a kip.

Had a similar incident. I was the stand on vessel and radio'd a ship coming down on us and not altering course. I said I'd be going in front of him - plenty of room. He said he'd prefer not to change course and would I kindly go behind him - which I did.

 

[Budgieboy]

I am in the fortunate position of having both , the Sea Me has a blip that flashes if it picks up a scanner , it is a hugely useful bit of kit when you are on a long crossing , in the channel however the light is almost always on , in an Ocean it is my reliable friend that tells me I am all clear ... love it ...

 

[newtothis]

...the watch officer is a Liberian coke addict who is having a kip.

I thought the presence of the coke was supposed to obviate the need for the kip.

 

[Roberto]

Example of a big boy mid mid ocean, well outside visual, detected by radar at about 12nm, detected by the Echomax too, but without any AIS signal. If they have their ais transmitter off, I wonder about their receiver.

Ok the RTE was flickering (also) because I had my radar on, but I turned my radar ON as it began flickering and buzzing after having being painted by the ship radar and I could not see it in the ais

 

[Zing]

The Chinese fishing fleet sometimes turn off or change their AIS signal to hide their illegal activities, hoovering up the world's fish stocks:

http://globalfishingwatch.org/data/when-vessels-report-false-locations/

 

[Zing]

Other nations are at it too and sometimes to hide illegal rendezvous with transshipment boats:
http://globalfishingwatch.org/data/what-can-we-see-when-ais-signals-disappear/