Robin
Well-Known Member
Well said although familiarity with installed 'stuff' by it's regular use is always good practice I believe and that includes practicing the use of the transmit 'off' button
Turn it off, please
- Thread starter johnphilip
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Well said although familiarity with installed 'stuff' by it's regular use is always good practice I believe and that includes practicing the use of the transmit 'off' button
prv
Well-Known Member
So turn the damn "red AIS script" off! Your plotter does have that option, I trust? I assure you that it's a lot easier than trying to persuade the rest of the world to stop transmitting.
I really don't understand why anybody has this problem, in the Solent or places like it.
Pete
Champagne Murphy
Well-Known Member
View attachment 33461View attachment 33462
The Solent yesterday, in cinditions like this I can only imagine that the skippers don't know where the OFF switch is
The Solent yesterday, in cinditions like this I can only imagine that the skippers don't know where the OFF switch is
sailorman
Well-Known Member
sunsail twonks
flaming
Well-Known Member
So if you were base manager of the Sunsail Port Solent fleet, you would allow / suggest that the AIS transmit function was turned off would you?
So that if a charterer called up with an issue you wouldn't know exactly where they were at the touch of a button? So that you couldn't monitor the behaviour of your skippers? (especially with respect to speed limits in Portsmouth Harbour and adherence to the small boat channel) So that you couldn't actively enforce any cruising restrictions? So that you couldn't keep an eye on your fleet and call up stray ones that are in danger of being late back to base? Or other benefits that I haven't even thought of?
No......?
Me neither.
johnphilip
Well-Known Member
sadly defeated
Sailing quietly in, out and around Harwich harbour there are a lot of shipping movements, and even keeping out of the deep water channel to Felixstowe sneaky ships appear occasionally from Ipswich or Harwich to add to the fun, the plotter will flash those up in front of your nose at the helm, if not lost in the yotts.
I know we must all watch all round at all times but who can honestly say they have never been surprised by a merchant vessel approaching over their shoulder?
I suppose you are right but it is depressing that inappropriate use of a system makes you have to dispense with it.
Sailing quietly in, out and around Harwich harbour there are a lot of shipping movements, and even keeping out of the deep water channel to Felixstowe sneaky ships appear occasionally from Ipswich or Harwich to add to the fun, the plotter will flash those up in front of your nose at the helm, if not lost in the yotts.
I know we must all watch all round at all times but who can honestly say they have never been surprised by a merchant vessel approaching over their shoulder?
deuc02
Well-Known Member
Robin
Well-Known Member
Best give that pub a miss if you feel like that
or fit rear view mirrors!
Babylon
Well-Known Member
What's AIS?
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
How did any of us manage to navigate round the Solent or the world without these things? How did we manage to assess risk of collision without AIS?
I am a little scared by some of the comments made in this thread.
Firstly people perpetuating the myth that ships turn Class B off. This has been shown to be not true by various people and sources. I had really hoped that one had disappeared.
Secondly by people saying that they see vessels on a collision course when they are only a mile or so away and it was only through AIS that they saved themselves from being run down.
Thirdly by the whole idea that an uncluttered screen is somehow essential to navigating your boat. A cluttered screen is a problem and AIS clutter is part of the problem - but it just means one of your aids is degraded. The complaint seems to be that the AIS isn't working to its full potential (in the way you usually use it) and they only feel threatened by big ships therefore all the small ones they don't mind colliding with ought to turn their AIS off. Why not revert to other methods?
The only thing I find myself nodding in agreement over is the complaint about the plethora of vessels who continue to transmit when they are alongside but even that isn't the end of the world.
My apologies if I seem a little bolshie in my post but I am dismayed by the attitude of some people.
I am a little scared by some of the comments made in this thread.
Firstly people perpetuating the myth that ships turn Class B off. This has been shown to be not true by various people and sources. I had really hoped that one had disappeared.
Secondly by people saying that they see vessels on a collision course when they are only a mile or so away and it was only through AIS that they saved themselves from being run down.
Thirdly by the whole idea that an uncluttered screen is somehow essential to navigating your boat. A cluttered screen is a problem and AIS clutter is part of the problem - but it just means one of your aids is degraded. The complaint seems to be that the AIS isn't working to its full potential (in the way you usually use it) and they only feel threatened by big ships therefore all the small ones they don't mind colliding with ought to turn their AIS off. Why not revert to other methods?
The only thing I find myself nodding in agreement over is the complaint about the plethora of vessels who continue to transmit when they are alongside but even that isn't the end of the world.
My apologies if I seem a little bolshie in my post but I am dismayed by the attitude of some people.
ukmctc
Well-Known Member
Yes, my Garmin has what they call anti piracy switch which basically turns off the transmit signal, but you still receive all incoming signals.
It also has an auto transmit pan pan switch.
Great bit of kit, but you only get what you pay for. If you just want to have gadgets then you get ais that just stays on.
It also has an auto transmit pan pan switch.
Great bit of kit, but you only get what you pay for. If you just want to have gadgets then you get ais that just stays on.
prv
Well-Known Member
Tintin
Well-Known Member
To the OP, have you considered that what may be an inconvenience and irritation to you may actually help others?
For sure it is a minor annoyance to have to zoom my plotter in to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, but on more than one occasion I have been glad a yacht has had its AIS transmitting, most recently mid channel at just after sunrise when a yacht that was all but invisible to the naked eye until very close (and on a collision course - motoring, sails down) was spotted on my ais and avoiding action taken.
Up to that point I have always kept mine transmitter off unless I think it was needed (fog, busy channel etc) but this incident got me thinking about how in a shipping channel and in fog all maintain a far more vigilant watch than when out of these obvious danger areas, and that it is when you relx your guard that problems often occur. So I now keep mine on just in case another boat is not keeping such a good visual watch.
I reckon I would rather not be hit than try to tell someone off for not having a great watch as they sail / motor away from my damaged and rapidly sinking small yacht, but I guess each to his own.
For sure it is a minor annoyance to have to zoom my plotter in to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, but on more than one occasion I have been glad a yacht has had its AIS transmitting, most recently mid channel at just after sunrise when a yacht that was all but invisible to the naked eye until very close (and on a collision course - motoring, sails down) was spotted on my ais and avoiding action taken.
Up to that point I have always kept mine transmitter off unless I think it was needed (fog, busy channel etc) but this incident got me thinking about how in a shipping channel and in fog all maintain a far more vigilant watch than when out of these obvious danger areas, and that it is when you relx your guard that problems often occur. So I now keep mine on just in case another boat is not keeping such a good visual watch.
I reckon I would rather not be hit than try to tell someone off for not having a great watch as they sail / motor away from my damaged and rapidly sinking small yacht, but I guess each to his own.
prv
Well-Known Member
The crucial point there is "mid Channel", though. That's a very different situation to the complaints of "clutter" in the Solent. On a busy weekend north of the IoW, you need to be constantly keeping a good visual lookout, almost as close as if you were driving a car, due to the extreme density of other leisure traffic. In that environment, AIS to detect an incoming cargo ship is an utter irrelevance. They're bleeding massive, they follow well-defined tracks, and they travel relatively slowly (generally at their minimum safe manoeuvring speed, albeit that may be faster than many yachts' top speeds!). There is also no confusion over whether they might be giving way to you - they aren't. If you can't see a container ship coming up the Solent on a sunny day then it's clearly only through the unilateral avoiding actions of countless other yachts that you're still afloat, and you want to get down to Specsavers pronto.
At night, in heavy rain, or in fog, then AIS in the Solent may be helpful. And at those times, fortunately, most of the "clutter" will be snugly tucked up in marinas anyway.
Pete
johnphilip
Well-Known Member
+1
Ripster
Well-Known Member
UKMCTC, Which garmin kit do you have the AIS600?
uxb
Well-Known Member
Depends where you sail. As you know, though some might not, there's a whole world outside the solent, with not so many boats
Occasional localized problem maybe.
Don't tell them that!! They might move out of their muddy little ditch of a comfort zone and start cluttering up the nice places.
I've even had two "dangerous vessel" alerts from yachts in my local marina FFS... I have to agree with the OP.
TradewindSailor
Well-Known Member
This all very worrying.
Radars fail. Radar images are significantly effected by the prevailing weather conditions and the ability of the operator to set the unit up properly.
AIS helps ships to plan ahead to avoid collisions with pleasure craft.
The master of any vessel at sea must maintain a regular visual watch. If the visibility is poor visual watch is even more essential, backed up by the other senses, and yes radar, AIS, and any other device ....... BUT in support of proper visual watch not in place of it.
My big problem with all this gadgetry is that the screens tend to be placed in the saloon where it is nice and comfortable for the crew to monitor ....... BUT in entirely the wrong place for the watch .... who should be out on deck! I've lost count of how many yachts pass by with nobody in the cockpit, seemingly oblivious to what is going on around them, heading for some published way point in clear water that every other yacht in the area seems to be heading for.
The trouble with all this gadgetry is that it has encouraged a lot of inexperienced people to go to sea ....... and then keep the rescue services busy when they run out of fuel or get caught out by the tide.
Radars fail. Radar images are significantly effected by the prevailing weather conditions and the ability of the operator to set the unit up properly.
AIS helps ships to plan ahead to avoid collisions with pleasure craft.
The master of any vessel at sea must maintain a regular visual watch. If the visibility is poor visual watch is even more essential, backed up by the other senses, and yes radar, AIS, and any other device ....... BUT in support of proper visual watch not in place of it.
My big problem with all this gadgetry is that the screens tend to be placed in the saloon where it is nice and comfortable for the crew to monitor ....... BUT in entirely the wrong place for the watch .... who should be out on deck! I've lost count of how many yachts pass by with nobody in the cockpit, seemingly oblivious to what is going on around them, heading for some published way point in clear water that every other yacht in the area seems to be heading for.
The trouble with all this gadgetry is that it has encouraged a lot of inexperienced people to go to sea ....... and then keep the rescue services busy when they run out of fuel or get caught out by the tide.
prv
Well-Known Member
Not any more, I don't think. People have finally kicked that daft habit from the days when electrical instruments were delicate pieces of apparatus to be kept dry and safe below decks. Nowadays, it seems to be the done thing to mount your plotter on a vast, sweeping, Starship Enterprise-style binnacle where it can distract the helmsman instead
Pete
richardsnowstar
Well-Known Member
I agree with the view that AIS is great in the right situation. I sail in the Solent and it is really not necessary to transmit on a clear day. But in the middle of the Channel or in poor visibilty then switch it on. I have often switched on my instruments prior to leaving a marina to have the alarm go off due to stationary boats transmitting in the marina. My Garmin chartplotter defaulted to alarm "on" but the latest software update allows me to choose the default setting for the audible alarm. So now I don't get an alarm as soon as I switch it on. Perhaps we need to encourage the electronics manufacturers to give us some filters to select what we see and what we don't.