AIS and enforcement

[Squidward]

As has been said, without my AIS, the tug captain would have been saying "Hey you!" over the radio, and every boat for 50 miles would be saying "Who, me?"

This was a tugboat towing a very large barge, limiting maneuverability. Radar might have told him "something" was out there, but avoiding me would be a crapshoot. For all he knew I could suddenly turn 90 degrees.

As far as my situational awareness, it's beside the point. That's like saying "If those birds hadn't flown into the engine, the plane wouldn't have crashed." The takeaway is that there WERE birds, and they DID fly into the engine. It's a fact of life that you have to deal with, whether it seems logical or not.

I was one of many boaters blindly groping around in the fog that day.

 

[catalinajack]

AIS is line of sight and your question should be why was Squid so situationally unaware of his surroundings.

Look, you are grasping here and making unfounded assumptions about this guy. I am always situationaly aware, and he was likely as well. Sometimes, fog is encountered unexpectedly. Yes, AIS is line of sight. What is your point? Is it that AIS does not work around bends in the waterways? I can assure you that it does. Works as well as the VHF radio. Antennae help. Radar does not have the benefit of an antenna.

 

[Hippocampus]

Also having spent time in Maine I can categorically say it’s often very difficult to tell from where a horn is sounding even with two people on the foredeck and the pilot house doors open. Even volume of the fog horn doesn’t matter as it bounces around.

The experience of multiple posters here is congruent with my own. Yes have your radar on. Yes sound your horn. But without a doubt AIS is a huge aid to navigation in fog with traffic around.

 

[sunchaser]

Our AIS sees targets well beyond the naked eye. Our charting system picks up targets and “saves” them for a brief period. As example we pickup BC Ferries docked at Schwartz Bay from our hidden marina several miles away. Maybe it is due to a tall antenna but hidden targets that are within 5 miles or so usually show up on our instruments

Via satellites our AIS signal is tracked and stored by various organizations such as Marine Exchange Alaska. There are no secrets regarding location if your AIS is active. ��

 

[Porgy]

As has been said, without my AIS, the tug captain would have been saying "Hey you!" over the radio, and every boat for 50 miles would be saying "Who, me?"

This was a tugboat towing a very large barge, limiting maneuverability. Radar might have told him "something" was out there, but avoiding me would be a crapshoot. For all he knew I could suddenly turn 90 degrees.

The tug more than likely would have given coordinates and possibly COG of the intended target. If relevant, they might give the name of a channel and nearest buoy along with COG. I do hear “hey you” from time to time and it’s always clueless recreational boaters, not professionals.

If you didn’t have AIS and even with it, the tug would have stuck an ARPA on you and known the CPA. It’s hardly a crapshoot. If for some reason you would turn directly into the tug’s path, the tug would sound five on the horn repeatedly until you couldn’t help but hear it. At some point as it approached you should still have been able to discern whether it was from forward of abeam and under the rules you would avoid turning to port and certainly in fog, avoid making any sudden turns.

Why were you “blissfully unaware” of the approaching tug? You have AIS. Why didn’t you see it?

 

[Hippocampus]

P here’s some real world. Often see multiple boats not far from each other. Often it’s hard to discern how many as one may intermittently shadow another on radar. Also in my area they maybe be shadowed by small islands or even lighthouses or other aids. Not infrequently their returns are similar. If they have AIS it’s a non issue. On radar it takes a bit of time to sort things out. Add in fog or rain or anything decreasing vision. Then add in boats moving very slowly or erratically or varying speed markly or fishing it takes time on the radar to get tracks and predict behavior and determine who to avoid or needs to avoid you. Then add in rocks or being intermittently draft restricted.

AIS gives you all you need to know with a glance. Having both radar and AIS on a good sized screen makes it even easier. Sure many targets will just show on radar but now a days many will also show on AIS and the really big ones will. They will be able to identify you and speak to you directly.

Say what you want but that tug surely would have prefer everyone near him had AIS, radar on, a decent reflector, monitoring 16/13/9 and eyes wide open. I truly do not understand why you are resistant to a technology that makes your and the other people on the water lives easier and safer. Are you breaking the law? Do you think you are so important that someone is out there tracking you all the time? What’s your beef?

BTW not infrequently coordinates are the same for multiple boats down to several decimals, as are proximity to buoys or landmarks. I hear the professionals give the details you stipulate and have multiple boats responding.

 

[Northern Spy]

A VHF radio is not required for a recreational boat under 65' long.

For those of you who would like to mandate AIS, perhaps prioritize mandatory VHF first.

Or rather, licencing.

Or better yet, incremental licensing.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

My first safety experience with AIS was when I was sitting in some small islands in the San Juan islands. I was in my little C Dory 16, having just hooked up my new VHF with AIS receive to the Lowrance. I knew that I now had AIS, but wasn't familiar with its features, other than identifying some passing boats.

While I was watching birds or seals or something, I noticed a red line kept sweeping over my position on the MFD. I zoomed out and could see that it was the track of an approaching Washington State ferry coming through Wasp Passage. Turned around, and there it was. I wouldn't have seen that on the radar, in part because I don't have radar on that boat and in part because I was zoomed in for navigation.

WA DOT has an AIS based app that shows the positions and departure times for the ferries. I use that a lot when traveling in Puget Sound.

 

[SteveK]

I do not have AIS, but I do have radar. Does the AIS have a range settings like radar?
To avoid clutter on screen I adjust range, usually 1-2 miles max so I see a nice large target. But then on a clear dark night I am operating on FB away from radar as I can see with eyes anything in my danger zone, including floating logs.

 

[tiltrider1]

My point is very simple. The Tug Captain saved his bacon not the AIS.

I admit the AIS made the Tug Captain’s job easier as did the VHF. It is most likely RADAR that saved the day and if Squid wants his bacon saved in the future he should look at investing in RADAR.

AIS is a great safety device. I find it discouraging that law enforcement in its short sightedness is creating a justification to not broadcast. I broadcast only in the fog. I do not broadcast any other time.

The only assumption I have made is that Burnaby is in British Columbia.

 

[Porgy]

P here’s some real world. Often see multiple boats not far from each other. Often it’s hard to discern how many as one may intermittently shadow another on radar. Also in my area they maybe be shadowed by small islands or even lighthouses or other aids. Not infrequently their returns are similar. If they have AIS it’s a non issue. On radar it takes a bit of time to sort things out. Add in fog or rain or anything decreasing vision. Then add in boats moving very slowly or erratically or varying speed markly or fishing it takes time on the radar to get tracks and predict behavior and determine who to avoid or needs to avoid you. Then add in rocks or being intermittently draft restricted.

AIS gives you all you need to know with a glance. Having both radar and AIS on a good sized screen makes it even easier. Sure many targets will just show on radar but now a days many will also show on AIS and the really big ones will. They will be able to identify you and speak to you directly.

Say what you want but that tug surely would have prefer everyone near him had AIS, radar on, a decent reflector, monitoring 16/13/9 and eyes wide open. I truly do not understand why you are resistant to a technology that makes your and the other people on the water lives easier and safer. Are you breaking the law? Do you think you are so important that someone is out there tracking you all the time? What’s your beef?

BTW not infrequently coordinates are the same for multiple boats down to several decimals, as are proximity to buoys or landmarks. I hear the professionals give the details you stipulate and have multiple boats responding.

I was pointing out that the absence of AIS does not necessarily spell disaster in that given example. There are other tools available and in the absence of or in conjunction with AIS a professional Captain will use them.

I’m in no way arguing that AIS is not effective or helpful. And I certainly never argued that not having it was of any benefit. I agree it reduces stress and distraction. Instant CPA and COG are a lot less distracting and time consuming than having to pin a MARPA on a target and wait for it to do its math. Calling a vessel by name rather than “hey you” is an obvious benefit.

For the record I’ve been boating 40 years, have AIS B, transmit all the time since we commissioned the boat eleven years ago, have AIS targets shown on both the plotter and radar, show vectors, use MARPA and spent ten seasons in New England fog with heavy traffic, islands, rocks, and overnight travel along the east coast. I may not be as experienced as many but know well what the real world looks like. I cannot fathom how you inferred I was resistant to the technology.

 

[SteveK]

My 2 cents: AIS came with my boat when I bought it, and it saved my ass on the first trip home when I got into some unexpected fog. A tug and barge were headed straight for me, and I was blissfully unaware. Fortunately the tug captain saw my AIS and gave me a friendly warning.

So privacy concerns or not, I feel like it's worth it for that extra bit of safety. I could understand if not everyone feels that way.

Blissfully unaware begs a question.
Squid, since the discussion of late has centered on this post, I cannot find that once the tug called you, did you then see the tug on AIS. In other words, did it actually work like radar to show a target on collision course.