knotflying":1qvee6f8 said:
All points at this juncture are purely speculative. I would have to see data that would convince me that a small vessel transmitting made a difference in collision avoidance. Assuming the small vessel (me) has AIS receive, If I were dead in the water I would be proactive and contact the large vessel approaching and advise that I had no power. Once contact is made having AIS becomes secondary. Being a former pilot when conditions were instrument we all had to fly under the same rules and were coordinated through air traffic control and all had transponders (similar to AIS) so until all boaters are required to have AIS I look at it as an added safety luxury but not a full proof safety feature. As long as one vessel is transmitting and one receives then human intervention is obtainable.
Mike: The first thing that comes to mind in your scenario where you say "I would be proactive and contact the large vessel approaching..." is that you could very well be preoccupied with figuring out your 'dead in the water' issue with your head down and totally distracted and unaware of an approaching vessel on a possible collision course with you. Surely the AIS 600 transmit feature would
help address this case.
For my cruising in the PNW Puget Sound area and the islands to the north there's very often foggy conditions (especially in morning time) and large ships and the fast moving Ferries in and about the northern islands are common.
The Ferries especially do not slow down in foggy conditions and there was an incident the other year where a Ferry in fog conditions (I think it was foggy) in the San Juan islands mowed down a small sailboat. It cut the boat in two and it sunk in 250 feet of water.... the sailor survived thank goodness. Ref:
http://komonews.com/news/local/state-ferry-collides-with-sailboat-in-san-juan-islands. If this incident was not during foggy conditions then this situation is even more dire IMO and would suspect the Ferry captain was severely distracted.
You never know how the fog conditions might manifest. You can start out early in the morning at the crack of dawn and visibility is good, then making a turn around the end of an island you run smack into thick fog.... what to do ????? Yes, you could turn about and go back or decided to venture onwards but slowly with full lookout, radar going, horn blasting every now and then, AND having AIS 600 to inform the
big boys where the heck you are. For the extra cost of AIS 600 over 300 I'm really in no way concerned given the boat's safety and passenger's safety have multiple collision protection features being employed. Being 'dead in the water' within the PNW San Juan islands during foggy conditions scares the sh****t out of me.
I've elected to have AIS 600 for our new 2018 R-27 (an upgrade from the stock AIS 300). Andrew tells me the AIS 600 can utilize internal separate antenna rather than sharing the VHF antenna.
🙂
