Weekly Blog - Automated Information Systems - AIS

Weekly Blog- AIS

In week 2 of our Weekly Safety blog we will be diving into the subject of Automated Identification System or AIS for short. For those of you that may not know, AIS is a system that automatically broadcasts a wide range of information about your vessel to other stations in the areas including items such as position, course, speed, vessel name, vessel type and size. There are 2 main types of AIS on the market. Class A and Class B. Class A are designed primarily for vessels/ships where carriage requirements for AIS are mandatory and Class B are mainly in production for the small vessel market.

Currently there is no requirement for any vessel under 300GT except passenger vessels to carry AIS at all. So if this is the case, why are we talking about it? Good question. Although AIS is not required on vessels under 300GT it is an extremely useful piece of equipment and massively increases the safety on board of your vessel. Being a merchant seafarer myself, I can say that a small coded vessel is nowhere near as visible both on radar and by eye as you may even begin to think. Small vessels regularly get lost amongst radar clutter and they can be difficult to spot even when maintaining a sharp lookout on board. Radars aren’t quite like what you see in the movies where you have a clear screen with a blip for every actual target on it! Clutter on a radar is a common occurrence and the lower quality of the radar set, the more clutter will be present. As well as this many small boats have very small radar echoes due to their construction material and the lack of radar reflective material on board. So not only are you on a small vessel, your echo for that vessel is now even smaller. There will be a time when you get caught out in restricted visibility. When in restricted visibility, the likelihood of you being spotted is reduced further as the visual aspect of lookout has now been removed and we become more reliant on electronic navigation methods. Using a Class B AIS transponder will make you practically unmissable to a ship in all states of visibility. A green triangle will appear on their RADAR or ECDIS display and this triangle is much bigger than the radar echo your vessel would produce. Making you an easy target to spot. The other major benefit for AIS is, in the event of an emergency, it makes you far easier to find for emergency services if your location is being broadcast than if you weren’t, potentially saving precious time. 

With technology in the maritime industry rapidly advancing and becoming more affordable to the average user, Class B AIS is a valid option on board of most charter vessels. We are now at a point where some VHF radios come with a built in AIS Class B Transceiver. 

The Sail Safer approach to AIS, is to fit your vessels with a Class B transmitter/transceiver at the earliest opportunity. It could potentially save you a sticky situation and will give you the peace of mind that you are clearly visible to nearby vessels in all states of visilibity.

If you are interested in taking the plunge and using our services or want further information please contact us on info@sailsafer.co.uk or +447835598705