Man Overboard Alarms & Devices

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Tested an AIS SART last year. Receiving antenna about 30m above sea level, and the AIS SART at sea level. Lost the signal at 4 miles.
So if you go over the side, and you are single handing, best hope that another boat with an AIS unit is pretty close.
I'd like to think that with a PLB, in coastal or near coastal waters, if you activated the PLB you would have some chance. MRCC would pick up the signal, make a call to your contact number, confirm you are out on a boat, and hopefully dispatch a SAR helo to go look. That's assuming that the coast state in to who's waters you fell have the assets to do this.

Its worth noting that current SAR ground station practice is to confirm geostationary SAR alerts ( GEPIRB) by waiting until a doppler flypast has occurred, Hence there can be a significant delay in ground station detection in reality. On top of that you have the delay in contacting listed phone numbers and determining if a real emergency has been declared. This is exacerbated by the huge number of false ePIRB alarms ( > 90%)



Hence in temperate climates, I would contend that PLBs ( which where never really intended for marine use) are close to useless, in fact I would argue its a dead body location device.

With AIS sarts, the closest vessel you fell off, is the most likely to be the one to recover you. But yes, on a fast merchant ship , 4 miles doesn't give you a lot of time to remain in the detection window.

Dave

[Tim R.]

Here is some real time testing of the Kannad Safelink R10.

AIS MOB TEST: Kannad Marine SafeLink R10 SRS

Best used for MOB recovery from vessel they fell off of.

[monte]

does anyone know of a water activated SART? We are looking for a good solution for us and our dog. He has trouble with electronics and manually activation a SART might be an issue. Onboard our last boat we used Raymarine Lifetag which worked well and Balrog had a tag on his jacket - no manual activation needed..
Also the MOBI system..any idea if it can be connected to a new raymarine plotter to show the MOB position when it is activated as the Raymarine does...
Thanks
Monte