Raymarine Life Tags?

[Dod42]

Interested in the Raymarine life tags as a MOB system not that any of the crew are planning on going over. Just if short handed on a passage I would hate to come on board to find the watch keeper missing and no idea of when or how. I have primarily Raymarine equipment on board so hooking it up isn't an issue but interested in feed back from anyone who has used them? Do they work as advertised? Any issues other than forgetting to put them off or take them off when going ashore. They claim 2000 hours per battery. They look a little big do they get in the way? How reliable are they? Is there something better?

[Dave852]

I installed the system on ovive and had no problems with it. There may be better out there now but at the time is was one of the only systems that would trigger on a loss of signal. The other systems were more aimed at sending a signal from the person in the water which I think is dubious. One tip, I brought extra watches so everyone on board could have one. Not necessary as we just used one watch which would get handed off at watch change.

[noelex 77]

If you have AIS on board consider the option of an AIS scart.

Very different technology, but arguably more useful for a similar cost. The ability to locate the MOB would be a major plus for me.

[Dod42]

I have looked at the ais beacons as they look good for locating divers but they seem to need the person in the water to activate it. I would like something automatic so if the person in the water is unconscious then it still works and goes off very quickly from when they hit the water. I think the lifetag goes off when more than 30 feet from the boat, and it automatically puts a MOB on the chart plotter

[noelex 77]

I believe they can be installed so that it automatically goes off when the lifejacket inflates, but this requires some integration of the lifejacket and beacon.

The ones I have seen have been manually activated.

See here:
SafeLink R10

While the life tag will put a GPS position where the MOB occurred the AIS beacon will give a continual update of the position of the drifting person and display this on the chartplotter.

I have never had a real MOB, but those I have heard about often occur with some sort of problem (like a spinnaker tangled around the forestay) in these sort of situations it may take some time to return to the person in the water especially as the crew will now be short handed and possibly less experienced (if the skipper is lost). Knowing the position of MOB seems a major advantage.

[Dod42]

I will have a look. The ones I have looked at and think are very good are theses

http://www.mcmurdomarine.com/ais-mob-devices

From mcmurdo marine

Perfect world you have both one to tell the boat you have gone and the other to tell them where you are. My biggest fear is going over and watching the boat sail away and no one knows you have gone over. So what I want is some load alarm that alerts the boat someone has just gone over. Better than finding out 4 hours later when changing watch.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Dod42

My biggest fear is going over and watching the boat sail away and no one knows you have gone over.

It is a real fear. My own solution is to be always be clipped on and to wake my wife if I leave the cockpit, but an electronic backup would be nice as a belt and braces approach.

I think you can have an alarm on the chartplotter whenever a transmission from an AIS beacon is detected.

[s4sail]

We were doing some safety research around MOB situations a few years back, and fitted the Life Tag system in conjunction with the manufacturer. We then tested it by jumping overboard to test range and reaction.

The system works well, albeit that the alarm triggered at about 100m from the boat. It immediately set off the loud alarm and appeared on the chart plotter.

We have just crossed the Atlantic, and wore these attached to our life jackets. We had a couple of false alarms by accidentally squeezing the button. They are not alternatives to AIS beacons. Our jackets are fitted with both. The challenge is that the beacons have to be manually triggered. Great if you are conscious, but the Life Tag will raise the alarm automatically. I think it is a good system and we are glad we have it fitted.

[Dod42]

I spoke to Raymarine at the last boat show and it seems they have discontinued the product mainly due to it being Seatalk 1 not Seatalk NG so it seems almost impossible to get one now. There is a rumour there will be some sort of replacement from Raymarine probably AIS based but no details yet, so it looks like I may have to wait.

[s4sail]

They are still readily available here in the UK, and seem to still be shown for sale via Raymarine in the US?

[Dod42]

I will have a look when I am in the UK in August. Certainly here in OZ although they still list them when asked to supply they are out of stock and unlikely to get any more.

[monte]

We had the life tags on our last boat. Worked well. This boat we have gone for AIS Kannada r10. The downside is no auto activation and not so good for our dogs life jacket either. The r10s see, to work in test mode with the Raymarine e25. Setting of an alarm but I'd like to test
Them in actual mode. Raymarine say they won't trigger an alarm and they will just show an AIS start alert on the plotter. Pretty useless as a mob devIce. Kannada can't guarantee that they will work with Raymarine plotters either. I think Raymarine are deliberately trying to make it so you ha
Be to buy a Raymarine AIS start when they are released. Pretty pisspoor effort by Raymarine when it comes to a life saving devIce. Also the e125 does not come with an external alarm option
So you have to hope the off watch crew hear the alarm from the plotter if they are sleeping. Raymarine did offer the advice that I could connect another plotter below so I could hear that alarm. Yeah right.