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Old 23-05-2010, 02:40   #1
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Which Electronic Device Do You Use to Wake You Up when there Is Danger ?

I have just started with sailing during the night and it does not seem that my chart plotter have an radar alarm. (Simrad CX44). I hope to get some hours on the pillow with no one steering. I have been thinking of buying one of those nasa ais for pc and use them with OpenCPN. It seems that OpenCPN has an AIS alarm to wake you up. But that's only for big ships. What if I meet another sailor like me that want his beauty sleep.

The reason I'm thinking about this is that if you are three on duty you can have an 4 hours on and eight off. But when you are two, it is easy to not get the sleep you need. thats serious too. I often sail in cold water and more than 4 hours watching can actually be a physical pain.

So in short how do small crew solve this problem electronicly?
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Old 23-05-2010, 06:21   #2
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I have a hard time entrusting my life to an electronic device when there's a perfectly good human being around. We traditionally used 3 hours on/3 hours off during the night and caught up on our sleep during the day if necessary. You might look up MarkJ's watch schedule for 2 people, seems a good idea.
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Old 23-05-2010, 09:08   #3
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I try not to sleep when there is a danger around.

If I have to sleep I will use all of them - AIS, radar, depth, wind, gps.

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Old 26-05-2010, 00:38   #4
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I singlehand and thus need to sleep when on passage. I use both my radar with a 10 mile or 5 mile radius warning circle and also have an AIS (transmitter) with a 5 mile CPA circle. If in an area with any chance of ship traffic I will sleep on deck and use a kitchen timer to wake me for periodic scans of the horizon.
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Old 26-05-2010, 06:50   #5
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The CX44 is supposed to have a guard zone option so that may be worth investigating.

Downloads for CX44 NavStation | Simrad Yachting

I have AIS and it's got an external alarm trigger which I've hooked up to a loud buzzer. You might be able to do the same with SIMRAD.

I don't sail in cold water so I sleep in the cockpit with a loud alarm clock set to 20 minutes. If there are ships in view or within my comfort zone, I don't sleep.
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Old 26-05-2010, 19:21   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanshin View Post

... AIS (transmitter) with a 5 mile CPA circle
That would be close if the other guy sails fast, BUT since it is a CPA alarm ... One more pro of having an AIS and preferably an active one.

This is one cool link for anybody into the subject of night sailing (and not only):

https://aviationmedicine.com/article...e&articleID=67

Go read the 'visual scanning techniques'.

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Old 28-05-2010, 05:41   #7
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Guard zone

Quote:
Originally Posted by capt_douglas View Post
The CX44 is supposed to have a guard zone option so that may be worth investigating.

Downloads for CX44 NavStation | Simrad Yachting

I have AIS and it's got an external alarm trigger which I've hooked up to a loud buzzer. You might be able to do the same with SIMRAD.

I don't sail in cold water so I sleep in the cockpit with a loud alarm clock set to 20 minutes. If there are ships in view or within my comfort zone, I don't sleep.
Thanks Capt Douglas.

I will test this tomorrow. I would never guess for Guard zone. Together with an AIS this will solve my problem. I'm sailing to the Faeroe islands in less than a month and I depend on these features. A tired crew makes a lot of mistakes.

My only problem is that TYR (faeroese band) is playing on a viking festival in Norway at the same time i'm on the faeroe islands hehe.
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Old 28-05-2010, 06:36   #8
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That would be close if the other guy sails fast, BUT since it is a CPA alarm ...
(referring to a 5 mile CPA)

I've found that I get AIS information from way over 20 miles away on bigger Class A ships, so if they are that far away and the AIS system computes a CPA (closest point of approach) of under 5 miles then I can alter course to stay further away, just a couple of degrees will suffice at that range. Even a 30 knot freighter approaching head-on added to my 8 knots give me just under 8 minutes warning once in the 5 mile zone so I feel comfortable with that number. AIS really is a cool thing, I can even see the rate-of-turn on the big boys.
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Old 28-05-2010, 07:07   #9
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Long range info is a real benefit of AIS (sometimes too long, though). With even a basic unit, you can get a bunch of information about what's in the area and how it may affect you.

Being able to all the questionable vessel via boat name or MMSI can produce verbal contact more often than simply hailing. If you've got a DSC VHF you can send a text message and that will generally get someones attention on the bridge.
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