Please turn your AIS off when docked/moored/anchored

[Liam Wald]

Originally Posted by Bash

Well, not many cruisers have their own wikipedia page based on their cruising experience. Evans Starzinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Drop down to the second paragraph to read how many prestigious cruising awards have been given to Evans.

Q. How many?
A. Just about all of them.

Gee, is it hard to get on Wikipedia?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Liam Wald

Gee, is it hard to get on Wikipedia?

No, but when I patrol new pages, it's hard to stay on

[flash]

Originally Posted by rwidman

Yes, you can't trust that government. Next thing you know, they will be tracking your movements and taxing you for every mile travelled! Here's a suggestion - Buy an AIS transmitter, but leave it at the dock, powered on. That way the government can't find you.

The other side of this; Many folks blog on the Internet describing their entire trip. Where they are, what they are doing, who is with them, etc. I published a cruise I took but only after I got home so people wouldn't know I was away from home.

BTW: If you carry a cell phone you already have a locator beacon on your person.

If you like having your whereabouts broadcasted and recorded on the Internet then enjoy. Some of us prefer a little privacy.

[DJBrookster]

Originally Posted by GeoPowers

I love this about CF. Famed cruiser Evans Starzinger starts a thread about a legitimate topic he experienced while actually cruising and five posts later an average joe schools him on how to be a real seaman.

Frank

If nothing more useful than to disrespect others, please look at yourself first......oh and please do everybody a favour and don't take yourself so seriously!

[DJBrookster]

Originally Posted by GeoPowers

Yes, everyone has a voice, some more than others even!

My point was it is a little presumptuous to assume that Evans a) doesn't know how to operate his equipment, and b) doesn't keep a proper watch.

Frank

Sorry point is, please everybody stop preaching and presuming a superior intellect, live and let live. Life's way too short for squabbles.

[colemj]

Evans, I don't agree with you that AIS being on while docked is equivalent to "pissing on the commons" or being a bad apple and having low moral standards. That label, and your definition of what is "the commons" and what is "moral" is your personal one and, to your obvious frustration, not shared by all here. Many of us are full-time cruisers like you. Frankly, your attitude on this reminds me of certain powers that be in FL ...

Some have black box AIS's that are wired to the common nav instruments that may be in use at the time (just taking on fuel, planning on a chartplotter, fixing or testing something, etc). So turning them off involves rewiring to a separate switch and remembering to turn it back on. And not all of us sail in areas where a lack of AIS targets would remind us that our units were off.

Many, of course, are simply leaving their electronics powered because that is just what they do. I often experience situations where public internet access is slowed because people leave their routers on all the time, even when not in use creating IP bottlenecks and hidden node problems. Same issue regarding commons, although admittedly not a navigation one. But that is life, and I have changed both my gear and my tactics for this situation and have refrained from pedantic tilting against windmills.

Unless you were using your AIS to move around the docks, the CPA/TCPA filters, properly adjusted, should have taken care of everything.

On our display system, we have the ability to turn off the alarms for slow moving boats outside a reasonable alarm zone, while allowing alarms from faster boats. We also can have different color icons for those boats - slow/anchored are gray, moving above a selected speed but not a potential danger are green and those that set off our alarm criteria are red.

So we don't need our head buried in a screen, we simply need a quick glance to see and understand the situation.

We can easily sail (and have many times) through Newport harbor and have no issues understanding the situational environment wrt AIS.

You really do need to either understand your current unit's filtering capabilities better, get a unit with better filtering capabilities, or adjust your tactics in using the unit.

This "problem" is here and only going to increase. There are valid reasons to have the AIS on, and I agree there are also times of no reason to have it on. But leaving it on for any reason isn't reprehensible or a moral failure of seamanship. Not learning how, or not willing, to adjust to this newer navigational environment does bring some questions to mind.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

I wonder how folks coped before AIS?

Newport really didn't have much going on sailing-wise until AIS came on the scene...

Mark

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Bash

Well, not many cruisers have their own wikipedia page based on their cruising experience. Evans Starzinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So does Groucho Marx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia but I ain't taking advice on AIS from him either..........

....even though likely funnier. and more useful.

[CarinaPDX]

I suggest we stop the ad hominem attacks and responses.

For me, I am most interested in the quality of an argument and not the credentials of the proponent. As long as a position is supported by reasonable logic/observations/facts then it is something to consider while forming my own view.

As for the idea of adjusting the alarm settings, I think there is still room for improving the situation over a general "coastal" setting. If it were me I would turn on the "smart" alarm that used CPA/TCPA and turn off the "dumb" guard zone alarm. This would eliminate alarms from stationary vessels, unless the operator is heading for one, but still alarm on potential collisions.

My 2¢.

Greg

[dan360]

I really don't see the point of the alarm - surely it means you weren't maintaining a proper watch if you're not watching all the targets closely? Relying on AIS alone didn't work out so well in the Vendee this year. I can see the point if you are sailing solo, but doing that means you are accepting that you aren't maintaining a proper watch in general when you are sleeping.

I just turn all the audible stuff off and have the colors change on MaxSea and watch the targets closely.

We do just turn ours and our instruments off when we are at anchor, but we also turn it on way before we ever leave as part of a departure process. I don't buy that this is a pissing on the common thing - that's just angry rhetoric.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Bash

Well, not many cruisers have their own wikipedia page based on their cruising experience. Evans Starzinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Drop down to the second paragraph to read how many prestigious cruising awards have been given to Evans.

Q. How many?
A. Just about all of them.

Evans and Beth, by all accounts, are accomplished and knowledgable cruisers. There are many others also. Because they worked hard to share their experiences and knowledge, they gained publicity and notoriety (the good kind). Others haven't chosen to work in this way. We all appreciate and acknowledge the work and experiences of Evans and Beth. I personally have supported them by buying their books and paying to see them talk (well, Beth at least - sorry Evans). And I have learned from them.

However, blind acceptance and defense based on "fame" only is disturbing.

Can you really not imagine any situation related to boating that you may know more about than a "famous" person? Do you really expect "famous" people to know absolutely and summarily everything about everything? Is a "famous" person's ideal of morality better than yours regardless of how it aligns?

Is it possible that Evan's issues could be solved by a little better understanding of his equipment or a slight change in his tactics in using it?

If I write this in a Wiki, would you listen more?

Mark

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by Bash

Well, not many cruisers have their own wikipedia page based on their cruising experience. Evans Starzinger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Drop down to the second paragraph to read how many prestigious cruising awards have been given to Evans.

Q. How many?
A. Just about all of them.

That's fine, but in this case, he's coming off like nothing more than a grouchy old man. People will do what people will do and awards won't change that.

[Jammer Six]

Speaking as an Old Man, (note the caps) he's not that old.

[Liam Wald]

Originally Posted by rwidman

That's fine, but in this case, he's coming off like nothing more than a grouchy old man. People will do what people will do and awards won't change that.

This is almost a word for word quote of what my wife says about me!
Except for the "awards" part.

[cheoah]

There's definitely more than one grouchy dude in this thread. I'll buy a round for all of you. Sounds like Evans opinion on idle AIS targets was to some like a threat against God, Guns or Manson supreme

In a perfect world, AIS targets would be meaningful, and boats not underway, or not in navigable channels would stop broadcasting. And people would not leave gates open on my farm, or let trash blow out of the back of their pickup. Ya right.

Fine I get the uses in the anchorage. So everyone knows who you are, and can call you without dinking over to say hi, or can see you drag anchor -as if they would see that on AIS first. OK, maybe that's useful, but kind of a stretch with my anemic imagination. MAybe not, might have been done for all I know. Of course in a storm, when many have their engines idling, and full nav/comms, then it makes sense.

Nonetheless, you're free to do as you please, but lying at anchor in a crowded anchorage, broadcasting AIS in broad daylight doesn't really reflect the main purpose of the technology, just a way for us to justify our expensive toys and fully depreciate them. Maybe it's the facebook of the anchorage now....