Over-Reliance on AIS -- Collision off Dungeness

[carstenb]

I have had AIS for a couple of years now (and now have radar also). The only negative issue I can find with AIS is potential complacency. After a while you have to remind yourself that there are other object out there that are not sending AIS signals, pleasure boats, buoys, crab posts, etc etc.

It is easy to become complacent if you're cruising along on a summer evening/night i nice weather. Set the alarms and keep an eye on the screen. Oops - you find yourself forgetting that you need t keep the Mark 1 eyeball on the water ahead of you.

[Simonsays]

Originally Posted by carstenb

I have had AIS for a couple of years now (and now have radar also). The only negative issue I can find with AIS is potential complacency. After a while you have to remind yourself that there are other object out there that are not sending AIS signals, pleasure boats, buoys, crab posts, etc etc.

It is easy to become complacent if you're cruising along on a summer evening/night i nice weather. Set the alarms and keep an eye on the screen. Oops - you find yourself forgetting that you need t keep the Mark 1 eyeball on the water ahead of you.

we were going up one of the fjords near Trondheim in a calm December night with a substitute NO that had been teaching at the simulator in Kiel for about 20 years.
that NO was sitting at the radar, reading all sorts of bearings and distances from the radar screen while the OOW and the captain were on the outside using their Mk. Is and pondering what the NO was going on about.
the captain told the NO once to let it be but he did not get it, so i asked him for a little chat on the signal deck (with all due respect of course).
quite emberasssing.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Amen!

No one is against "sharing the sea", but swimming the Dover Straits is daft! That would be like routing your Olympic 400 yard dash event right across the M25 at rush hour!

HUH...!!
Bludi Immigrants trying to kill off British Heritage Sports...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by boatman61

HUH...!!
Bludi Immigrants trying to kill off British Heritage Sports...

You mean running across the M25?

[MermaidMuse]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

Hey, I swim most days when in a good clean anchorage, usually a mile or more. Been a freediver for many years (a quarter century) and used to train several times a week for that, also do it in cold water/high latitudes (up to 60N).

We mermaids are of the opinion that your time IN the water has contributed to the astute powers of observation evident in your posts about matters ON the water.

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

So… nothing wrong with swimming in the sea… but I do think that swimming across one of the top couple of busiest stretches of commercial traffic straits in the world is a bit absurd. I mean… why there? I know there was a historical cachet to it, but frankly there are hundreds of potential swimming passages which are every bit as challenging and more so and simply haven't been done, in many cases, and in many other major ones, perhaps only once in history. I have just done a handful of searches and only in the last 3 or 4 years have the Irish Sea, Pentland Firth, and Minch have been swum across, for the first time in history in each case. As to the channel? I mean, now a guy called Kevin Murphy holds the record for having swum it 34 times! But this is dwarfed by a girl called Alison Streeter, who has swum it 43 times… Really?

WOWSA really needs to answer the 'why there?' question (and answer for it). The EC is still the world's most famous channel crossing for swimmers and has two recognized governing bodies. Many consider it the standard for channel crossings and want to see it in a swimmer's bio/swim resume before allowing them to participate in other similar swims.

I personally have never had an interest in swimming the EC. If I wanted a 20 mile cool water swim I'd opt for the Gulf of Farallones or the Santa Barbara Channel. Doubtful I'll ever swim anything longer than 10-15k. I just don't like much refueling in the water, even if the maltodextrin drinks have improved in taste.

The OOW was relatively inactive throughout his watch and did not take note of safety broadcasts issued by Dover Coastguard which included information regarding the position and movement of Kingston and its tow.

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Amen!

No one is against "sharing the sea", but swimming the Dover Straits is daft!

Dockhead, from the MAIB report and the discussions on this thread, it would appear to be safer to swim the Dover Straits with an AIS broadcasting guardboat than to be under sail or tow in that vicinity without.

[Polux]

Not related wit AIS but with collision, a sad story told by an Italian magazine. I think it may interest some. Also a story of over confidence.

You can download for free. The article is: "Tragica Crociera"

SVN 219 edicola: Tragica crociera - Eagle 54 - Navigare d'inverno

[hasse_A]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Always worth giving them a call and a polite reminder about the status if it appears in error.

A rather surprising status of a ships AIS as we crossed the Bay of Biscay.
The ship signals "constrained by it's draught".
His draught must be gigantic steaming in depth of about 3800 m.

[kmacdonald]

Re: Over-Reliance on AIS -- Collision off Dungeness

Over-Reliance on Radar has been know to cause collisions so I would think the same of AIS. They are simply AIDS to navigation and should be used as such.