Marine Traffic - Update your boat name and add "Solo Sailor" to the name.

[brianb]

All,

Users of the Marine Traffic service - commercial shipping - will see your vessel and likely take note of the fact that you are alone. Maybe they will pay additional attention to your position/status.

Brian

[GBR3068]

That is a good idea. I came across a big cat in thick fog off HMB near the entrance buoy that was AIS "Changabang solosailor". I never saw the boat until the very last minute, everything was by AIS (which can of course be off both distance and time wise).

I am always toying with the idea of "appearing bigger than I am" vs letting everyone know how small I am. I just got an Echomax and I have a Class A AIS (as well as Class B) so those things address "Look how big I am". I was also toying with trying to get an IMO (I cant say more than that). Perhaps it's more important to deal with the situation where you are asleep/exhausted and just relying on someone big (or small) to change course because they know or think that you can't. I don't know ... I don't have any/enough experience. What do you think?

[GBR3068]

I learn a lot by reading marine accident reports. Here's one:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/547c7053ed915d4c10000083/OuzoReport.pdf

In part:
2.6.6 AIS
AIS is being carried by an increasing number of yachts, partly to assist in their being more “visible”. Had Ouzo carried AIS it would have made no difference to the outcome as AIS information was not displayed on the radar of Pride of Bilbao. This situation should improve as AIS is being integrated into more ships’ systems in the future.
2.6.7 Conclusion – radar detection
The yacht Ouzo was not detected by the radars on board Pride of Bilbao due to a combination of the following:
o The small radar cross section area of the yacht;
o The poor performance of the yacht’s radar reflector;
o The sea conditions;
o The use of auto-clutter suppression combined with an absence of periodic manual adjustment of the clutter controls to search for small targets.