Carver Owners Forum

I'm working on upgrading my navigation on my Carver Mariner.

I boat mainly on Lake Ontario around the Rochester, NY area. There is not a lot of commercial traffic around here, well there is one Large ship that comes and goes out of here every month or so. I don't think that charter fishing boat broadcast AIS.

Currently on my boat, I have a small Garman 535 gps with no map detail downloaded for my area. It tells me my speed and where I've been - bread crumb lines. I also have depth gauge that tells only my depth. I have a GPS VHF radio (non AIS).

I brought this boat back from Ohio using my smart phone with Navionics app. Worked great but makes it hard to use my phone for other things. Not to mention it's on of the smaller screened smart phones.

My thoughts where to buy an older Ipad 4th Generation (with cellular has built in GPS). I was going to install a wifi sonar sender that will overlay depth and temp info onto my Navionics app running on the Ipad. (I was going with Wi-Fish or Sonar Phone).

My questions is do I need to add AIS to my system?

I plan on taking some trips across the lake to Canada and maybe down the lake to the Thousand Islands.

I upgraded my VHF radio and decided to go with a model that gave me AIS as an option because like you I am on a heavily traveled commercial route. This was much cheaper than going AIS stand alone or getting a plotter. That being said I did not think it would be all that advantageous however it is nice to be able to see the big guys on the chartplotter well ahead or behind you so in the end I do like the feature. Do you need it, no, but it is a nice feature although quite spendy. This is the unit that I chose to allow me to receive the AIS broadcast. http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=10809

Ais is ok if the guy that's going to collide with you or you with him also had ais.

If you are on a budget buy a decent used radar. Then it doesn't matter if anybody has ais.

I agree with Fred. Unless you are in heavy commercial traffic and need specific vessel ID of those around you, the money can be better used for other navigation tools. As mentioned, you'd be better off getting radar. It'll give a heck of a lot more information about your surroundings and capture everything from rain to vessels that don't have AIS. Great for traveling at night.

If your goal is to be more visible to the big guys, install a radar reflector. It'll increase the size of you as a target on their radar. Also a must if you travel at night.

I follow a lot of those sailors that are circumnavigating. AIS seems to only be used at night and going into ports with lots of commercial traffic... again at night.

Fraser

I don't know much about AIS, but everyone I know that travelled from the west end of Lake Ontario to the Thousand island area had at least one radar reflector on their boat for travel in shipping lanes.Those big guys thump along at quite a clip and can be on you rather quickly.That said I think if you have radar, the array itself even when off, can act like a bit of a reflector.......but I would still install a reflector if I was to spend any time in the shipping lanes....... ...

My thoughts.. You 'need' AIS just as much as you 'need' a boat. If you want it get it. If it gives you some peace of mind knowing what the commercial traffic is doing then its money well spent. Remember, we are all out on the water to enjoy the experience. Having a little more awareness of what is going on around you can help ease some of the worry.
..Aaron

Do the charter fisherman broadcast and AIS signal?

The guys here turn it off so they can’t be followed to “hot spots”. Then they pop up on way back in. The cruise ships are class A or B, while I am a D. Just one more piece to the puzzle.

RaRa wrote:Source of the post The guys here turn it off so they can’t be followed to “hot spots”. Then they pop up on way back in. The cruise ships are class A or B, while I am a D. Just one more piece to the puzzle.

Good point! Never thought about that. Thanks.