T&T: AIS - Vessel Info

[Dave Legrow]

>Another fellow who'd recently installed an AIS
>didn't like his because he was constantly being contacted by other ships
>inquiring as to his intended movements. Turns out he'd not only
> entered his 64' boat as being 64 meters, but had reversed the length
> and beam dimensions as well.

Yes, be sure to have your installer get the dimensions correct as well as  the vessel type.  I recently ran into (well not literally, we crossed two miles behind) a Nordhavn heading into Wilmington or there about, that was supposedly 6 meters long and 5 meters wide, and was designated as a fishing vessel.

Although I was too busy at the time to talk to them, a quick records check indicates that it was probably a Nordhavn 5509.  Also if you tie you AIS to Coastal Explorer - it get s the dimension and antenna location information from the AIS, regardless of what you enter into CE.  (This is correct to do 0 not a fault)  So if the AIS is wrong, your CE display will be off as well, when you zoom in.

Dave Legrow