AIS For Leisure Yachts

AIS, Automatic Identification System, has been mentioned here before. Over at the Yachting and Boating World Forums there’s a discussion on whether it already is or should be adopted by the marine leisure industry. Someone points at AISLive where you can see it in action. Fascinating.
Peppermint: “Becoming/has become compulsory for big ships under SOLAS and ISPS codes. The idea of yotties using the transmitting element it is scary as hell to port authorities and shipping industry. Just think of the clutter. I’ve been using it on a bridge simulator. The info you can obtain by reading the transmitted data is interesting. It includes ships name, course, speed and loads more stuff. On a dark and stormy night in the channel it might be nice to know who’s trying to run you down. Developing an AIS system for yachts, broadcasting on a different frequency to big ships, would be a useful way to monitor boats for taxation purposes.”