Pilot's Report

AIS sets are now being fitted in preparation for the July 2004 deadline. My own opinion is that AIS is being introduced in a hasty and flawed manner and my initial experience with using the system confirms that AIS will not provide a safe replacement for radar for anti collision for some considerable time. However it will probably result in vast increase in the use of VHF in developing close quarters situations. On the smaller vessels the ship owners are fitting the basic requirement of a set displaying minimum data on a small alpha-numeric screen. These are dangerous in that they tend not to be fitted professionally and their signal is thus subject to corruption. The input of data into these basic units is fiddly and time consuming. For other vessels tracking them their AIS tracks are prone to irregular errors and we have one regular trader whose vector is frequently reported to be at 90 degrees to the true track when detected by vessels coming up astern!! Another error can originate from the fact that the GPS position transmitted by a vessel originates from the AIS internal GPS. This GPS is only required to be a basic low grade set rather than DGPS so the position displayed on other vessel’s or a ports VTS receiver will therefore only be as accurate as that set. I have noted displacement errors of the AIS target from the radar target of up to two cables. Since there is no requirement for sighting, the units are frequently placed where there is a bit of spare space on the console rather than logically. Distraction of the OOW is inevitable if he wishes to check on another vessel or is required to enter data for port state control or VTS.

The situation is improved when the AIS is integrated with the radar display. I have piloted four vessels with full integration and the best system was fitted to two of them whereby the radar vector was the primary tracking mode and the AIS vector was only activated if the CPA/TCPA ARPA limits were broached by a target or if the target was specifically interrogated by the OOW.

A random and I must admit totally unscientific survey by me has produced the following initial feedback:

The masters of these vessels with integration all reported that random, inexplicable errors had occurred.

None of them would trust the information over that of the radar.
They were all of the opinion that its primary use would be for calling up rogue vessels in anti collision situations. (Not covered by the colregs!)

Concern that inputting data for port officials could distract an OOW.

Having input the data, the fact that that data was available to all other AIS users was considered a security risk and a gift to pirates/terrorists.

Concern that the right of the master to switch his AIS off had been removed.

None of them had received any formal training for using the system.

With respect to training, I recently attended a course at Warsash and asked about AIS training courses. The colleges are keen to offer such courses but the cost, variety and non standardisation of equipment coupled with the lack of any industry demand or training syllabus renders any such course unlikely at this time.

Whilst any new system is going to suffer from teething problems my own observations have revealed that there are significant problems in both the hardware and software which will take some time to resolve.