The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

A Conversation With Ocean Signal About AIS Crew Overboard Beacons

Steve Moore, Product Manager at Ocean Signal, gave me a call about the issues we raised in an article on problems Phyllis and I had found with their MOB1 crew overboard (COB) beacon.

(If you didn’t read that article, please do so now, otherwise this one will make no sense to you.)

Here’s what we discussed, along with a couple of other thoughts on water activation and AIS/PLB combo beacons.


Login to continue reading (scroll down)

37 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Roeland Pieter Marchand

Hi John,
Thanks for again a very important matter for sailors in general. As such I tried to share your Facebook notification about the MOB1 with the Dutch sailing forum “Zeilen”, which has more than 11,000 members, but they complain they cannot read it as being behind a paywall. Could you move this to the public part of your site?

Dick Stevenson

Hi Roeland,
It would be great to get the word out to a greater sailing community, but before John considers his answer, why not suggest to the members that they join AAC for a great series on AIS MOB beacons that includes observations of common installation errors that might make their unit non-functional (and fixes). Not to mention all the other benefits which make the membership fee so worthwhile.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Sparky

I also advise that you consider supporting a path that makes this post public so that it may be shared. It would likely attract eye balls that have never visited AAC, which is an opportunity to increase your subscriber base. Cheers

Scott A

John, just adding a voice of support for the paywall. For anyone who has ever purchased or rented anything boat related, membership to the site is a bargain.

Dick Stevenson

Hi John,
Thanks for all your work on this.
Dick

Bob McDowell

Good morning John
I, like Dick, would like to thank you for following up on this issue. We just bought our (adult) kids the AIS/MOB units as they are both sailing offshore a lot. It gives me peace of mind knowing they would have a second chance in a MOB situation.
Bob

Marc Dacey

Ditto, John and Phyllis. I constantly beat the drum for your site as being not only the only one I pay for, but which constantly provides me with more and better information than it costs me. This sort of drill-down is necessary to fully understand, appreciate and choose new technologies for the rather select group of people who go out of sight of land, and your comments, preferences and reviews have played an increasing role in not only what I choose to buy, but how I organize and run our boat.

Ralf

Hi John,
thank you very much for your work on this. When I read your article in November, I recognized my MOB1 (bought 2016) were lacking the cap. I informed my chandlery (AWN, Germany). They weren’t aware of the problem but promised to clarify it with their supplier. And so they did: last week I received the two missing caps!

Neil

Thank you John. Your thoroughness is second to none. AAC is the only worthwhile dialog available to sailing man.

We purchased and fitted two MOB1s to Spinlock deckvests and have suffered many false alarms – i.e. activations due to displacement of the clip inside a closed jackets. I had put them down to packing, but now realise that our units dont have, and indeed didn’t come with, the protective “armed” cap.

Shame on OceanSignal for failing to widely publicise this critical fix for earlier units! The only reference to the protective cap on their own website is buried in their revised user manual. Sadly they have no news item to highlight it and no top-line product shots showing the cap. Again: shame on OceanSignal.

I’ll be contacting them today.

Neil
L’escale, Portsmouth

Scott Thomas

I just bought a Ocean Signal EPRIB1 class 2.
I am returning it because the instructions printed on its surface are illegible. Even the battery expiration date is impossible to read. A combination of extremely small letters and very poor quality of printing is at fault. If Ocean Signal can overlook this basic need then what else have they overlooked?
If you provided a way for me to attach picture I would.

Ben

I’m in the market for an EPRIB since I plan on venturing beyond the sight of land this summer. After a search of the site, I couldn’t find any discussions regarding these devices. Is there a post I’m missing, or is that something that hasn’t been discussed yet?
As always, it’s a joy to be part of this community.

Ben

Thanks for the verification that I wasn’t missing some thing. I’m journeying about as far as I possibly can “offshore” in my area: crossing Lake Erie. But it’s a passage out of the sight of land and it only takes 25-30 knots of wind to cause some nasty waves on that puddle! After reading about them, I think I’ll be getting a PLB. It’s much cheaper, more portable and uses the same technology as an EPIRB. The floating version of the ACR ResQLink is the model I think would work for my application.

Marc Dacey

For what it’s worth, that was my conclusion, and I went with an older version of a ResQLink on Lake Ontario. Just remember that it’s important to file a sail plan (called a “float plan” in the States) with the Canadian Coast Guard (and to “close” it on arrival via cellphone or VHF) and to register the PLB with the correct federal registry, ideally with a third-party contact who can confirm your plans. Make sure it’s a PLB that is comfortable to wear, can attach securely to your PFD (which of course you must always wear for this scheme to work) and which broadcasts a GPS string as well as the 406 Mhz beacon. It’s a good choice for solo sailing the same way the AIS beacon is a good choice with more crew/beyond the reach of SAR resources.