This weekend we launched a re-design of the skipr.net website.  We’ve overhauled its user interface and laid the foundations for a range of new features to help cruising sailors and everyone else  interested in the tracking the movement of recreational vessels. This post describes a few of the new features. [...]

We’re doing a major revision of the skipr website and expect to bring it online later this week. At this stage, we’re expecting the site (including this blog) to be off the air for a few hours on Friday morning (23 July), while we bring the new site online.

We probably don’t spend enough time questioning the accuracy of our charts.

“How accurate are nautical charts? How much faith can be placed in them? Unfortunately, the answer is quite complex – far more complex than simply saying one chart is accurate whilst another is not. However, having the necessary skills should be essential for any mariner venturing into unfamiliar waters.”

That’s the beginning of a very useful paper by Mike Prince, the Director of charting at the Australian Hydrographic Service. Download it from the Hydrographic Office site.

I’ve been busy with some other projects, so part 4 of the AIS series (about full AIS transponders) is on hold – hopefully we’ll get back into it next week.

This week we’ll continue our discussion of Class B AIS systems, by looking at the clear trend to incorporate AIS receivers into other items of Marine Electronics.

As we saw last week, one way of simplifying the installation of an AIS receiver is to use an antenna splitter (aka multiplexer) to share the boat’s VHF radio antenna. Taking that concept further, VHF radio manufacturers are now starting to incorporate AIS receiver into the radio itself. An early example was the iCom IC-M505.

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You’re probably aware by now that the original (Class A) Automatic Identification System was designed for commercial shipping. Class B AIS was designed to be simpler (cheaper) to implement and to be suitable for recreational vessels. It is compatible with Class A systems and available either as “Receive Only” or as a “Transceiver”.

In this post we’ll described a range of options for “Receive Only” systems, typically the initial choice of most yachties.

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Installing an Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) is becoming a mainstream option for yachts. Prices are dropping and AIS equipment is evolving, resulting in a greater variety of instruments on the market. That variety will no doubt increase further, but we can see distinct categories of AIS equipment emerge.

For those looking to invest in a system, we’re going examine those categories in a series of six posts. We will look at the full gamut of equipment, ranging from economical class B receive-only units through AIS integrated with Radio Receivers and Chart Plotters, right up to standalone class A systems.

There is already so much choice that we won’t be able to cover every available unit, but we will highlight representative equipment and discuss which features to look for.

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I started a listing of magazines including their online companion sites which might be of interest to Australian Cruising Sailors.

Please have a look and comment on what you think and if you’d like to add any  other magazine to the list.

At last there are now some tangible signs that Coastal Patrol and Coast Guard organisations along the NSW coast are integrating their operations. 

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Nick Jaffe just cleared customs in Coffs Harbour after a 2 year solo sail from Europe. Apart from being an accomplished sailor, Nick also worked out how to make the Internet work for him along the way.

And not just by getting regular weather reports via a Satellite…

Check out his Website, Blog, his Flickr photostream, his Video and his Tweets. And of course, there is a tracking page.Well done, Nick!

I guess it had to be a 27 year old to show us how it’s done…