The Marinetraffic, Vesseltracker and Ship Finder apps, which have been available in the App Store for around half a year, have now been expanded by British designer Steve Bennett to include additional functions: the new "Boat Beacon" app not only receives AIS signals from other ships, but also acts as a transponder.
Of course, there is a small catch, because an iPhone is not able to transmit on the same frequency as VHF and AIS devices. It therefore reports the ship's position to tracking services such as Marinetraffic.com or other users of Boat Beacon. Other ships therefore do not see their own ship on their AIS plotter.
However, the family at home is able to follow the yacht's journey. The boat can be found using the MMSI number programmed into the app or the ship's name.
However, another feature was particularly important to programmer and sailor Steve Bennett: safety. He himself sails his 30-foot catamaran in the busy Bristol Channel. "With the tidal currents, the freighters there often chase past at a speed over ground of more than 25 knots," he writes on his website, "75,000 tonnes heading towards your boat at almost 50 km/h!" That's why he wanted to develop an app that, in addition to monitoring other ships, would issue a collision alarm if a freighter was threatening to come dangerously close. Boat Beacon has this function, sounds the alarm in good time and even calculates the time to the collision point.
Further functions are:
- a built-in compass and distance meter,
- a regatta function in which other Boat Beacon ships are highlighted, with a chat function to exchange information with them,
- a navigation function to set waypoints,
- the tracking function as a tachograph.
Unfortunately, the app is currently only available for iPhone and iPad (with GPS) and can be in the App Store can be downloaded for 7.99 euros.
