MOB transmitters

If you’re planning to undertake a lengthy passage or ocean crossing you might be interested in other types of local personal MOB transmitter, such as Raymarine’s LifeTag (raymarine. com) system whereby each crewmember has a miniature beacon attached to them that continuously transmits a signal to an onboard receiver. Should any tag not ‘report in’ at regular intervals (ie. drops out of range) then the base station assumes the person has gone overboard and emits an audible alarm.

A similar system, CrewWatcher’s Pan Pan device (crewwatcher. com), has also been recently launched. This works in a similar way to the LifeTag, only it uses an app on a smartphone to alert the rest of the crew. All well and good provided your smartphone’s battery isn’t flat.