Wonderfull Watchmate (the owners words)

This is a mail from one of our Vesper Marine Watchmate AIS customers,Tony is an Ausi,heading to Ireland in the UK,he installed his Watchmate while in Hout Bay when he wintered over,Jeff is the designer and maker of the Watchmate Ais down in New Zealand.

Dear Jeff,


How’s things, all good I hope. You did invite me to write to you giving you suggestions, and quotable quotes for your website if I felt like it.


Here goes.

“The WatchMate receiver gives me peace of mind above all else. There is no longer the rising panic, as at a distance, a Panamax “skyscraper” appears to be on an inevitable collision course. “Should I try to call him and ask if he sees us, should I wait, what should I do?” A quick check of the screen shows that I needn’t worry as it is all an optical delusion, and he will pass us with a healthy margin. Monitoring his Rate of Turn and Course on screen confirms the continued safety margin.

The other major bonus is the name of the Panamax displayed on screen. This allows us to call it up by name on the VHF, and there is always an answer. The Captain seems to always be happy for the diversion mid-ocean. This means that we have been able to get local weather information on long passages as we don’t have iridium or weatherfax aboard.

Twice in the South Atlantic, I was able to inform tankers that their AIS transmitter was not functioning. They were able to see my AIS transmissions, but I couldn’t see them on screen. They were both grateful for the information. The WatchMate links us to these big guys as part of their normal navigating and safety network.

The intuitive operating system means that both of my greenhorn crew stepped up to the WatchMate, and were operating it effectively with virtually no formal instruction.”