Ben Ellison over at Panbo is reporting the following:

Today two reliable sources told me that all five FCC commissioners have now signed off on Class B AIS for US waters, though neither knows when the Order will become effective. The final step should be an announcement in the FCC Daily Digest.

Good news for those awaiting Class B. In case you don’t know or can’t recall what the heck Class B AIS is, here are some previous Navagear posts to bring you up to speed:

• AIS Class B Naysayers, Unite!
• More Talk About Class B AIS
• Class B AIS: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
• Class B AIS Now Available!

If you look through those posts, you’ll be able to follow the REST of the discussion within Panbo’s recent post: The “But is it all worthless?” part!

Scott Williams has reprinted his review of the Astral Buoyancy V-Eight PFD, an article he wrote for Sea Kayaker magazine.

This PFD costs about $100, and might be a reasonably comfortable alternative for those not quite ready to spend $200+ on an automatic inflatable.

Anyway, while you’re checking out the PFD review, poke around a bit on Scott’s Boat Pages blog. It wasn’t familiar to me, but I’m glad I know about it now…there is plenty of great material over there: http://scottsboatpages.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Boat Bits for the lead.

[Have fun this weekend. But please...be attentive, wear your PFD, and don't operate any boat when you're drunk! —Aaron & Tim]

(photo of USCGC Eagle in Elliott Bay, by Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

COAST GUARD ISSUES BOATING SAFETY ALERT

SEATTLE- The Coast Guard advises all boaters and paddlers venturing out on the water this Fourth of July to be responsible and prudent mariners, to save the alcohol for when the trip is completed, and to maintain a constant safety vigil.

The Fourth of July holiday is not only the busiest boating period of the year, but it also holds the tragic distinction of being the deadliest nationwide.

Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was listed as the leading factor in 21% of the deaths.

The best insurance for surviving most sudden water emergencies is to wear a life jacket. There are a wide variety of comfortable, Coast Guard-approved life jackets available.

“Understanding your role when operating a vessel goes beyond preparing your ice chest and tackle box. The rules of safe and sober operation are no different than in an automobile. Being prepared in the event of a maritime emergency is of primary importance.” Said Captain Roy Nash, Chief of Staff, Coast Guard Pacific Northwest. “The waterways in the northwest are a beautiful resource that must be enjoyed responsibly.”

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OK, so you know how I’m always harping on PFDs and man-overboard recovery? 

Well the Coast Guard just sent out an article that vindicates my position! At least, I’m going to pretend that it vindicates my position. Mostly because I like using the word “vindicate”.

COLD WATER IMMERSION: THE SHOCKING REALITY
by Jeffrey Pollinger

Think you’re a good swimmer? It may not matter if you suddenly and unexpectedly end up in the frigid coastal and inland waters of the Pacific Northwest. Every year, dozens of swimmers and boaters drown in lakes, rivers and coastal waters in the Pacific Northwest. But it may surprise you that many victims don’t die as a result of poor swimming skills or the effects of hypothermia, but from the immediate effects of cold water immersion, or cold water shock.

Unlike hypothermia, the effects of cold water immersion can lead to death in just a few minutes and in some cases, instantly.

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I’ve been listening to a lot of AC/DC recently. But that’s not important right now. Besides, they’re Australian, and the Rocna anchor was designed in New Zealand. I should probably have selected a Flight of the Conchords musical reference, since they’re from New Zealand.

Anyhoo! I’ve decided to get a Rocna anchor and try it out aboard Two Lucky Fish. The Rocna is one of the new generation of Funny Looking Anchors we’ve discussed here previously.

I’ve got 6-kg model on its way from Suncoast Marine in Vancouver, the North American manufacturer. This should be plenty big enough for my C-Dory 22, especially considering that I don’t usually anchor out when it’s really rough, and I cruise in areas where some sort of shelter is nearly always close at hand. I don’t need a hurricane anchor.

I’ll report on it periodically as I gain experience with it. I’m not going to attempt to conduct genuine “scientific” testing, but I might take it out to the beach with my current Bruce-clone “Claw” anchor and a similar-sized Delta I can borrow from my sister, and play around with them all in the sand.

All I know now is that my Claw anchor seems to stay in place about as well as a pile of loose chain would. Yeah, I know…I’m probably not setting it right. That’s almost certainly true. I don’t claim to be any sort of anchoring expert.

But that’s sort of the point.

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I HATE reading news stories like this. It just makes me sad. Several lives affected significantly, tragically, needlessly. It’s against the law to operate a watercraft while drunk, but do we really need a LAW to tell us this is a bad idea? Yeah, well, I guess we do.

Man reportedly drunk when boat overturned

 
TED S. WARREN / AP
A Thurston County sheriff’s deputy searches near the bank of the Nisqually River on Friday near Lacey for a man and a 9-year-old boy who were missing after the boat they were in capsized Thursday evening.

I’ll spare you the details…you can read the rest of the story at the Seattle Times website, if you really want to.

I finally got an opportunity to confirm that my recently installed Raymarine Ray49 DSC-enabled, two-way-NMEA, VHF radio is working correctly. For those just joining us, you can read about my first impressions of the radio itself and my crazy NMEA wiring scheme.

Anyway, once I got it all hooked up a few weeks ago, everything appeared to be working fine. Everything, that is, except NMEA data from the VHF to my Raymarine C-80. This sort of data is pretty infrequent, so I was not able to test that it was working until yesterday. I got some help from Captain Mac Lamay aboard Island Ranger. I sent DSC position requests to Island Ranger to conduct this test.

And it works! When the Ray49 VHF radio receives a vessel position message over DSC, it forwards it (via the AIS) to the chartplotter, which displays a dialogue like this:

At this point, you’ve got three options: place a waypoint, begin navigating toward the coordinates, or clear the message and ignore it.

If I were to see this dialogue box associated with a distress call, here’s what I would do:

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Have a PFD Protocol! The Coast Guard and the Safe Boating Council seem to agree.

[Thanks to Captain Richard Rodriguez for pointing this out...I didn't even know it was National Safe Boating Week!]

SEATTLE - In preparation for the 50th Annual National Safe Boating Week, May 17-24, the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary along with boating agencies from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana are asking boaters and beachgoers to take special precautions before getting into the water as the boating season begins and summer temperatures rise.

To encourage the mandatory use of life jackets by children, Dairy Queen has teamed up with the Coast Guard and the state boating programs as well as other state and federal agencies to reward children wearing lifejackets with coupons for free ice cream. Dairy Queen has been a staunch supporter of boating safety for eight years and will again provide safe junior boaters with a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cone if they are 16 years old or younger and wearing a lifejacket while boating.

With record temperatures forecasted for the weekend anyone who chooses to beat the heat at a local river, stream, or pond should be very cautious as they could be entering a very deadly situation.

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We interrupt our recent policy punditry for some GEAR AND GADGET news…whodathunkit, eh?

Our colleague Captain Richard Rodriguez is debuting a new feature on his BitterEnd blog today:

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 1, 2008 begins my summer Vessel Assist season. I will be using a Spot GPS Tracker this year.

TRACK PROGRESS: Also known as SPOTcasting^SM, this feature allows friends and family to follow my progress in real time. I’ll actually use it for the first time on my trip from Anacortes to Friday Harbor aboard Diligence. I’ll be underway between 08:00 and 09:00 local. The trip will take about 3.5 hours.

And there’s a new link featured prominently on the blog:
“Click here to follow me on SPOT.“

It’ll be really interesting to see how SPOT performs in the real world. Thanks for the opportunity, Richard!

It’s my new manifesto, sort of. See, these 16-ounce "disposable" propane cylinders are such a convenient size for camping and cruising on smaller boats, sometimes there isn’t any other alternative. In the lazarette aboard Two Lucky Fish, A C-Dory 22, this is really the only propane storage solution that doesn’t involve a costly custom propane installation.

So go ahead and use the 16-oz cylinders if you can’t fit one of the DOT-approved refillable cylinders. It’s a shame that even major suppliers such as Coleman have no recycling recommendations for them.

But I’ve learned that they CAN be refilled. The reason you don’t hear much about it, though, is that these cylinders aren’t DOT-approved for refilling. This means that you can’t take your cylinders to the local propane-equipped service station and have them refilled. That’s against the law. And refilled cylinders can’t be sold commercially. And commercial operators can’t transport refilled cylinders across state lines. There are all sorts of limitations and potential liabilities associated with refilling these cylinders.

It’s perfectly legal to refill them for personal use, however.

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