3 years ago when we first got an AIS receiver we were SO happy that we could easily see and understand ships. The AIS receiver allowed us to see all ships within a 15-35 mile range AND to know their name and call sign so we could call them if we saw they would come close to us. Here is a typical view of the plotter showing ships as small triangles.



We are in the upper left corner with the yellow arrow indicating the wind, blue is line showing a small current/leeway.

The greyed lines are showing the shipping traffic separation scheme near France. With the AIS you can see the exact position of the shipping and instantly understand what they are doing. For instance, the ship in the top center of the screen appears to be heading for us. But he is obviously in the lanes so we know he will turn shortly and will not be a concern. And If he was we could just look at him for more information. AIS shows all kind of info including length, speed, name callsign etc. Here is a sample screen.

Note we even see the ship’s length, beam and draft. The CPA is “Closest point of Approach” and the TCPA is the time until we will reach that close point. In this case the ship is heading away from us so there are no number for CPA and TCPA.

Keeping an eye on approaching ships as we cross the english channel to Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Should we alter course? Is there a risk here? No, this ship is anchored and we knew this miles in advance since the AIS showed their speed as 0.1 knot and the status as anchored!

AIS Class B for smaller boats
So what could be better than having an AIS receiver??

How about an AIS transmitter like the big ships have! That way ships can see us as well. They will get automatic alarms if we are going to come close to them. Although they should see us on their radar, this is a much more secure system and works without needing an operator. In conditions of reduced visibility they will know exactly where we are as well as our speed, name and callsign. This is called AIS Class B.

With Distant Shores II we have added one of the new Raymarine AIS transmitters. The newly designed AIS Class B Raymarine AIS500.

This is a very cleverly designed system and integrates amazingly into the Raymarine network. It uses the ships existing VHF antenna so it doesn’t need almost any additional wiring. And since it displays the shipping on the plotter it doesn’t need a separate monitor either. The AIS500 is just a small box that is hidden away, using very little power.

Now that we have had a couple of passages with the system I can report back that it is fantastic!! Crossing the English Channel to the Channel Islands I took this screenshot as we were crossing the shipping lanes near Guernsey. Busy! Similar as we were crossing the North Sea up to the Netherlands.

Now the ships see us as a target on their systems and are instantly alerted if we will come close. In practice we have found them to be happily swerving a bit to avoid us without us needing to call them in advance. Of course we also change course to avoid the ships, but now we are broadcasting AIS they will immediately see we have altered course and realize they don’t need to.


I cannot stress enough how the AIS system has reduced our worries on sea passages. Especially at night it can be difficult to deal with shipping. In the event there are many ships it used to be almost impossible to call the ship you were worried about since you didn’t know their name. Now with AIS you call the exact ship you are concerned about. And now our with AIS Class B transmitter they will know who it is so they could call us as well. Since AIS uses very little power and is not very expensive it seems like a very intelligent purchase for sailors who venture out to sea as we do. It is the best kind of insurance - the kind that reduces the risk of a problem in the first place!

Why go electric?

I have often wondered about adding an electric winch. As boats get bigger, as we get a bit older, or just lazier, it might seem like a good idea. I also wonder if there are times I might not bother raising the main for just a shorter sail and just putting the jib out because its easy! I guess that means I am lazier ;-) Anyway with the new 49 footer it was time to think about the question again.

Raising the main on the 49 is just that much more work than the 42. With the 42 I could raise the sail to within 3 feet of the masthead and just winch it the last bit. The job is a tough one first thing in the morning (and honestly a bit much for Sheryl I think). When we were spec’ing out the 49 I wondered if we would need an electric halyard winch but decided to wait and see. The sail is 33% larger than the one on our 42 and I would guess roughly that much heavier.

Now that we have had the boat for a few months and sailed her in a variety of conditions we have found out just how much difference there is between the two. Without the winch I can pull the sail up just above the upper spreaders. That is a tough pull then there is still almost 20 feet left to winch. So it was definitely time to go for an electric halyard winch.

Adding the winch turned out to be a medium sized job in two main parts...

1. running the heavy wire from the main battery bank to the winch
2. installing the winch itself on deck

In this case the installation was much simpler since we were converting the existing Lewmar winch to power. All Lewmar winches sold in the last number of years are easily convertible using a standard conversion kit. So we would be using the same winch and just adding a new base plate, and motor assembly belowdecks.

Running the wire

• Electric winches use a lot of power so we used very heavy wire - 70mm2 or double-0 AWG.
• A 150Amp circuit breaker was used to connect it to the main distribution
• If you have any doubts about this kind of work it may be best to have a contractor help with the wiring (or do the whole install)

Heavy wiring installed ready to connect to winch

Installing the winch
In our case I was converting the halyard winch which is on the cabin top so we had to carefully consider where the motor would intrude the least into the cabin. The winch itself will have a new base plate and a gear shaft that allows the motor below to drive the winch. This requires a new large hole drilled in the deck. Always fun drilling a big hole in your new boat!!

After final fitting the new base plate is set down with silicone.

I mounted the switch under the winch checking so we could see the main while pushing the button.


Using the winch
Our first outing with the new winch was for our 30 mile sail down the English Channel to Brighton. A mid afternoon departure was dictated by the tides so 1500 hours saw us heading into the wind in the Solent. Raising the main was a dream! What a pleasure to just push the button and watch the sail go up. On to Brighton, then Ramsgate, then across to Holland!

One useful technique we have seen on other boats is to use the halyard winch for other jobs as well. In our case we can also lead other lines to the electric winch. Our two forward furled sails also require a good healthy pull. They can be winched by the aft cockpit winches but it is a long chore in heavy wind. Now I can lead the furling line with just one turn around the cockpit winch then up to the electric winch. What a great advantage!! One electric winch doing quite a few of the heaviest winching jobs. It was certainly a conversion well worth doing.