Using VesselTracker's AIS it is easy to see just how accurate a ship can be steered using modern electronics, GPS, an autopilot, bow thrust and propellor control! This the the oil survey veesel Polarcus Nadia working off the African coast. Like so many deck crew and officers on survey and research vessels, an ex-fisherman from Newlyn has been working on this particular ship, one of eight custom built mulit-function 3D seismic survey vessels built for the Dubai based Polarcus Company.
Animated virtual tour of a typical Polarcus survey vessel.
Contrast the precision of those tracks with these of the Lub Senior working her seine net in the English Channel today.
Pete Eddy, who used to run Kernow Electronics from Newlyn recalls the early days of digital chart plotting on fishing boats using a Shipmate plotter:
"looking at the tows from the survey ship reminded me you used to get an output from the shipmate plotter that went into the autopilot. Some netters used it to go to a waypoint for the gear. Taking out tide, wind and other variables, saved a load on fuel. We did an experiment with Mick Faulner, Golden Bells I think, and could have been Boy Gary. The Boy Gary set a course on the pilot, Golden Bells set a waypoint into the plotter, by the time they got to the Lizard, Boy Gary was a mile adrift!
