Electronic Lifesavers
Andrew Taylor was working the foredeck of Derry-Londonderry-Doire, a competitor in the 2014 Clipper Round the World Race, on a stormy day in the Pacific when his worst fears became reality. “At some point, the boat moved pretty dramatically,” Taylor said. “The boat went down, and when it came back up, I wasn’t onboard anymore.”
Taylor survived in the near-freezing Pacific waters and gale force winds for an hour and a half before he was found by his crew and hoisted back aboard. The key factors in his survival were the seamanship of the 65ft yacht’s skipper and crew, the dry suit that kept hypothermia at bay, and—crucially—his AIS man-overboard beacon.
AIS (automatic identification system) is a method of tracking vessels via GPS and sharing this info publicly over certain VHF radio channels. The VHF channels 87B and 88B are reserved for transmitting and receiving digital data. These transmissions are automatically generated and
