When Australian teen Jessica Watson set off to become the youngest person to sail around the world, almost immediately she ran into a problem.

Her yacht, Ella's Pink Lady, collided with an oil tanker on the way to Sydney.

Once safely back in port, Jessica's support team installed a collision warning device called the AIS WatchMate, developed by Auckland's Vesper Marine. And she made it the rest of the way around the world without hitting anything.

"For a really vivid example of why Vesper's sophisticated AIS alarming is valuable, consider the Bermuda Race fleet crossing the shipping lanes last night ... I watched a Buzzard's Bay bound ship run right through the fleet last night and I'm guessing a lot of navigators learned how many controls you need to make AIS alarms effective rather than annoying. Which is what the WatchMate is so talented at.

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"For a good look at how nuanced A.I.S. alarms can and should be, check out the Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate, an unusual low-power A.I.S. plotting display designed especially for bluewater sailors. "