What Customers Are Saying About the AISWatchMate...

We were bound from Fort Lauderdale to the VI, but had to turn back after just 20 miles due to a jammed port rudder (this was a 51' catamaran), and it was a dark night. The WatchMate was absolutely invaluable in pointing out just what those lights out there were doing, and how close we were going to come to them. I had an experienced captain aboard who had mildly scoffed at the AIS idea when I earlier mentioned it, and he is completely sold, just on that night's experience. It takes all the guesswork out of night time navigation where converging courses and traffic are concerned.

Ron Weinert, British Columbia

We bought a new AIS WatchMate in April 2010 and had it fitted to our yacht in the Algarve, Portugal. We recently sailed to the Azores crossing major shipping lanes and found your unit to be magic and easy to use. Thanks.

Marten Holden, Plymouth England

I have used the WatchMate for a while now and love it. I have used a black box system in the past but grew frustrated and annoyed very quickly regarding the constant alarming on my chartplotter for vessels that weren't affecting me.

That is why I love this little inexpensive unit. I still have it hooked to my chartplotter but with the alarm off and then use the alarm on my WatchMate with the filters on. Much more relaxing and power efficient

James, as posted on www.panbo.com

Our WatchMate saved our bacon on our way up. We were about a day out of Marsden Cove in 4m seas and wet and windy. Very dark. I saw a ship coming directly at us on the WatchMate. It was 35mins away so I gave it 5mins and then contacted him on the VHF and asked if he could make a course adjustment to the right. He did not believe we were out there as he could not see us on radar nor on his AIS. Conditions were rough. I gave him our position and he still did not believe we were out there so I turned on our strobe and he finally found us and made a course adjustment. At this stage we were about 12 mins from contact. He was very concerned he could not see us on his radar and asked for our radar transponder to go on which of course we do not have.

The WatchMate meant I did not have to wake David or get my blood pressure up. And no trying to plot his course and CPA from the radar info. We would not sail without it now and wonder how we did without it.

I'm writing up an article for Boating magazine. A series of the best things we have added to the boat and our Vesper AIS is most assuredly in the list!

Patricia, Yacht Cameleon, Vanuatu