# AIS Fleet user guide The complete AIS Fleet user guide, one page per section. Canonical HTML: https://aisfleet.com/docs/ AIS Fleet is a vessel-watching service. Anyone, with or without a boat, can follow a vessel by name or MMSI and receive notices when a departure or arrival is detected, in the app or by e-mail. The map shows reported positions, which can be delayed or missing. Signing in takes an e-mail address and a six-digit code, following a few vessels is free, and there is an iPhone app as well as the website. Logging your OWN boat is a separate product from the same team, Saillogger (https://saillogger.com): a device aboard uploads position and sensor data, and Saillogger writes the logbook, monitors the boat and shares it with whoever the owner chooses. Its guide is at https://saillogger.com/docs/ . This document is long. Each page below starts with a level-one heading and can also be fetched on its own at the address listed, which is the reliable way to read one topic. ## Contents - What AIS Fleet is (Start here): https://aisfleet.com/docs/what-is-ais-fleet.md - Follow your first vessel (Start here): https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md - AIS Fleet on your phone (Start here): https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md - Where the positions come from (Start here): https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md - Find a vessel (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/find-a-vessel.md - Departures and arrivals (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md - Reading the vessel map (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map.md - Lists (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md - Fleets (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md - Vessel photos (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md - Boats that log with Saillogger (Watching vessels): https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md - Plans and billing (Your account): https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md - Messages (Your account): https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md - Your account and privacy (Your account): https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md - Your boat on AIS Fleet (If you have a boat): https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md - Claim your boat (If you have a boat): https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md - Share your AIS receiver (If you have a boat): https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md - What your station has been doing (If you have a boat): https://aisfleet.com/docs/station-statistics.md - When something is not working (Help): https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md - Questions people ask (Help): https://aisfleet.com/docs/faq.md --- # What AIS Fleet is Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/what-is-ais-fleet/ Explore a map of ships and boats, follow the vessels that interest you, and receive departure and arrival notices. No boat of your own needed, and following five is free. AIS Fleet shows the latest reported positions of ships and boats, and sends notices when it detects a vessel you follow departing or arriving. You can watch a favourite ferry, follow a cruise ship, or explore the traffic around a harbour. You do not need a boat of your own, and there is nothing to install. Sign in at [aisfleet.com](https://aisfleet.com) with your e-mail address, search for the vessel by name, and press **Follow**. Following five vessels is free, and the free plan does not expire. ## Watch your first vessel in about a minute 1. Go to [aisfleet.com](https://aisfleet.com) and type your e-mail address. 2. A six-digit code arrives by e-mail. Type it in. There is no password to choose or remember. 3. Search for a vessel by name, and open her. 4. Press **Follow**. She joins your map and Favorites list, with departure and arrival notices enabled. Notices depend on the reports we receive, so they can be delayed or missed where coverage is limited. [Follow your first vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md) walks through the steps and helps if the code or vessel does not appear. ## Get the app {#get-the-app} There is also an iPhone app in open beta. Use the same account to watch vessels on your phone. [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md) covers installation, notifications and the features that still use the website. ## What you get - **A live map** of the AIS traffic our network has heard, coloured by what kind of vessel each one is, with her speed, her course, her flag and where she has been. - **A notice when a vessel you follow gets under way**, saying where she left from, and another when she arrives, saying where she got to. In the app, by e-mail, or both, set boat by boat. - **Search** by name, and by MMSI, call sign or IMO number when you want one particular hull. - **Photographs** of vessels, taken and contributed by other members, and a way to add your own. - **Lists**, so the boats you follow can be sorted the way a playlist sorts songs, and shared with other members if you want. The guide explains the marine terms as you meet them. The map shows the vessels reported to our network; coverage varies by location. ## Who uses it - **You watch ships.** Open the map, filter by vessel type, tap anything you can see, and search for one particular hull when you want it. [Reading the vessel map](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map.md) - **Someone you love is on a cruise.** Follow the ship by name, and you hear as she leaves each port and again as she reaches the next one. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) - **Someone you love is at sea for work.** A training ship, a research vessel, a working ferry: the same notices, and an honest account of the long quiet stretches. [Watching someone who is aboard](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#watching-someone-who-is-aboard) - **You photograph vessels.** Follow the ones you want to catch, use the departure notice as your warning, and add your photographs to the shared catalog. [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md) - **You curate.** Sort what you follow into lists, with a note on each, and share a list so other members can subscribe to it. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) - **You own a boat.** If her AIS reports reach our network, she may appear here without an account. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) explains what people can see and which sharing choices are yours. You can return to this guide from **User guide** on the sign-in screen or in the account menu. ## What it is not > [!WARNING] > **AIS Fleet is not a navigation, collision avoidance, search and rescue or emergency service, and must not be used as one.** Reports can be late, missing, duplicated or wrong, and a position on a screen cannot confirm that a vessel or the people aboard her are safe. If you are worried about someone at sea, use whatever you agreed with them before they left, and contact the coastguard or rescue service for that area if you believe anyone is in danger. Nothing on AIS Fleet reaches them, and nobody here is watching a vessel on your behalf. The map is not a complete picture of the sea. AIS Fleet draws the vessels reported to its network, and radio does not reach everywhere. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md) explains coverage and how to read the age of a position. There is no ETA, no arrivals board, and no alert when a vessel comes within a distance of you. Following a vessel is what turns her into a notification. ## What it costs {#plans-and-limits} Following five vessels is free, on a plan that is not a trial and does not expire. The map, the search, the departures and arrivals, the photos, the messages and your own AIS receiver work the same on it as on any plan. Paid plans follow more vessels, keep more lists, and draw a longer track behind each boat. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) has the table. ## Account settings and deletion {#closing-your-account} [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md) explains your display name, who can see your activity and how to close your account. If you subscribed through Apple, cancel that subscription in your Apple account before deleting your AIS Fleet account. ## Who makes it AIS Fleet is made by the team behind [Saillogger](https://saillogger.com), the automatic logbook boaters use for their own voyages. Separate site, separate account, and you need no Saillogger account to use anything here. That connection shows up in one place: a few of the boats on the chart keep their logbook with Saillogger, and when their owner chooses to share it, her panel carries more than AIS broadcasts. [Boats that log with Saillogger](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md) covers what and why. Everything else works whether or not you have ever heard of Saillogger. > [!NEXT] > Sign in, find a vessel and press Follow: [Follow your first vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md). --- # Follow your first vessel Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel/ Sign in with an e-mail code, find the vessel you care about, and follow her. What a follow does, who hears about it, and what to do when the code or the vessel does not turn up. Three steps, and none of them needs a boat, a card or an app. ## Sign in 1. Go to [aisfleet.com](https://aisfleet.com) and type your e-mail address. 2. A six-digit code arrives by e-mail, at the front of the subject line so you can read it off the notification without opening your mail. Type it in. 3. The first time, you are asked for your full name. That is how other members see you when no boat is linked to your account; once one is, they see her name first. **Your e-mail address is never shown to them.** There is no separate AIS Fleet password to remember. Your sign-in code and signed-in session still need protecting: anyone who can read your e-mail can request a code and sign in as you. Use a strong password and two-factor authentication for your mailbox, and keep sign-in codes private. You usually stay signed in for about three months on a device. ### If the code does not arrive - **Give it a minute, then look in spam or junk.** It comes from `noreply@aisfleet.com`. - **Use the newest e-mail.** A code lasts ten minutes and asking for a new one retires the old one, so a code from three e-mails ago will not work. - **After five unsuccessful attempts, request a fresh code.** The previous one can no longer be used. - **If you have asked several times, wait a quarter of an hour.** Requests close together are limited to protect your inbox. Try once more after the wait. - **If you once had an account here and closed it**, that address cannot sign in and cannot sign up again either. Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) and we will help. [Closing your account](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#closing-your-account) explains why it works that way. If the code still does not come, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) from the address you are trying to use. ## Find her Use **Search boats**, beside the account icon on a computer and behind the magnifying glass at the top of the screen on a phone. Type at least three characters. A name is enough. [Find a vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/find-a-vessel.md) covers the search options, including what to try when the name you know differs from the name she broadcasts. ## Follow her Open her, and press **Follow**. A follow does four things at once, which is why it is worth a slot on your plan: - She joins **Favorites**, so you can find her again and jump to her last reported position. - With a list containing her switched on and within your plan, she stays visible regardless of the **Traffic** and **Types** filters. - Her marker **stays at her last known position** instead of dropping off the chart when she goes quiet. - Departure and arrival notices are enabled for her. They depend on coverage and your notification settings. **Follow** puts her on **Favorites**, your first list. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) is how you sort the rest. ### Who hears that you followed her A follow is one-way and needs nobody's permission. It is not, however, invisible. **A linked AIS Fleet member or Saillogger owner can receive a new-follower notice**, showing your boat's name if you have linked one, otherwise the name you gave when you signed in. They never see your e-mail address. Adding her to your own list can send a notice naming the list too. Their notification settings determine where it reaches them. Most of the traffic on the chart has nobody behind it, so most follows are heard by no one at all. Following also opens a conversation both ways where there is somebody there: see [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md). Following does not send anything to her radio or onboard navigation equipment. What you can see of a [Saillogger boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md) also depends on her owner's sharing settings. ### If she is not there - **"We are not tracking MMSI ... yet."** No receiver has reported that number to us, so there is nothing to follow yet. **Follow it anyway** asks the AIS network to watch for it. That is not a follow: come back and follow her once she appears, which is the step that starts the notices. A mistyped number looks exactly like a vessel nobody has heard, so it is worth checking the nine digits before you wait. - **"No boats match that."** Either the name she broadcasts differs from the one you typed, or no receiver has ever reported her to us. Try a shorter, more distinctive piece of the name. - **A vessel without an AIS transponder may have no reports to find.** Some Saillogger boats also share positions directly, but many small craft do not report to this network. [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md) is the longer list. ## What happens next The first notice arrives when AIS Fleet detects her next departure or arrival. This can take time, and gaps in coverage can mean an event is missed. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) explains where notices reach you and how to adjust them. > [!TIP] > If you followed a working ferry or a cruise ship, turn her e-mails off and leave the in-app notices on before the first day is out. A ship calling somewhere most days is around two notices a day, and a ferry is far more. [Choosing what reaches you](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) is one screen. > [!NEXT] > Everything the app adds over the website, including reading an AIS receiver aboard your own boat: [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md). --- # AIS Fleet on your phone Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app/ The AIS Fleet app for iPhone: how to get it, what it adds over the website, what still lives in the browser, and how it reads an AIS receiver aboard your own boat. You can watch vessels in a browser on your phone or laptop, or use the **AIS Fleet app for iPhone**. Both use the same account. The app also connects to an AIS receiver on your local Wi-Fi, if you have one; no receiver is needed to watch vessels from the network. ## Getting it {#get-the-app} The app is in **open beta** through TestFlight. Features may change between updates, and feedback is welcome. Joining takes two steps, both free. 1. Install **TestFlight**, Apple's own app for trying apps before they reach the App Store, from the App Store. 2. Open the AIS Fleet beta invitation and tap **Accept**. The link is on the [aisfleet.com](https://aisfleet.com) sign-in screen, on the map once you are signed in, and in the e-mail that brings you your sign-in code. Sign in with the same e-mail address you use on the website and enter the new six-digit code sent to you. Your follows, fleets, messages and photos belong to that account and carry across devices. The app requires **iOS 17 or later** and is designed for **iPhone**. There is no dedicated iPad layout yet. On iPad or Android, you can use [aisfleet.com](https://aisfleet.com) in your browser; there is no Android app at present. Open **TestFlight** to install updates. If a build has expired, install the latest available build there. If TestFlight offers no build or the invitation is unavailable, use the website and contact [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com). If you would rather not be reminded about the app, the note on the map has a close button, and closing it stops it coming back. ## What the app does that a browser cannot **The app reads an AIS receiver on your Wi-Fi and draws the reports directly.** This works aboard a boat or with a receiver ashore. The website cannot connect directly to that receiver. ### Connect a receiver 1. Join the Wi-Fi network the receiver uses, usually your boat's network. 2. Open **You** > **AIS receivers**. Read the sharing notice: connecting a receiver also contributes its reports to AIS Fleet when internet is available. 3. Choose **Scan this network** and allow **Local Network** access when iOS asks. Pick a receiver the scan finds. 4. If it is not found, choose **Add manually**. For **TCP**, enter the receiver's address and port. For **UDP**, choose a listening port and set the receiver to send to the iPhone address shown on that screen. Use **Test connection**, then **Save**. If access was denied, enable AIS Fleet under **Settings** > **Privacy & Security** > **Local Network** on your iPhone. If a UDP connection stops after a router restart, check the iPhone address again; it may have changed. ### While receiving - **A successful connection can be quiet.** "NMEA data, no AIS yet" means data is arriving, but no vessel reports have been decoded yet. Check that the receiver is forwarding AIS and give it time to hear a vessel. - **What it hears is drawn on the same chart** as the rest of the traffic, with a lighter outline on the marker, so you can tell "my aerial heard her" from "the network heard her". Where both have her, the fresher position wins. - **Not everything it hears is a ship.** Navigation marks, including the virtual ones, base stations and search and rescue aircraft get marks of their own rather than being drawn as boats. Distress beacons get an alarm mark that no filter can hide. - **A boat goes off the chart when her class says she should have reported and has not**, rather than being left where she was last seen. A fast target held for ten minutes would be drawn miles from where she is. - **It receives while the app is open and on screen.** Locking the phone or switching apps pauses reception. **Keep the screen on while receiving**, under AIS receivers, can help when you want to leave the chart open; it uses more battery. **A receiver you connect also contributes what it hears to AIS Fleet**, which is how the map gets its coverage in places no shore station reaches. There is deliberately no separate switch for this: a receiver that is on is a receiver that is contributing, and turning the receiver off is what stops it. Your phone appears in **My Stations** on the website as a station of its own, private to you. [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md) is the whole story, including what you grant by sharing. ### Without internet The local receiver connection can keep working on Wi-Fi without internet. Network vessel updates, search, messages, sign-in and sharing reports with AIS Fleet need internet access. Chart tiles that have not already loaded may be missing, so this is not an offline chart package. Network requests and contributed reports use whichever internet connection your phone has available, which can include mobile data. Receiving AIS does not make your phone an AIS transmitter: seeing a vessel here does not mean she can see your boat. Use your usual onboard navigation and safety equipment. > [!NOTE] > One phone is one station, however many receivers it is reading. The app merges everything it hears into a single picture and reports it as one, which is why the counters on the receiver screen count what the phone has heard rather than what any single box contributed. ## What the app does that the website also does The tab bar is **Map**, **Photos**, **Messages** and **You**. - **The map** is the same one chart, with the same controls down the right: **Traffic**, your follows, your fleets and **Types**, plus **Fit track** while a track is drawn. Tapping a vessel opens her panel as a sheet you can lift with your thumb: a peek showing her name and what she is doing, then the full card. [Reading the vessel map](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map.md) - **Search** reaches the whole network, the same four ways. - **Track history** draws where she has been, over the window your plan allows. - **Photos** shoots or picks a picture and sends it, with the same question about the location saved in the file. [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md) - **Messages** carries direct and fleet conversations, with attachments and reactions. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md) - **Notifications** is the same feed, with the same per-boat settings. - **Lists** are in the app: the panel with a switch per list, adding a boat from her own sheet, making a list, its settings, and subscribing to a public list somebody shared. Your follows and your lists are the same set on both. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) - **Claiming your boat** works in the app: MMSI, confirm, upload the document. [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) - **Plans** can be bought in the app, as App Store subscriptions, with **Restore purchases** if you change phone. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) explains why it matters where you bought one. ## What still lives in the browser Open the website with the same account for these tasks: - **My Stations.** Adding a receiver that is not on your phone, reading a station's statistics, setting where a shore receiver listens from, switching one off: all on the website. [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md) - **Starting and running a fleet.** You can be in a fleet in the app, read its roster and its chat, and leave it. Creating one and managing its boats is on the website. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) - **The distance row, and a fleet's notice rows.** The app's list settings carry the departure and arrival switches. Choosing the distance for a nearby notice, and a fleet's notice rows, are on the website for now. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#near-your-boat) One thing opens in a browser on purpose rather than by omission: the note that invites a boat's owner to claim her carries her MMSI into the claim wizard, and that route is browser-only so an installed app cannot swallow the number. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md#when-a-boat-cannot-be-written-to) ## Notifications on your phone > [!IMPORTANT] > Open **You** > **Notifications** to read the feed; the You tab shows an unread count. If **Push** is available in Notification settings, enable it on this phone and choose which notices reach it. Departure and arrival pushes are quiet and appear in Notification Center. If Push is not offered, keep **E-mail** enabled for notices while AIS Fleet is closed. [Choosing what reaches you](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) ## If something is wrong Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com), or reply to an AIS Fleet e-mail. Include your device, iOS version, app build from TestFlight, the screen you were using and what happened. For a receiver problem, include its model and whether you used TCP or UDP. Please leave sign-in codes and receiver credentials out of your report. > [!NEXT] > How coverage affects what you see: [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md). --- # Where the positions come from Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works/ What AIS is, who receives it, why coverage is thick along coasts and thin at sea, and what a vessel's position on a screen does and does not tell you. Most positions on AIS Fleet come from a vessel's AIS broadcast, received by a station and passed to our network. Some Saillogger boats also share positions directly over the internet. The source and the age of a report affect what the map can tell you. ## What AIS is **AIS** stands for Automatic Identification System. It is a radio signal that a vessel broadcasts continuously, saying who she is and where she is: her identity, her position, how fast she is going and which way. Any receiver in range can hear it, and that is the point of it. AIS exists so that ships can see each other, and so that coastguards and traffic services can see them, which makes it a safety system rather than a tracking system that vessels have been signed up to. Two things follow from that, and both matter to you: - **The signal is broadcast without encryption.** A compatible AIS receiver and antenna can receive it within range. It is intended to help nearby vessels and shore services identify traffic. - **Carrying AIS is required of some vessels and optional for others.** Requirements depend on vessel type, size and voyage; the [IMO AIS overview](https://www.imo.org/en/ourwork/safety/pages/ais.aspx) explains the international requirements. Many small craft do not carry a transponder, so they may have no reports on the map. An **MMSI** is the nine-digit number assigned to a vessel's radio identity. Searching all nine digits is useful when several boats share a name. Incorrectly programmed radios can report the wrong number, so check the name and other details too. You will find a boat's MMSI on her radio licence and on many vessel-tracking sites. **Speed** is shown in knots (nautical miles per hour). **Course** is the direction of travel over the ground, measured clockwise from north: 90 degrees is east. It can differ from the direction the bow points, especially in wind or current. ## Who receives it AIS is a **line-of-sight** radio signal. It travels roughly as far as you can see from the aerial, which is tens of miles from a good shore mast and much less from a boat. AIS Fleet draws what has been reported to it by the networks it takes part in: stations ashore, receivers aboard other boats, and the receivers AIS Fleet members share themselves. Nobody has a receiver everywhere, so coverage looks like this: - **Thick** along busy coasts, in ports, and through the cruising areas where boats with receivers are. - **Thin to nothing** far offshore. In the middle of an ocean there is usually nobody within range to hear a vessel at all. > [!IMPORTANT] > **A vessel going quiet offshore is normal.** AIS is line-of-sight radio, so beyond receiver coverage there is simply nobody to hear her, and she reappears when reports reach the network again. This is the single most common thing people worry about, and it is almost always this. What the gap cannot tell you is why reports stopped, or whether anyone aboard is safe. ## What a mark on the map means A marker says: **at the time she was last heard, this vessel reported being here.** It does not say she is there now. **When she was last heard is the number to read.** It is on every vessel's panel, and everything above it describes the moment of that report rather than this moment. A speed of twelve knots from nine hours ago is a fact about last night. That is also why some vessels are on the chart looking perfectly current and are hours old. A boat at anchor with her instruments off, a boat out of range of every receiver, and a boat whose transponder is switched off all look identical from here: quiet. The panel tells you how long she has been quiet, and that is the honest answer we can give. [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md) runs through the reasons a vessel is missing, in the order they are likely. ## What AIS Fleet does not know - **Where she is going.** AIS carries a destination field, and it is typed in by hand aboard, so it is often stale, abbreviated or simply left from the last voyage. There is no ETA anywhere on AIS Fleet, and there will not be one we have invented. - **When she will arrive.** No arrivals board, and no alert when a vessel comes within a distance of you. Following her is what turns her into a notification. - **Whether anyone aboard is all right.** This is the important one. A position is a radio message from a machine. It tells you nothing about the people. ## Is watching a vessel legal, and is it fair? {#is-watching-a-vessel-legal-and-is-it-fair} **Watching is legal.** Receiving and showing AIS is what every vessel-tracking service does: the signal is an unencrypted safety broadcast that the vessel is transmitting deliberately, in the open, for any receiver to hear. That is not the same as blanket permission to republish it for any purpose. Local rules and the [AIS Fleet Terms](https://aisfleet.com/terms/) still apply, and fairness is a separate question worth answering honestly, because a boat is somebody's home as often as she is somebody's workplace. - **What AIS Fleet shows of a vessel is what she broadcasts**: identity, position, course and speed. That is the same for a container ship and for a family's yacht. - **Saillogger extras are the owner's choice, every time you look.** A boater who keeps a logbook with Saillogger decides whether their journal, their logged track and their photo of the boat travel with the position, and that decision is re-checked on every read rather than fixed on the day you followed her. Catalog photographs are contributed separately by members. [Boats that log with Saillogger](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md) - **Following can be visible to a linked owner.** An AIS Fleet member or Saillogger owner may receive a notice with your display name when you follow their boat. - **You can report unwanted attention.** [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#if-someone-is-watching-you) explains follower controls, blocking and how to ask us to review a concern. ### Can I share a screenshot? **Yes.** A screenshot of the map, or of a vessel's position, is yours to post, within the [Terms](https://aisfleet.com/terms/) and any map attribution the chart carries. Two things worth doing when you post one: keep the last-heard time visible, so an old position is not passed off as current, and think about whether sharing where a particular person is could put them at risk. **Photographs in the vessel catalog belong to their contributors.** Viewing one does not grant permission to repost it; ask the photographer about reuse. The journal, logged track and personal photographs a Saillogger boater shares also need their permission before you pass them on. ## Where AIS Fleet gets its own coverage Some of the map is there because members put it there. A member with an AIS receiver, aboard or on a shore mast, can feed what it hears into the network, and the water right around them is often water nobody else covers. It is free on every plan and the receiver stays private to its owner. If you have one, [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md) is how. If you do not, this is simply why the map is better in some places than others. > [!NEXT] > Searching for one particular hull, and reading what her panel tells you: [Find a vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/find-a-vessel.md). --- # Find a vessel Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/find-a-vessel/ Search AIS Fleet by name, MMSI, call sign or IMO number, understand what the results are telling you, and read every line on a vessel's panel. Searching is how you get to one particular hull rather than whatever is passing. Use **Search boats**, beside the account icon on a computer and behind the magnifying glass at the top of the screen on a phone. ## The four ways to search Type at least **three characters**; one or two is too little to search on, and the box says so rather than telling you nothing matched. - **A name** is the way in for most people, and it is enough on its own. You do not need a number to follow a vessel. - **An MMSI** is the nine-digit number assigned to a vessel's radio identity. All nine digits find its record, which helps distinguish boats with the same name. Check the vessel details too: a radio can be programmed with an incorrect number. You will find a boat's MMSI on her radio licence and on many vessel-tracking sites. - **A call sign** is the short radio identifier a vessel is licensed under, a mix of letters and numbers. - **An IMO number** is a permanent seven-digit number carried by larger commercial ships. It stays with the hull even if she is renamed or reflagged, which makes it the reliable way to follow one particular ship across a change of name. Call signs and IMO numbers **widen** a search rather than carrying it. Both are reported by a minority of vessels, so a search on one can come back empty for a vessel who is plainly on the chart. If that happens, search her name. > [!TIP] > Ship names are often broadcast differently from how you would write them: run together, shortened, or without the punctuation. Try a distinctive part of the name rather than all of it. ## Reading the results Each result carries what you need to tell two vessels of the same name apart: her type, her length, her flag, the water she is in, and how far away she is and in what direction. - **Distance** is measured from your own boat when one is linked to your account and has reported recently, and otherwise from the middle of the map you are looking at. The results say which of the two they used. Where the only position available is too old to mean anything, the distance is left off rather than guessed. - **A badge** on a row says why it is there when there is a reason: **Your boat**, **Following**, **Fleet-mate**, or **Saillogger** for a boat that keeps her logbook there and shares it. Those rows are lifted up the list, so an exact number match comes first, then the boats you already have a connection with, then everything else by how well the name matches. - **A vessel nobody has heard from lately is still returned**, labelled with how long ago that was, and opening her does not throw the map across the world: you get her card where you are. - **Results come twenty at a time**, with **Load 20 more** under them and a line saying how many matched. Past two hundred it stops counting and says so; narrow the search rather than paging through. - **Not every result is a ship.** Navigation marks, base stations and search and rescue aircraft broadcast on the same system and land in the same list. Where a row is one of those, it says what it is instead of naming a vessel type. ### When a search comes back empty - **"No boats match that."** Either the name she broadcasts differs from the one you typed, or no receiver has ever reported her to us. Try a shorter, more distinctive piece of the name; if you can get her nine-digit MMSI, searching that settles it either way. - **"We are not tracking MMSI ... yet."** The number is a valid one and we have never had a report for it. **Follow it anyway** asks the network to watch for it. - **If search says it is busy**, that is us asking you to slow down rather than a verdict about the vessel. Wait a moment and try the same words again; it is not the same thing as no match. ## What her panel tells you Tap a vessel and her panel opens with what AIS reports about her. - **Her name and her MMSI.** - **What kind of vessel she is**, from the type she broadcasts. - **Her flag.** This is the country whose authority issued her MMSI, which is usually but not always where she is registered. For most vessels it is worked out from the first three digits of the MMSI, which is how it can be shown for boats that have never sent us a full identity report; where a vessel has reported her flag herself, that is what you see. - **Her speed and her course**, as last heard. - **Whether she is moving or stopped**, and where. - **When she was last heard.** The number to read: everything above it describes the moment of that report, not this moment. - **Her length and beam**, which is how long and how wide she is. - **An AIS class and a destination**, on the vessels that broadcast them. Both are ordinary AIS fields and a minority of traffic sends them. A destination is typed in by hand aboard, so read it as a note rather than a fact. **Her status line reads a passage, not a single report.** She stays under way until her reporting settles enough to say she has stopped, so one quiet fix in the middle of a crossing does not tie her up and untie her again. That is why the line can say she is under way while her speed reads zero: the speed is the last figure AIS heard, and the status is what her recent reporting adds up to. The place in that line follows the same rule. It names where she is lying once she is confirmed there, and where she left from while she is on passage, so it never puts her at a place she has already left. Her panel carries no ETA and no record of the ports she has called at before. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md#what-ais-fleet-does-not-know) says why. ### Boats that log with Saillogger {#boats-that-log-with-saillogger} Some owners share a journal, their boat's photo and the logged track of their current passage. [Boats that log with Saillogger](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md) explains these extras and how an access password affects them. ### The actions on her panel - **Follow** starts the notices and puts her on Favorites. [Follow your first vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md#follow-her) - **Add to list** puts her on any other list of yours. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) - **Message** needs a reachable boater on the other end. Most traffic on the chart has nobody behind it, and that is the ordinary case rather than a fault. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md#when-a-boat-cannot-be-written-to) - **Add photo** sends a photograph of her to the shared catalog. [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md) - **Her photos** open full screen, with the count on the cover so you know how many there are. ### Choosing what reaches you {#choosing-what-reaches-you} Following a boat enables departure and arrival notices. Use **Notification settings** to choose in-app notices, e-mail and, when available, push in the iPhone app for each boat. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) covers the settings, including list notices and muting. ### Track history **AIS track history** draws where she has been, as AIS heard her, and **Fit track** frames the whole line. The panel offers three windows: the last **24 hours** on every plan, the last **7 days** with Plus, and the last **30 days** with Pro. The windows beyond your plan stay visible and say which plan unlocks them rather than disappearing. Tap a window to draw it, tap it again to put the line away. The line is a record and not a forecast. A trace may hold no approach at all, and a vessel is free to take a different line next time, or none. The panel collapses to a slim bar when you want the chart back, and the vessel stays selected. > [!NEXT] > The part that means you do not have to keep a map open: [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md). --- # Departures and arrivals Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals/ Receive notices when AIS Fleet detects a vessel departing or arriving, and when a boat you watch comes within a distance you choose of your own boat. Choose in-app notices, e-mail or both, and understand how coverage affects them. This is the part that means you do not have to keep a map open. Follow a vessel to receive notices when AIS Fleet detects her getting under way or arriving. These are inferred from position reports, so they can be delayed or missed when coverage is limited. **A departure notice** names where she left from when we can identify the place; the e-mail also carries a map. **An arrival notice** names where she got to, and where the passage began when we can tell. Each notice links to that vessel on your map, a boat that has since gone quiet included: the map goes to the position she last reported and says how old that report is. A vessel that keeps her log with Saillogger and shares it names those places from her own logbook, and, where her owner publishes her individual trips, brings a map of the passage she has just completed. Her owner's photo of her leads the message where there is no map to show. **There is no digest.** Three trips in a day is three departures and three arrivals, one notice each. ## Where a notice reaches you Choose how each boat's notices reach you. - **In AIS Fleet.** The bell at the top of every screen carries a count and opens **Notifications**: what has happened, newest first, with one boat's movements gathered into a single entry so a busy vessel cannot bury a quieter one. Tapping an entry takes you to that vessel on the map. - **By e-mail**, so it reaches you with AIS Fleet closed. - **By push in the iPhone app**, when **Push** is available in Notification settings and you have enabled it on that phone. Departure and arrival pushes are quiet: look in Notification Center rather than waiting for a sound. Push previews support international characters and emoji; long text may be shortened. > [!IMPORTANT] > If **Push** is not offered in your app, keep **E-mail** enabled for notices while AIS Fleet is closed. Your mail app controls whether those e-mails appear on the lock screen. You can always read the feed from the website's bell or **You** > **Notifications** in the app. Opening the feed leaves notices unread until you tap them. **Mark all read** clears the displayed unread notices, and **Load older** goes back further. ## Choosing what reaches you {#choosing-what-reaches-you} **Notification settings**, reached from the gear on Notifications or from the account menu, is a grid: a row for each kind of notice, a **Notifications** switch that decides whether it reaches you at all, and **E-mail** beside it for the same notice in your inbox. **Notifications** on a row puts that kind in your notifications on the website and in the app. **E-mail** is a way the same notice also reaches you, so it only sends while Notifications is on: turn Notifications off and E-mail is greyed beside it, with your choice kept for when you turn it back on. In the iPhone app, **Push** sits beside E-mail as a second way to receive the same notice, on the same rows and on each boat, and follows the same rule. Push is set in the app, where the permission lives. | Row | What it is | Ways to receive it | | --- | --- | --- | | Followed boats | A boat you follow departs or arrives | E-mail, Push | | New followers | Someone follows your boat, or adds her to a list | E-mail, Push | | Direct messages | Another member writes to you | E-mail, Push | | Fleet messages | Someone posts in a fleet you are in | E-mail, Push | | Your stations | A receiver of yours goes quiet, and when it is back | E-mail, Push | | Your fleets | A fleet you are in is paused by its organizer's plan, or ends | E-mail, Push | | Your lists | A list you subscribe to is no longer shared, or ends | -- | | Near your boat | A boat you watch comes within the distance you chose of your boat | E-mail, Push | The two message rows have no Notifications switch: a message always appears in **Messages**, with its own unread count, and what you set is whether it also reaches your inbox or your phone. **Your lists** is the other way round: it appears in your notifications and is not sent anywhere else. ![Notification settings: a row for each kind of notice, a Notifications switch, and E-mail beside it. A greyed cell is a way that row does not offer, or one waiting for Notifications to be turned on.](https://assets.saillogger.com/static/docs/aisfleet/notification-settings.png) Notifications and e-mail start on, on every plan including the free one, and each e-mail carries a link back to that screen. When you enable push in the app, its switches start on except **Fleet messages**, which you turn on yourself. An existing per-boat e-mail mute also keeps that boat's push off until you choose otherwise. ### One boat at a time Underneath the grid, **Boats you follow** lists your vessels with the same ways of receiving, so one boat can be set differently from the rest. A boat has **E-mail** here (and **Push** in the app) and no Notifications switch of her own: whether she appears in your notifications comes from the lists and fleets she is on. Turn her E-mail off and she stops arriving in your inbox while staying somewhere you can look her up. **Followed boats** above controls departures and arrivals; **Near your boat** controls nearby notices. A boat's own switch quietens both kinds at once, and stays available while either kind is on. You can therefore quieten her departures and arrivals while she can still tell you when she comes near your boat. Her list or fleet must also have that kind of notice switched on. When both kinds are off or unavailable, your per-boat choices are kept and shown greyed out. There is a filter when the list is long, and a row at the top that sets every boat at once. The row says **Saving** until AIS Fleet confirms a change. If the connection is lost, that setting returns to the last confirmed choice instead of continuing to look saved. The same row then says **Save not confirmed** and offers **Check again**, so you do not have to scroll back through a long list to discover that muting did not finish. The quickest way to quieten one vessel is from the notice itself: the **...** on an entry about a boat you follow offers **Mute her**. That stops her e-mails and her pushes; she stays in your notifications, on your map, and keeps her slot, so you can look her up whenever you want. Muting is not unfollowing. A notice about a boat you do not follow, one that reached you through a list, has no mute of its own: the list's own switches are its volume control. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) To stop a boat appearing in your notifications altogether, turn the list or fleet she is on off, or take her off it. ### What is always sent Sign-in codes, the answer to a boat claim, the verdict on a photo you sent, notices about your own plan, and a notice when somebody adds your boat to a fleet are not on that grid. They are sent because you asked for something or because something happened to your account, and they arrive whatever the switches say. ## When a boat comes near yours {#near-your-boat} Besides telling you when a boat moves, a list or a fleet can tell you when one of its boats comes near your own boat. This needs your boat [linked to your account](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) and heard on AIS: the distance is measured from her last reported position, not from wherever you happen to be. ### Where to set it Open a list from **Lists**, or a fleet from **Fleets**, on the map, then open the row at the top of its roster: **Notifications and settings** on a list or fleet of your own, **Notifications and leaving** in a fleet somebody else runs, **Notifications and unsubscribing** on a list you subscribe to. That row's second line shows which notices are on. Behind it are two rows: **When these boats depart or arrive**, and **When one of these boats comes within** a distance **of your boat**. Each row has a **Notifications** switch and an **E-mail** switch beside it (and **Push** in the app), and the second row has a pull-down for the distance, from 1 to 20 nautical miles. The same rows are on a list's settings page, and they are set separately for every list, every list you subscribe to, and every fleet. **Favorites** starts with both rows on, the distance at 3 nautical miles; every other list, every subscription and every fleet is quiet until you turn its rows on. A fleet's organizer cannot set them for you. Existing e-mail and push choices are kept. A list or fleet previously set to e-mail without in-app notifications gains a place in your notifications while keeping push off. On the list or fleet's page on the map, under the distance row, a line says how many of its boats are within that distance right now. Change the distance and the number changes with it. E-mail on a row is greyed until that row's Notifications switch is on, and when the matching switch under Notification settings is off, a line under the row says so. The row appears once your boat has a position we can measure from. Until then, and if she has not been heard for a while, a line in its place says so, and nearby notices resume when she is heard again. ### When you are told You are told **once per visit**: when a boat comes into your chosen distance from outside it. - A boat that is already inside when you switch the row on, or that has been inside all along, is not announced. Boats that share your marina are therefore not announced day after day, and switching the row off and on, or changing the distance, never announces the boats already there. - A boat that is lying still is not announced when your own boat is the one moving: sailing past the berths of boats you follow, or coming home to your own pontoon, does not produce a notice for every moored boat you pass. A fresh report from the same berth does not count as movement. A boat that is under way is announced whether or not your own boat is moving. - A boat that only drifts about the edge of the distance is not announced again. She is announced when she comes back once she has been well outside it, and away for long enough that it reads as a fresh visit rather than a short hop out and back. - When several boats from one list or fleet come within the distance at the same time, for example a fleet arriving in an anchorage together, you get one notice naming boats with the same channel choices. Your per-boat switches still apply to these combined notices: an e-mail mute stays out of your inbox, and a push mute stays off your phone. A boat on more than one of your lists and fleets uses the largest distance you set for her, and the notice names the one whose distance fired. ### What the notice says In AIS Fleet the entry names the boat and the distance you chose, names the list or fleet whose distance fired unless it is Favorites, and opens her on the map. A nearby notice about a boat you already have an unread notice for joins that same entry, which then counts her visits. The e-mail also says how far apart the two boats were and in which direction, whether she was under way, and when each boat was last heard, because the notice rests on those two reports. If your own boat's report is old, the e-mail says so. Nearby notices are worked out from position reports as they arrive, so they follow the real event rather than arriving with it, and they can be missed where coverage is thin. ### Turning them off **Near your boat** in [Notification settings](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) is the switch for these notices, and a boat's own switch under **Boats you follow** quietens her nearby notices along with her movements. **Mute her** on a notice about a boat you follow does the same. Without a boat linked, the row in Notification settings is there and does nothing until you link one. ## Following a cruise ship or a ferry Cruise ships and ferries are often heard near busy ports and coasts, so searching the ship's name is a useful starting point. Coverage still varies along the route. Expect that to be frequent. A ship calling somewhere most days is roughly two notices a day for the length of the voyage, and a working ferry is far more than that. You do not have to choose between that and losing her: **turn her E-mail off**, and she stops arriving in your inbox while staying somewhere you can look her up. Her entries in Notifications are gathered together too, so a day of ferry crossings reads as one line rather than a wall of them. The same applies to a ferry whose route passes near your boat: she is announced when she comes within your distance, and again only after she has been away for a while, and her E-mail switch is the volume control. On a longer ocean leg she can go quiet for days and reappear as she comes back into range. A marker that has not moved is telling you when she was last heard, not that she has stopped. ## Watching someone who is aboard {#watching-someone-who-is-aboard} If someone you care about is aboard, gaps in updates can be worrying. Here is what AIS Fleet can and cannot tell you: - **Long gaps can result from limited coverage.** AIS is a line-of-sight radio signal, so an offshore vessel may be beyond receiving stations for days. The absence of reports cannot establish her condition. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md) - **A departure or arrival notice can be late, or can not come at all.** They are worked out from her movement rather than announced by the vessel, so they follow the real event rather than arriving with it. A missing notice is not evidence about the vessel. - **The last-heard time on her panel is the more reliable number.** Notifications are a record of what has happened; her panel is what we currently know. - **A shift of berth or a drag at anchor can read as a short trip.** If you get a departure and an arrival ten minutes apart in the same harbour, that is usually what it was. - **Working ships keep working schedules.** A training ship, a research vessel or a supply boat may sit for a fortnight and then move three times in a day. Neither is a signal about anybody aboard. > [!WARNING] > **AIS Fleet cannot confirm that a vessel or the people aboard are safe.** It is not a navigation, collision avoidance, search and rescue or emergency service. If you believe someone is in danger, contact the coastguard or rescue service for that area. Do not wait for the map to update or for a reply from AIS Fleet support. Before a passage, it can help to agree with the person aboard how and when you will hear from them, allowing for the communication options available on their vessel. > [!NEXT] > What the chart is showing you, and what its silence means: [Reading the vessel map](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map.md). --- # Reading the vessel map Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map/ What the colours mean, the controls in the top-right corner, how zoom decides what is drawn, and why a vessel you can see one minute is gone the next. The map opens on a marine chart carrying the AIS traffic AIS Fleet has received, and updates while you watch. Use the controls to choose what appears, and check a vessel's last-heard time to understand how recent her position is. ## What the marks mean - **Vessels are coloured by type.** The categories are Sailing, Pleasure, Passenger, Cargo, Tanker, Fishing, Tug and workboat, Law Enforcement and Other, which is as fine as colours on a chart can usefully get. A vessel whose type does not fit any of the first eight is drawn as Other, which is where research ships, dredgers, pilot boats and anything unusual land. - **A moving vessel is drawn as an arrow on her course over ground**, which is the direction she is actually making rather than the way her bow points. A stopped one sits quietly and is not turned at all, and the selected one carries a ring. - **A boat you have a relationship with wears her own colour**: your own boat, the boats you follow and the boats on your lists, and your fleet mates. A boat can carry only one, so a fleet mate you also follow shows as one you follow, which is the stronger link of the two. - **A boat nobody has heard from in a while, but who you asked for by name**, is drawn as a hollow dashed ring rather than a hull, with her age written beside her. The shape is the point: an arrow would assert a heading her fix cannot support. > [!NOTE] > **Colour is the only thing separating one type from another on the chart.** If colours are hard for you to tell apart, tap any vessel and her panel names her type in words, and the **Types** panel lists every category by name beside its swatch. **Light and dark themes** are in the account menu, behind the person icon. ## The controls {#traffic-lists-and-fleets} They sit down the right-hand side, and which of them you see depends on what you have: - **Traffic** is a switch for the ordinary AIS traffic, everyone who is not one of yours. Turn it off and the anonymous vessels leave the chart while the boats you follow, your fleet mates, your own boat and whatever your own receivers hear stay, which is handy when you are hunting for your rally across half a sea or saving data on a slow connection. It is remembered on the device you set it on, and the line at the bottom of the map says "Traffic off" while it is. - **Lists** holds the boats you follow, sorted: Favorites, the boats you photographed, the lists you made and the lists you subscribe to, one row each with its own switch. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) - **Fleets** appears when you have a boat linked, a claim under way, an existing membership, or a plan that lets you start a fleet. You can organize a fleet on a paid plan without owning a boat. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) - **Local AIS** appears once you run an AIS receiver of your own, and opens what your receivers are hearing right now. [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md#see-what-it-hears) - **Types** is the filter and the legend at once: turn a category off to quieten the chart, and the swatches tell you what each colour means. **Show all** and **Hide all** at the top set every category at once, so watching one kind of boat is **Hide all** then the one you want. The panel is remembered. - **Fit track** joins them while a track is drawn, and frames the whole line. The zoom and locate buttons are on the left. Nothing here moves your map unless you ask it to. Switching a fleet on usually changes nothing you can see, because fleets are spread across the world, so the map says what it did: how many boats it put on the chart and how many are in your view, with **Show all** to frame them. Jumping to one boat from a list or a roster flies to her without turning her list back on, and closing her panel puts you back in the list you came from. ### The filter can never hide one of yours A vessel on a list you have switched on, a fleet mate from a fleet you have switched on, your own boat and the vessel you have selected keep their marker whatever else you switch off, Traffic included. A vessel your own receiver hears is ordinary traffic to the filter: hide her type and she goes with it. Her marker wears no colour for being heard by you; open **Local AIS** for the list, or tap her and her panel says your receiver heard her and when. A vessel within your plan on a list you have switched on is included even outside the current view. **Show all on the map** or her list row takes you to her last reported position. Switching all lists containing her off removes that list marker; she can still appear as ordinary traffic or through another enabled layer. You still follow her, and the map switch does not mute her notices. ### Names appear as you zoom in Your own boat and the boat you have selected are always named. The boats you follow and your fleet mates are named wherever their names fit without piling onto each other, so a rally seen from far out is a cluster of coloured marks with a few names, and every name is there by the time you are close enough to read them. Ordinary traffic is named from coastal zooms in. The coloured pool under a mark never disappears, so you can always tell one of yours from the crowd. ### Zoom decides how much is drawn At ocean scale the map draws the larger ships only. Zoom in and the smaller vessels join, and from coastal and harbour zooms it draws everything it has. A twenty metre boat appears as you zoom in rather than being missing. Where a view holds more traffic than the map will draw, it says the view was truncated rather than dropping the rest without telling you. Zooming in narrows the view and brings the rest back. ## Why a vessel disappears > [!IMPORTANT] > **A marker is not a promise that the vessel is there now.** Ordinary traffic leaves the chart when nothing has been heard from it lately, but a boat of your own keeps her marker at her last known position however old that position is, so that she does not vanish from your map mid-passage. That covers the vessels you follow and your fleet mates from the fleets you have switched on: a boat on passage is usually the one you most want to see, and she is also the one most likely to have gone quiet. **Tap any boat and her panel says when she was last heard, and that is the number to read.** Vessels you follow carry it on their row under **Lists** too. Following a link that names a vessel, from a notice or an e-mail, opens her on the chart whether or not she was drawn there already. If nothing has been heard from her for more than a day, the chart still goes to the position she last reported, draws her there while her panel is open, and says how long ago that report was. Closing her panel removes that extra marker; boats already on your map remain. If nobody has ever reported a position for her, the chart stays where it is and says so, and her panel opens on what is known about her. The ordinary explanations, in the order they are likely, are on [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md#i-cannot-see-a-vessel-on-the-map). If she is a boat you follow, her row under **Lists** tells you which of them it is faster than the chart will. > [!WARNING] > AIS Fleet is not a navigation, collision avoidance, search and rescue or emergency service, and must not be used as one. Reports can be late, missing, duplicated or wrong. What the chart cannot tell you is whether anybody aboard is all right. > [!NEXT] > Sorting what you follow, sharing a list and subscribing to one: [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md). --- # Lists Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists/ Sort the boats you follow into lists, keep a note on each, share a list so other members can subscribe to it, and subscribe to lists other members share. Includes when to use a list and when to use a fleet. A list is a set of boats you keep together, the way a playlist keeps songs: your favourite boats, the wooden ones in your bay, the superyachts you photograph. Adding another boat to **Favorites** or a custom list follows her. The automatic **Boats you photographed** list and lists you subscribe to work differently, as explained below. Your own linked boat can be on a custom list without using a follow slot. If what you want is a group whose boats all see one another and share a chat, that is a fleet rather than a list: [Lists or a fleet?](#lists-or-a-fleet) Open **Lists** in the map's controls and the panel shows your lists, each with a switch that draws its boats on the map. **All on** and **All off** at the top set every one of them. Switch a list off and its boats leave the map, the ones in view included: they show as ordinary traffic until you switch a list holding them back on. You still follow them, and a boat's page still says so. Tap a list for its boats, grouped by what they are doing, with a line each on where she is and when she was heard. ## Favorites, and the boats you photographed Two lists are yours from the start and never count against your plan's list number. - **Favorites** is the list the **Follow** button fills. Every boat you followed before lists existed is on it. It notifies you about its boats from the start, and it cannot be renamed or deleted. - **Boats you photographed** builds itself from your uploads: a vessel joins when you send a photo of her and leaves when you delete your last one from the **Photos** tab. It starts switched off and quiet, cannot be edited by hand, and cannot be shared. It appears once it holds a boat, and it keeps your switch while it holds none, so a photo you send later never puts the boats you photographed on the map uninvited. **The boats on it are not follows**: they cost you nothing, tell their owners nothing, and show you what AIS shows. ## Make a list Choose **New list** at the bottom of the Lists panel. A name is all it needs; a description is optional, and so is a note on any boat ("steam engine from 1930"), which everyone who can see the list can read. Three ways to put a boat on a list: - **From the map.** Tap any vessel and choose **Add to list** on her panel: tick the lists she belongs on, or make a new one with her already on it. **Follow** on the same row puts her on Favorites. - **From the list.** Open the list and choose **Add boats**, which searches by name, MMSI, call sign or IMO number; tapping a result adds her and brings you back. - **Paste MMSIs.** Under the list's settings, paste nine-digit MMSIs separated any way you like and add them all at once. The result says how many were added, were already there, were beyond your plan, or are waiting for AIS data: a boat nobody has heard yet joins by herself once a receiver hears her. A boat counts once toward your plan however many of your lists she is on. Taking a boat off her last list stops following her, and the panel says so, naming the lists she is leaving, before it does. **Adding a boat to your list can notify a linked AIS Fleet member or Saillogger owner**, naming the list. Most vessels have no linked account to notify. The owner's notification settings determine how the notice reaches them. Boats are listed in the order you added them, and **Move to top** on the settings page puts one first. That order matters once you share the list: a subscriber on a smaller plan sees the first boats first. Each list has its own notice rows, behind the row at the top of the list's roster and on its settings page: the departure and arrival notices, in the app and by e-mail, and, once your boat is linked and heard on AIS, a second row that tells you when one of its boats comes within a distance you choose of your boat. Favorites is on from the start, at 3 nautical miles for the second row; every other list is quiet until you turn it on. A boat notifies you when any list she is on says so, and her own switch under [Notification settings](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) can only quieten her. [When a boat comes near yours](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#near-your-boat) ## Share a list Turn **Public** on under the list's settings and a link appears. Anyone signed in to AIS Fleet with that link sees the list, your notes, and your name (your boat's name when one is linked), and can subscribe to it. Sharing a list tells nobody: the boats' owners heard when you added them, and nothing else changes for them. Turn Public off and the link stops working; subscribers are told the list is no longer shared. Delete the list and they are told it ended. A list's link is never given to another list. **There is no directory of public lists.** A list reaches people by its link, so it is worth putting somewhere people will find it: a forum post, a club page, a caption. The photographed list cannot be shared at all. ## Subscribe to a list Open a link somebody shared and the list appears in your Lists panel with **Subscribe** at the top, so you can look before you commit. It also tells you how many of its boats your plan will keep, before you decide. Subscribing puts its boats on your map and, once you turn the notices on, tells you when they depart or arrive; every change its creator makes reaches you as it happens. The creator's other public lists are offered under the same list. **Subscribing does not make you a follower of each boat.** Her owner is not told, you are not on her followers page, it opens no messages, and you see of each boat what AIS shows. A notice that reaches you through a subscribed list names the list it came from and carries no message action. **Follow** a boat you want to keep whatever happens to the list, and she is yours on Favorites. Subscribed lists have a switch for the map and their own notice rows, off until you turn them on, the nearby row included. **Unsubscribe** is behind the **Notifications and unsubscribing** row at the top of the list. ## What your plan counts Your plan sets how many lists you keep, made and subscribed to counted together, besides Favorites and the boats you photographed. See [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md). The boats across your lists count toward the same follow limit as the boats you follow directly, and a boat on two lists counts once. Subscribe to a list bigger than the room you have left and its first boats fill it; the rest wait under **Beyond your plan**, listed but not drawn and not announced. That is a plan limit rather than a fault, and the group says so. A boat you follow is always covered first, so following one is how you choose which boats fill your room. Make room, or move up a plan, and the rest come through. Move down a plan and the lists beyond it pause. The Lists panel groups them under **Not on your plan**, with the plan screen as their one action; a paused list of yours is frozen (nothing added, nothing drawn, no notices) until you make room or move up again, while anyone subscribed to it keeps seeing it as it was. A list that its creator stopped sharing, or deleted, is grouped under **No longer available** until you remove it. The same goes for the boats you follow: past your follow limit, the boats you followed first stay live and the rest wait under **Beyond your plan**, still yours and still listed, until you unfollow one or move up. ## Lists or a fleet? {#lists-or-a-fleet} Both put a group of boats on your map. What they do beyond that is not the same thing at all. **A list is something you do; a fleet is something a group does together.** Putting a boat on a list is one way: she joins nothing, and neither she nor her owner sees the list unless you make it public. No agreement is needed and none is asked for. A well-known expedition boat can be on thousands of strangers' lists without being in a group with any of them. A fleet runs the other way. Everyone in it sees the same roster, reads the same chat including what was said before they arrived, and can write to any of the others one to one. [What everyone in a fleet shares](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#what-everyone-shares) | What differs | A list | A fleet | |---|---|---| | Who adds a boat | You, to a list of your own | Its organizer, to a shared roster | | Which way it runs | One way. You watch her | Both ways. Everyone sees everyone | | What her owner sees of it | Nothing, unless you publish it | The whole roster, from the day she joins | | A chat | None | One, including what came before her | | Who else can see it | Nobody, unless you publish it | Its boats. A fleet started on Saillogger can also have a public map | | What it costs you | A follow per boat, and one of your lists | Being in one uses one of your active fleets. Running one is a separate allowance on a paid plan | **A list add is quiet, not invisible.** Adding a boat to Favorites or a custom list follows her, and whoever is linked to her here is told: an AIS Fleet member who has [claimed her](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md), that is, proved she is theirs, or the Saillogger owner behind her MMSI. A custom list is named in that notice; Favorites arrives as a new follower. From then on you are on her followers page, either of you can write to the other, and her owner can remove you as a follower, which also takes her off every list of yours she was on. **A fleet add reaches further, and only some boats can answer it.** An organizer can put any MMSI on a roster, but only a boat with an account behind her, claimed on AIS Fleet or logging with Saillogger, has anybody in the roster and the chat; the rest are markers on the fleet's map. A boat claimed here is always told when she is added, whatever her owner's notification settings say, and can leave in one tap. A boat nobody has claimed can be put on a roster with nobody to tell. What a membership carries is also bounded by your own plan: past the fleets it keeps active, one is listed and carries nothing. A boat can be on your lists and in your fleets at once. On the chart she is drawn as a boat you follow, which is why switching her fleet off does not take her away. ### Which one you want - **You are watching one or two particular ships**, a cruise ship somebody is aboard, a ferry, a training ship. Neither. Follow each one and she arrives on **Favorites**, which is a list you already have. Lists start to matter once Favorites holds more boats than you want to read at once. - **Your friends are boaters and you are not.** You want to see where they get to and hear when they set off. Follow each of their boats, so they are on Favorites together. They are told you followed, and nothing else is asked of them. - **You want the classic wooden hulls in your bay in one place, and the tugs in another.** Lists, one per theme. Those boats have no connection to one another, or to you, and none is needed. - **You are building a reference other people should be able to use**, say every nineteenth-century hull still afloat. A list with **Public** turned on. Anyone signed in who has the link can subscribe, as far as their own plan's list number allows, and what you add later reaches them as you add it. [Share a list](#share-a-list) - **You own a boat from a small builder and the other owners already have a group.** A fleet puts their boats on one map with a chat. Add the boats whose owners have agreed to be on it: each claimed boat's owner is told when you add her, they see one another on the roster, and any of them can leave. [Run a fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#run-a-fleet) - **Your club's boats should see one another and have somewhere to talk.** A fleet, built from the MMSIs of the members who have agreed to be on it, on a paid plan. You do not need a boat of your own to run one, so a club secretary can do it from the desk. One fleet holds up to 100 boats. If what you want instead is a map of the club's boats that you can hand to anyone, that is a public list. - **Most of your club has never signed in here.** A list, for now. A boat with no account behind her gets a marker on a fleet's map and nothing else: nobody to read the roster, and nobody to answer in the chat. Start the fleet once enough of their owners are here. A list cannot be turned into a fleet, or a fleet into a list. The two are built separately, a fleet's roster boat by boat. > [!NEXT] > The other way boats are grouped here, and the one that runs both ways: [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md). --- # Fleets Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets/ A fleet is a group of boats on one map with a chat of its own: a club, a rally, a class association, a family with two boats. How a fleet differs from a list, how your boat is added and how you leave, and how to run one. A fleet is a group of boats on one map with a chat of its own, where everyone in it can see and message everyone else: a club, a rally, a class association, a family with two boats. **A fleet runs both ways, and a [list](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) does not.** Put a boat on a list and you are watching her; put her in a fleet and everyone in it sees everyone else. [Lists or a fleet?](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#lists-or-a-fleet) works the choice through with examples. Nobody can put a claimed boat in a fleet quietly: her owner is told, and Leave is one tap on the fleet's page and in every e-mail the fleet sends. You meet a fleet when your boat is in one, or when you run one; watching boats needs neither. ## What everyone in a fleet shares {#what-everyone-shares} A fleet has one organizer, who owns the roster and can rename or delete the fleet. Beyond that there is no rank: from the day a boat joins, whoever is behind her has what everyone already there has, within the fleets their own plan keeps active. [How many are live at once](#how-many-are-live-at-once) - **The roster.** Every boat in the fleet, grouped by what she is doing, with where each one is and when she was last heard. - **The map.** Fleet mates appear in their own colour among the traffic, so turning **Traffic** off leaves only the boats that are yours. [Reading the vessel map](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-vessel-map.md#traffic-lists-and-fleets) - **The chat**, including what was said in it before they arrived. Fleet messages are removed for everyone after 30 days, as every message on AIS Fleet is. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md#fleet-chat) - **One-to-one messages with any of them.** Being in the same fleet is one of the connections that lets two members write to each other privately, whether or not either follows the other. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md) Which boats can use any of it depends on what is behind them. A boat claimed on AIS Fleet, or one logging with Saillogger, has a person on the roster and in the chat. A boat nobody has claimed is a marker on the fleet's map: nothing reaches her crew, and there is nothing for them to leave until she is claimed. [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) ## Being in a fleet **You are in a fleet when its organizer adds your boat's MMSI to the roster.** Give them your MMSI and ask; there is no self-service join. **A boat claimed here is always told when she is added.** A notice arrives in the app and by e-mail, naming who added her and which fleet, whatever your notification settings say. [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) **A boat that logs with Saillogger joins without a claim.** An organizer can add her only while her owner shares her publicly, so nothing an owner keeps private reaches a fleet's map, and the fleet appears on her owner's fleet page on saillogger.com, where Leave also lives. **Fleets** on the map opens the ones you are in. Each has a switch, and a fleet is on the map from the moment you join it; switch one off and it stays off on every device you use, because the choice is kept on your account rather than in your browser. Tap a fleet's name for its roster, with **Fleet chat** and **Show all on the map** at the top. Tap a boat to jump to her. The roster carries both kinds of member: boats that log with Saillogger, and boats that appear on AIS alone. Positions on a fleet map are the AIS positions of the boats in it. **Fleet chat is for current members only**, even where the fleet's map is public. ### Notices from a fleet {#notices-from-a-fleet} A fleet's page carries the same two notice rows a list has, behind the row at the top of its roster: **Notifications and leaving** in a fleet somebody else runs, **Notifications and settings** in one of your own. That row's second line says which notices are on. The rows are **When these boats depart or arrive**, and, once your boat is linked and heard on AIS, **When one of these boats comes within** a distance you choose **of your boat**. Both are off until you turn their **Notifications** switch on, with **E-mail** beside it for the same notice in your inbox, and the choice is yours alone: an organizer cannot set it for the fleet. A notice about a boat you do not already follow names the fleet it came from and offers **Message** where the two of you can write to each other; one about a boat you follow arrives on her own row as usual, with the fleet's switches added to hers. Your own boat's movements are never announced to you. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#near-your-boat) ### Leaving Every e-mail from a fleet you are in ends with a link that takes your boat out of it in one tap, and the fleet's page on the map has **Leave fleet**, behind the **Notifications and leaving** row at the top of its roster. Leaving takes her off the fleet's map and you out of its chat and its e-mails. Tick **Also block** as you leave and the organizer cannot add her again; you can lift that under **Blocked boats** in Messages. Your organizer is not told that you left, and you are not told if they take your boat off the roster. In both directions the fleet simply stops being in your list. ### If a fleet disappears from your list Either your boat has come off its roster, or its organizer has deleted the fleet, which also ends its chat for everyone in it. A notice tells you when a fleet you were in has ended. Every fleet's page names who runs it, so you know whom to ask. ### How many are live at once Your plan sets how many of the fleets you are in stay active at once, oldest membership first. It does not limit how many you may join: memberships beyond it stay listed under **Not on your plan** and carry nothing, no roster, no positions, no chat, no switch on the map, and no messaging reach to those boats in either direction. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) For example, a member on Basic who is added to a second fleet can use only their first active membership until they leave it or change plans. Include this when inviting people to a group. ## Run a fleet {#run-a-fleet} A paid plan lets you start and run fleets of your own: one on Plus, up to five on Pro. That is a separate number from the fleets you are in, and a fleet you run never uses up one of your active fleets. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) **You do not need a boat linked to start one**, so a rally organizer or club secretary ashore can run a fleet from the desk. 1. Open **Fleets** on the map and press **Start a fleet** at the foot of the list, or go to [aisfleet.com/fleets/new](https://aisfleet.com/fleets/new). Give it a name; if your boat is linked, she is on the roster from the start. 2. You land on the fleet's **Settings**, which is also behind **Fleet settings** on the fleet's page. Under **Boats**, search any boat by name, MMSI, call sign or IMO number and press **Add**. 3. **Name** renames the fleet and its link stays the same. **Delete fleet** ends it for everyone in it, and the page counts what that takes with it before you confirm. **One fleet holds up to 100 boats.** A larger club needs more than one, or a public [list](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#share-a-list). A few rules worth knowing before you invite people: - **Boaters with an AIS Fleet account are told when you add them, and they can leave.** Add the boats you have agreed with. - **A boat with no account behind her is a marker on the fleet map and nothing more.** Nobody is notified and nobody can answer in the chat, so ask her owner to [claim her](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) if you want them in the conversation. A boat that already logs with Saillogger needs no claim. Adding a vessel does not create an account for her crew. - **A Saillogger boat can be added only if her owner shares her publicly.** That is their decision, not something we can wave through. - **A boat we have not heard on AIS yet waits on the roster** and joins by herself once a receiver hears her. - **Members linked to the boats you add can use the roster and chat**, while the fleet is active within their plan. - **A fleet you run is private**: its members see it on their maps and in their chat, and nobody else does. If what you want is something you can hand to anyone with a link, share a [public list](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#share-a-list) instead. - **Starting and managing a fleet is on the website.** The app can show you a fleet, its roster and its chat, and can leave one. [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md#what-still-lives-in-the-browser) - **The roster's notice rows work for you as they do for any member.** Without a boat linked, the departure and arrival row is offered and the nearby row is not. If you move to a plan that runs fewer fleets than you have, the first fleets you started stay live and the rest **pause for everyone in them** until you delete one or move up again. A paused fleet takes no new boats. You are told before it happens when a cancellation is scheduled, and again when it does. > [!NEXT] > The member-built photo catalog, and how to add your own pictures to it: [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md). --- # Vessel photos Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos/ Browse and contribute vessel photographs, understand review and photo credit, and choose whether to include location metadata. What publication and the photo licence mean for your pictures. Every vessel on AIS Fleet can carry photographs, and members are the people who take them. The catalog is shared: a photo you add to a vessel is the photo everyone else sees on her. ## Catching one worth photographing The map and vessel details can help you plan where to photograph ships: - **Departure notices can help you follow movements.** Follow vessels that call nearby and receive notices when AIS Fleet detects a departure. Notices may arrive late or be missed, so check the latest report before setting out. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) - **Search results carry a distance and a direction** from your own boat, when one is linked and reporting, or otherwise from the middle of the map you are looking at. - **Her panel carries her speed, her course and when she was last heard.** A destination line appears on the vessels that broadcast one, which is a minority, and it is typed in by hand aboard. - **Track history shows where she has actually been**, which is a useful reference for how she moves in your water: the last day on every plan, and up to the last week or month on a paid plan. It is a record and not a forecast. - **Every boat you photograph is kept for you** on the **Boats you photographed** list, so a season's work is a list rather than a memory. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) **There is no arrivals board.** AIS Fleet answers "where is this vessel" rather than "what is due here", so the way to work a port is to follow the vessels that call there and let the departure notices warn you. There is no ETA, no alert when a vessel comes within a distance of you, and no way to be told about a vessel nobody is watching for you. ## Photos on a vessel Open a vessel and her photos are on her panel. They open full screen, and the count sits on the cover so you know how many there are before you tap. Two different things can appear there, and it is worth knowing which is which: - **Catalog photos** are contributed by members, reviewed before they appear, and published with a small two-line mark drawn into the picture: **Saillogger** on the first line and the photographer's credit under it when one was given. - **An owner's own photo of their boat**, published through their Saillogger profile, belongs to them. It is not moderated here and it carries no mark. ## Contribute a photo Open a vessel on the map and choose **Add photo**, or start from the **Photos** tab, which also lists everything you have contributed. The **Photos** tab route asks for her nine-digit MMSI, so the map route is the easier one when you know her by name. She has to be a vessel AIS Fleet has already heard, the same ones you can follow. JPG, PNG, GIF and HEIC files are accepted, up to 20 MB. **Every submission is reviewed before it appears.** While it waits, you see your own photo on the vessel marked **Awaiting review**, and nobody else does. Sending one is logged in your Notifications, and the answer arrives there and by e-mail either way. If we cannot publish it, the note says why, the file is deleted, and the e-mail brings you back to the uploader for that vessel so you can send another. Photo answers are always sent, whatever your notification settings say: they answer something you asked for. You can delete your own photos, published or waiting, from the **Photos** tab. A published photo can also be taken down by us later if someone raises a problem with it. ### The credit The **photo credit** box is yours, and what you type is remembered for the next upload. Your credit is not a caption bolted on beside the picture: it is drawn into the image itself, under the Saillogger mark, so it travels with the copies AIS Fleet serves. Leave the box blank and the photo publishes uncredited, and note that a very small rendering carries the mark alone, because the credit line would be too small to read. The contribution agreement is the exact promise here, and it does not guarantee credit in every place a photo is used. ### If an upload fails | What you see | What happened | What to do | | --- | --- | --- | | The photo is too large to open | The picture contains more detail than we can safely process, even where the file is under 20 MB | Save or share a smaller copy as a JPG and send that one | | We could not read the photo | The file could not be decoded; it may be damaged or incomplete | Download the original fully, or export a fresh JPG copy, then try again | | We did not receive the photo | The file never reached us, even though you had chosen it | Worth retrying: choose the photo again and resubmit. If the same picture keeps failing, it is most likely still held in iCloud or another cloud library rather than on the device in front of you, so save a copy to the device and send that | ### The location saved in your photo Photos often store the exact spot and time they were taken. **Include the location saved in this photo** is ticked by default at upload. Untick it and that location stays out of the catalog and the public display. The original file on your phone or camera still carries it either way, so if you would rather it was never stored at all, strip the metadata before you upload. ## What publishing gives away > [!IMPORTANT] > **You keep your copyright.** Accepting a photo into the catalog gives Saillogger LLC lasting permission to use it, and that permission reaches further than the vessel's own page: published photos are shown to every member, are included in the vessel data we license to other software, and may be redistributed to the partners we supply. You can withdraw a photo while it is still waiting for review. **Once it is published, deleting it later does not end the permission.** Please read the [AIS Vessel Photo Contribution Agreement](https://aisfleet.com/vessel-photo-contribution-agreement/) before your first upload: it is short, it sets out exactly what the permission covers, and it is the actual agreement rather than this summary of it. Two practical notes that follow from it: - **Your original is kept, and never shown.** What AIS Fleet displays and licenses is one watermarked copy at display size; the full-resolution file you sent stays private. - **A copy already in somebody's browser or in a cache can outlive a takedown** by days. Removing a photo stops it being served; it cannot reach into a copy that has already left. ## If the boat in the photograph is yours Members can contribute photographs of your boat, so her gallery may contain pictures you did not take. A person reviews every submission before it appears. If a published photo of your boat shows something you would rather it did not, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI and we will take it down. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) covers the rest of what other people can see. > [!NEXT] > Why a few boats on the chart carry a journal, a real logged track and their owner's own photo: [Boats that log with Saillogger](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md). --- # Boats that log with Saillogger Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger/ A few boats on the chart carry more than AIS broadcasts: their owner's photo, a journal from the trip, and the real logged track of the passage she is on. What that is, and why it can disappear. Most of what you see on AIS Fleet is what a vessel broadcasts over the air. A few boats carry more, and this page is why. Some boaters keep their logbook with [Saillogger](https://saillogger.com), our companion product for boat owners: a device aboard uploads the boat's position and instrument data, and Saillogger writes up every trip automatically. When such an owner chooses to share, that work reaches AIS Fleet too. You need no Saillogger account to see any of it, and nothing you do here requires one. ## What she carries {#boats-that-log-with-saillogger} Open one of these boats and her panel can hold, on top of the ordinary AIS lines: - **Their own photo of the boat**, published from their Saillogger profile. It leads her gallery, and unlike a catalog photo it carries no watermark and no credit line, because it is the owner's own picture of their own boat. - **Her journal**: the dated notes and photographs posted from the trip, in the boater's own words. It opens as a card and reads full screen, twenty entries at a time, and tapping an entry takes the map to where it was written. - **Her voyage**: the real logged passage, drawn from her own log rather than from AIS, so it is the track she actually sailed rather than the fixes a receiver happened to catch. **Hide voyage** puts it away and **Show voyage** restores it. It is the passage she is on now, not her season and not her back catalogue. - **Her own position reports**, sent from aboard whenever she has an internet connection, so she can keep moving on your map where nothing ashore is receiving her. This is why a Saillogger boat sometimes crosses an ocean on the chart while the traffic around her goes dark. **AIS track history stays available on the same boat**, including the seven-day and thirty-day windows on the paid plans. Choosing one replaces the voyage line so the two histories never overlap, and it stays selected even if the owner's voyage is still loading; **Show voyage** switches back. ## It is the owner's choice, every time you look All of it is decided by that boater, and it is re-checked every time you open her rather than fixed on the day you followed her. The controls are in their Saillogger settings, on two tabs: 1. **Sharing** decides whether you get the detail at all: the journal, the logged voyage and their photo of the boat. 2. **Integrations** decides where the marker itself comes from: her own reports, or only what AIS receivers hear. **A journal or logged track may disappear if the owner changes their sharing settings or access password.** That change alone tells you nothing about the boat's condition. AIS positions can still be shown when reports reach the network. ## If the boat is password protected Some boaters put an access password on their pages. Following such a boat offers you the choice: enter the password and you see everything they share, or follow with AIS positions only. You can enter it later from her panel, and if the owner changes the password you are asked for the new one. Until you have it, she behaves like any other AIS vessel. ## If the boat is private A boat her owner keeps private is followed the way any AIS vessel is, showing her broadcast position and nothing of the owner's own. That follow does not reveal the owner and does not open a message to them. Following respects the owner's privacy settings. Messages can become available if the boat is claimed on AIS Fleet, the owner later chooses to be reachable, you share an active fleet, or a conversation already exists. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md) ## If this is your boat You are reading the watcher's half. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) is the same ground from your side: what strangers can see, and which switch changes each thing. The switches themselves live in your Saillogger settings and are documented in [Share your journey](https://saillogger.com/docs/share-your-boat.md) in the Saillogger guide. > [!NEXT] > What is free, what the paid plans add, and how billing works: [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md). --- # Plans and billing Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing/ What the free plan does, what Plus and Pro add, and how billing works whether you subscribed on the website or in the app. Following five vessels is free, and the free plan is not a trial: it does not expire and it never asks for a card. ## What each plan does {#plans-and-limits} | Plan | Price | Boats you can follow | Lists | Fleets you can be in | Fleets you can run | Track history | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Basic | Free | 5 | 1 | 1 | none | 24 hours | | Plus | $1.99 per month | 25 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 days | | Pro | $4.99 per month | 100 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 30 days | **The map, search, departure and arrival notices, photos, messages and your own AIS receiver are available on every plan, the free one included.** Paid plans increase the number of boats you can follow, lists you can keep, fleets you can use and fleets you can run, plus the length of track history you can view. Prices are shown in US dollars on the website. In the App Store you are charged in your own currency, at Apple's equivalent price. ### The columns, one at a time - **Boats you can follow.** Boats within your plan appear through their enabled lists, keep their last known position and can send departure and arrival notices. The type filter does not hide an enabled list's boats. At the limit, you can unfollow a boat to make room for another. Existing follows are retained after a downgrade, but those beyond the new limit pause as described below. - **Lists.** How many lists you keep besides Favorites and the boats you photographed, the ones you made and the ones you subscribe to counted together. The boats across your lists count toward the follow limit above; a boat on two lists counts once. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) - **Fleets you can be in.** How many of the groups your boat has been added to stay live at once, oldest membership first. It does not limit how many you may join: memberships beyond it stay listed but carry nothing, no roster, no positions, no chat and no messaging reach to those boats. - **Fleets you can run.** How many you can start and organize yourself. A separate number, and a fleet you run never uses up one of the fleets you can be in. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) - **Track history.** How far back the AIS track behind a vessel is drawn: the last 24 hours on Basic, the last 7 days on Plus, the last 30 days on Pro. Windows beyond your plan stay visible on her panel and say which plan unlocks them rather than disappearing, and asking for one you do not have is answered with the plan, never with a half-drawn line labelled as something it is not. **A longer track window does not improve coverage.** Gaps in received reports remain gaps on every plan; upgrading cannot supply a position the network did not receive. ### Where you meet a limit - Following past your limit is refused, with the plan screen offered. Unfollow a vessel you no longer watch, or move up. - Subscribing to a list bigger than the room you have left keeps its first boats and lists the rest under **Beyond your plan**. That is a plan limit, not a fault. [What your plan counts](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#what-your-plan-counts) - Fleets beyond your plan are grouped under **Not on your plan** in the Fleets panel. - A track window you do not have says which plan has it. ## Subscribing on the website Plans are managed on the **Plan** screen in the account menu. Choosing one takes you to a card payment; from then on that screen also holds **Manage billing**, which is where you change your card, read your invoices, switch between Plus and Pro, and cancel. - **Switching between Plus and Pro takes effect straight away**, with the difference charged or credited on the spot rather than at the end of the month. - **Cancelling leaves the plan running to the end of the period you have paid for**, and you keep the follows you already have while it runs. There is no refund for the remainder of a month you have paid for. - **If a card payment fails, you keep your plan while it is retried.** Nothing is switched off on the first failed attempt; the Plan screen and your e-mail will ask you to update the card. ## Subscribing in the app The same plans are sold in the AIS Fleet app for iPhone, as App Store subscriptions. A plan is one plan wherever you bought it, and it is the same account. **It is billed where you bought it**, and that is the part worth getting right: - One bought **in the app** is paid to Apple and cancelled in your Apple ID subscription settings. The Plan screen on the website will keep pointing you there rather than offering to bill you a second time. - One bought **on the website** is paid by card and cancelled under **Manage billing**. - **Check where your current plan is billed before subscribing.** Each side warns you when the other already has a plan running. - **Restore purchases**, on the app's plan screen, brings an App Store subscription back after a reinstall or a new phone. - **If you change to a cheaper plan in the App Store**, the change takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, so the app will say you are on Pro and renewing to Plus until then. That is accurate rather than a mistake. - **If an App Store renewal cannot be collected, paid access may pause while Apple retries it.** The Plan screen keeps pointing you to Apple to update or cancel that subscription and does not offer a card subscription meanwhile. > [!IMPORTANT] > **Closing your AIS Fleet account does not cancel an App Store subscription.** Only you can do that, in your Apple ID settings, and Apple will keep billing you otherwise. A website plan is cancelled for you as part of the deletion. [Closing your account](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#closing-your-account) ## Complimentary plans Some accounts carry a plan we granted rather than one that was bought: a member who helped us, an early contributor, an arrangement with a club. The Plan screen says so, shows no upgrade and no billing controls, and there is nothing to cancel. If you hold one and want a different plan, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) rather than buying alongside it. ## Moving down a plan Nothing is deleted when you move down, and nothing is deleted when a plan lapses. What happens instead is that the extra capacity goes quiet: - **Follows past the new limit** stay listed under **Beyond your plan**, still yours, not drawn and not announced, until you unfollow something or move up. - **Lists past the new limit** pause: nothing added, nothing drawn, no notices. Anyone subscribed to one of your lists keeps seeing it as it was. - **Fleets past the new limit** carry nothing until there is room. - **Fleets you run past the new limit** pause for everyone in them, first fleets kept. You are told before it happens when a cancellation is scheduled, and again when it does. Move back up and everything comes back as it was. > [!NEXT] > Writing to another member, and who is allowed to write to you: [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md). --- # Messages Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages/ Write to the boater behind a vessel you follow, to anyone who follows your boat, and to your fleet mates. Who can reach you, how you appear, and how to stop someone. You can write to the boater behind a boat you follow, to anyone who follows your boat, and to the boats in your fleets. **You do not need a boat of your own to send a message**, only a connection with the person you are writing to. New conversations need that connection. An existing direct conversation can continue after a follow or fleet membership ends, unless either participant blocks the other. ## How you appear - **By your boat's name** when one is linked to your account, and by the full name on your account otherwise. - **Never by your e-mail address.** Nobody on AIS Fleet sees it. Starting a conversation searches by boat name, not by a person's name and not by an address, which is the same rule from the other direction. ## Writing - Open a vessel and choose **Message**, or start from the **Messages** screen. - **Each message you send e-mails the other person**, unless they have turned **Direct messages** or **Fleet messages** off in their own notification settings, so a conversation usually works when neither of you is looking at the site. - **You can attach photographs**, a few per message. - **You can react to a message** with an emoji, one per person, tapped to add and tapped again to take away. - **Mark all read** clears the unread count on the inbox. - There is a limit on how long a message can be and how many you can send in a day, generous enough that ordinary conversation never meets it. ## What happens to messages > [!IMPORTANT] > **Messages are kept for 30 days and then removed for everyone, photographs included, read or not.** If something matters, keep it somewhere else. This is not a setting and there is no archive. **Clear conversation**, in the menu at the top of a thread, hides that conversation for you and deletes nothing for the other person. It comes back if they write again. ## When a boat cannot be written to {#when-a-boat-cannot-be-written-to} Most of the traffic on the chart has nobody behind it. That is the ordinary case rather than a fault, and AIS Fleet says which of two reasons it is. - **Nobody has claimed her.** Most vessels are boats we know only from their AIS signal, and there is no reachable account to show you. A Saillogger owner who keeps their boat private is deliberately presented the same way, because a private boat is somebody who has said no. If you know her owner, **Tell her owner** hands you a short note to send them however you already talk: a text, an e-mail, anything. Its link carries the boat's MMSI straight into the claim wizard, and claiming a boat is free. You can also just follow her; messages become available when somebody claims her or her owner later chooses to be reachable. - **She is claimed, but you have no connection with her yet.** Following her opens messages in both directions straight away, and she is told she has a new follower. Both answers, and the steps under them, are on the website and in the app. ## Fleet chat Every fleet has a chat of its own, for its current members only, even where the fleet's map is public. - **Fleet chat needs a boat linked to your account**, because fleet membership follows the boat. One-to-one messages do not. - **Only fleets your plan keeps live carry a chat**, and the same is true of reaching those boats one to one: a membership beyond your plan, or a fleet its organizer's plan has paused, confers nothing in either direction. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) - Leaving a fleet takes you out of its chat. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) ## Stopping someone Open your conversation with them and use **Block boat** from the menu in its header. - Blocking works **both ways** and hides the conversation for both of you. - It is **not announced** to the other side. - Your blocks are listed under **Blocked boats** on the Messages screen, where you can undo them. - Blocking does not change who follows whom, and fleet chats you share are unaffected. > [!IMPORTANT] > If contact is unwanted or raises a privacy or safety concern, you can block the person and write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com). Include the account or boat involved so we can review it. [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#if-someone-is-watching-you) ## Where a message lands for a Saillogger boater Some of these conversations have a Saillogger boater on the other end. When their sharing makes them reachable, your message arrives in their Saillogger messages, under your boat's name or your published full name. A private owner is not exposed to you, but can still choose to start a conversation from their side after learning of the follow; once started, both sides can continue it. > [!NEXT] > Signing in, what other members can see of you, being watched, and closing the account: [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md). --- # Your account and privacy Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy/ Signing in without a password, what other members can see of you, what AIS Fleet does with vessel data, what to do if someone is watching you, and how to close your account. ## Signing in without a password AIS Fleet has no passwords. You type your e-mail address, we send a six-digit code, and typing it in signs you in for about three months on that device. **Anyone who can read your e-mail can request a code and sign in as you.** Protect your mailbox with a strong password and two-factor authentication, and keep sign-in codes private. If your mailbox was compromised, secure it and write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) for help securing your AIS Fleet account. Changing your e-mail password does not end an AIS Fleet session that is already signed in. Signing out of the current device is in the account menu. If the code does not arrive, [Follow your first vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md#if-the-code-does-not-arrive) has the list. **You must be 18 or over to hold an account.** ## What other members can see of you - **Your name**, as you gave it when you signed up, or **your boat's name** once one is linked. Change it under **Account** in the account menu whenever you like. - **That you followed a boat, or added her to a list**, where an AIS Fleet member or Saillogger owner is linked to her. They can receive a notice with your display name and the list's name. They never see your e-mail address. - **Your notes on a list you have made public**, and your name on it. - **Whatever you write in a message**, to the person you wrote it to, or to the fleet. **Your e-mail address is never shown to another member.** Your follows become visible as a list only if you choose to share that list. There is no public profile page or viewing history that other members can browse. A photo credit you enter and publish is also visible on that photo. ## Terms, and being asked again The [Terms](https://aisfleet.com/terms/) and [Privacy Policy](https://aisfleet.com/privacy/) are linked from the account menu. When a new version requires your acceptance, AIS Fleet asks you to read and accept it before continuing to your account. ## Measurement, and cookies AIS Fleet measures how the site is used without cookies, which is why there is no cookie banner here and why the Privacy Policy can say essential cookies only. No advertising, no third-party trackers, and no user identifier sent to the measurement. ## What AIS Fleet does with vessel data **Positions received by our network can be part of the vessel data we license to other software.** Products include a recent position, AIS track history, recent port calls and licensed vessel photographs. This can also include position reports shared directly by a Saillogger boat while its owner enables the **AIS Fleet** integration. **It does not include your journal, logged voyage track, messages or private account data.** Catalog photographs are licensed under their separate contribution agreement. If your boat's position on the map is coming from Saillogger rather than from a receiver, you decide that: [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md#what-you-control) is where. What your own transceiver broadcasts is heard by every AIS receiver and every AIS site, ours included, and no site can stop that. ## If someone is watching you {#if-someone-is-watching-you} A follow is one-way and needs nobody's permission, which is right for a public safety broadcast and can still feel wrong when the boat somebody is following is your home. There are controls for unwanted contact and for what you share, and there is one thing no control reaches. What you can do yourself: - **Remove a follower.** If your boat is claimed, her followers are listed in your account and you can take one off. Your boat leaves their following list and they are not told. They can follow her again later; removal does not prevent future follows. - **Block them from messaging you.** [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md#stopping-someone) - **Turn off what is yours to turn off.** A Saillogger boater decides whether their journal, their logged track and their own position reports travel with the AIS position. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) What you cannot do, and we will not pretend otherwise: **take your AIS position off the internet.** Your transponder broadcasts in the open to every receiver in range, no setting here reaches it, and we cannot reach copies other services already hold. AIS equipment has a safety role and may be required aboard, so a decision about the transponder itself is one made aboard. > [!IMPORTANT] > **If the worry is harassment or your safety, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com).** Include the vessel's MMSI and the account or the activity involved. We will look at the account behind it with you, and there are steps open to us that are not open to you. Do not sit with it. ## Your data You can ask us for a copy of what your account holds, or ask us to correct it, by writing to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) from the address the account uses. The [Privacy Policy](https://aisfleet.com/privacy/) sets out the rights you have and how we handle a request. AIS Fleet is in English only at the moment: the site, the app and every e-mail. ## Closing your account {#closing-your-account} Open **Account** from the account menu and scroll to **Danger zone**. Expand **Delete account**, choose **Review account deletion**, then type your e-mail address to confirm. Before you confirm, the screen lists what deletion affects: follows, lists, fleet memberships, fleets you run, receivers and conversations. A shared list or fleet you run can also affect other members, so review those details before confirming. The account closes immediately and you are signed out. **Thirty days later it becomes permanently unrecoverable**, and we delete its private account data. Once the account is closed, that address cannot sign in or create a new account. **If you closed it by mistake, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) within thirty days for help restoring it.** You cannot reopen it by signing in. A website plan ends when you close, so you may need to subscribe again after recovery. After the thirty-day deletion period, the account cannot be restored. Three things do not go with the account: - **A subscription bought in the iPhone app is billed by Apple**, and only you can cancel it, in your Apple ID subscription settings. **Deleting your AIS Fleet account does not stop that billing, so cancel it first.** The delete screen asks you to confirm you have. A plan bought on the website is cancelled for you as part of the deletion, with no refund for the rest of the month you have paid for. - **Photographs you added to the vessel catalog stay published**, with the credit you gave them. The permission you granted when you submitted a photo is permanent, and the screen says so before you confirm. Delete any you would rather not leave behind from your **Photos** page first. - **Messages are shared.** Your access ends with the account, but deleting it does not erase another participant's copy early. Direct and fleet messages and their attachments continue to expire under the ordinary 30-day rule. Deleting your AIS Fleet account has no effect on a Saillogger account at the same address. They are separate accounts, and closing a Saillogger one is covered in [Your account and privacy](https://saillogger.com/docs/account-and-privacy.md) in the Saillogger guide. > [!NEXT] > If your boat appears on the map, here is what people can see and what you control: [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md). --- # Your boat on AIS Fleet Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet/ Why your boat may appear on AIS Fleet, what other members can see, which sharing choices are yours, and how to get help with unwanted attention. Your boat can appear on AIS Fleet when an AIS receiver reports her broadcasts to our network, without you creating an account. Some Saillogger owners also choose to share positions directly over the internet. This page explains what other members can see, what you control and how to ask for help with privacy concerns. ## What a stranger can see Anyone signed in to AIS Fleet, on the free plan, can see of your boat: - **Her name, her MMSI, her type, her flag, her length and her beam**, as she broadcasts them. - **Her position, speed and course** as last heard, and when that was. - **Where she has been**, from the reports available to AIS Fleet: the last 24 hours on the free plan, and up to the last 7 or 30 days on a paid one. - **Photographs other people have taken of her**, if any member has contributed one. [If somebody photographs your boat](#if-somebody-photographs-your-boat) - **That she is in a fleet**, to the members of that fleet. They cannot see who owns her, your name, your e-mail address, or anything you have not broadcast, unless you have chosen to publish it (below). Following her is one-way and does not require approval. If she is claimed on AIS Fleet, **you can receive a notice when somebody follows her or adds her to a list**, showing their display name. Choose the channels under **New followers** in Notification settings. ## What you control {#what-you-control} Two different things, and it matters which is which. **What she broadcasts over the air is not ours to switch off.** Your transponder transmits to every receiver in range, and every AIS site and their customers carry it. There is no button on any website that stops that, and we would rather say so than let you believe otherwise. AIS equipment has a safety role and may be required aboard your vessel, so a decision about the transponder itself is one made aboard. If something about how your boat appears here worries you, write to us and we will look at it with you, though we cannot reach copies other services already hold. **What travels with that position is yours to decide**, if you keep a logbook with [Saillogger](https://saillogger.com): | What | Where you decide it | | --- | --- | | Your journal, your logged voyage track and your own photo of the boat | **Settings** > **Sharing** on saillogger.com | | Whether her marker here comes from your own position reports or only from what receivers hear | The **AIS Fleet** switch under **Settings** > **Integrations** | | Who can see any of it | The access password on your public pages, in the same Sharing tab | All of it is re-checked every time somebody looks, not fixed on the day they followed you: turn something off and it is off for everyone from that moment, including people already following. The switches are documented in [Share your journey](https://saillogger.com/docs/share-your-boat.md) in the Saillogger guide, which is where a Saillogger boater's own settings live. If you do not use Saillogger, those integration and sharing switches do not apply. You can still manage followers once your boat is claimed, block unwanted messages and contact us about vessel data or photographs that concern you. ## Your boat's data can be licensed **AIS Fleet licenses vessel data to other software**, including recent positions, AIS tracks, recent port calls and licensed catalog photographs. Where such an answer would be built from a position **Saillogger sent on your behalf**, the **AIS Fleet** switch under **Settings** > **Integrations** decides it, and switching it off keeps your own reports out of what we sell. Where it is built from what a receiver heard over the air, it is the same public broadcast every AIS site carries, and no switch here changes that. It never includes your journal, your logged track, your messages or anything about your account. ## Who follows your boat Once your boat is claimed here, her followers are listed in your account under **Followers**, in the account menu. - Each new one reaches you in Notifications and by e-mail, offering to **Follow back** where that member can be reached. - A member who adds her to one of their lists reaches you the same way, and the notice says it was a list, naming it. - **Someone who subscribes to a list your boat is on is not a follower**: they are not listed, you are not told, they cannot message you through it, and they see only her AIS position. - **You can remove a follower.** Your boat leaves their following list and they are not told, though anyone can follow an AIS-broadcasting boat again later. **If your boat keeps her log with Saillogger, her followers list lives on Saillogger instead**, at [saillogger.com/app/followers](https://saillogger.com/app/followers), and AIS Fleet followers appear there with an **AIS Fleet** badge. That list is not the whole picture, though: it shows the people who can open your pages right now, so it is empty while **Live tracking & monitoring** is off, and an AIS Fleet follower who does not hold your current access password drops off it while still following your AIS position. ## Being watched when you would rather not be The map reports vessel movements, but cannot establish whether anyone is aboard. That limitation does not remove the privacy concerns a visible position can raise. - **A boat laid up for the winter.** Her transponder is usually off, so she is not reporting; what is on the chart is her last position, ageing. Anyone reading her panel sees how old it is. - **Anchored alone somewhere.** A follower can see where you anchored and when you got there. They cannot see whether anybody is aboard, and a stale marker is not evidence of anything: it looks the same whether you are asleep below, ashore for a week, or have your instruments off. - **Sailing shorthanded.** The same applies. AIS says a hull is somewhere; it says nothing about who is on her, and it never has. If attention is unwanted, or you have a privacy or safety concern, **write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com)** with your boat's MMSI and the activity involved. We can review it with you. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md#stopping-someone) explains how to block contact in the meantime. ## If somebody photographs your boat {#if-somebody-photographs-your-boat} Members may contribute photographs of your boat, so her gallery can contain pictures you did not take. A person reviews every submission before it appears. If a published photo of your boat shows something you would rather it did not, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI and we will take it down. [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md) ## Claiming her, fleets and messages **[Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md)** is what makes her yours here: her followers listed for you, members able to write to you under her name, notices when a boat you watch comes near her, and nobody else able to claim her afterwards. It is free, and it changes nothing about what people can see. ### Fleets {#fleets} A fleet is a group of boats on one map with a chat of its own, and you are in one when its organizer adds your MMSI. Everyone in a fleet sees everyone else, which is what separates it from a [list](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md), where one member is sorting the boats they watch and your boat joins no group. Once she is claimed, you are told the moment somebody adds her to a fleet, and you can leave in one tap. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) is the whole of it, from both sides. ### Run a fleet {#run-a-fleet} A paid plan lets you start and organize fleets of your own, and you do not need a boat linked to run one, so a club secretary or a rally organizer ashore can run a fleet from the desk. [Run a fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#run-a-fleet) covers starting one, adding boats and what happens if your plan changes. ### Messages {#messages} Members who follow your boat, and your fleet mates, can write to you, under your boat's name rather than your own. Nobody sees your e-mail address, and you can block anyone. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md) ### If your boat already logs with Saillogger {#if-your-boat-already-logs-with-saillogger} She is on AIS Fleet already, through her MMSI and your sharing settings, so there is nothing to claim and no plan to buy. **An MMSI that belongs to an active Saillogger boat is refused by an ordinary claim**, which is what stops anyone picking up your boat by typing your number. The case a claim is really for is two people on one boat: a partner or a crew member who wants her in their own AIS Fleet account. [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md#if-your-boat-already-logs-with-saillogger) sets out what that moves, because it is more than it looks. > [!NEXT] > Making her yours here, in three steps and one document: [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md). --- # Claim your boat Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat/ Link your own boat to your AIS Fleet account: why it is worth doing, what it costs, the one document you need, and what changes for a boat that already logs with Saillogger. Claiming your boat is **free**, takes one document, and is what makes her yours here. - Her followers are listed for you, and you hear about each new one. - Members can write to you under her name rather than yours. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md) - She can be in fleets, and their chat. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md) - Nobody else can claim her afterwards. **Claiming does not create new position reports or hide existing ones.** It links the vessel to your account for followers, messaging and fleets. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) explains what other members can see. ## How to claim her 1. In the account menu, choose **Have a boat? Claim her**. 2. Enter her **MMSI** and confirm the boat we found in the AIS network. 3. Upload one document showing that MMSI is assigned to you or to your boat. ### About the document A Saillogger crew member opens the file, checks that the MMSI on it matches the boat you are claiming, and **that is the only thing it is used for**. Cover anything that is not the boat, your name and the MMSI before you send it. You hear from us **within 48 hours**, the file **deletes itself within 72 hours of upload** whether we could approve it or not, and we keep no copies. What counts is the ship radio licence or MMSI certificate issued by your own country's radio authority. In the United States that is an FCC Ship Station License, or a BoatUS or Sea Tow MMSI certificate; in the United Kingdom, an Ofcom Ship Radio Licence; elsewhere, your authority's equivalent. A phone photograph or a one-page PDF is fine, up to 20 MB. ### While it is with us, and afterwards - **You can withdraw a claim** while it is waiting, from the same screen. - **If we cannot approve it**, the answer carries the reviewer's own note saying why, and **Claim again** takes you straight back to the start. It is usually something small: a document that does not show the MMSI, or a different boat's paperwork. - **If the document expired before we got to it** (they delete themselves after three days), we ask you to send it again rather than refusing the claim. - **Claim answers are always sent**, in the app and by e-mail, whatever your notification settings say. ### If the claim will not start - **"This MMSI has not appeared in our AIS network yet."** Claiming needs a boat we already know. Check the nine digits, and come back once she has been broadcasting within range of a receiver. - **"This boat is already claimed."** Another member holds her, or she is an active Saillogger boat. If you believe that is wrong, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI and we will look at it with you. This is deliberately not something a second claim can overrule. ## If your boat already logs with Saillogger {#if-your-boat-already-logs-with-saillogger} She is on AIS Fleet already, through her MMSI and your sharing settings, so there is nothing here you need to do and no plan you need to buy. An MMSI that belongs to an active Saillogger boat is refused by an ordinary claim, which is what stops anyone picking up your boat by typing your number. **The case this is really for is two people on one boat**: a partner or a crew member who wants her in their own AIS Fleet account. Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) and our crew can link her by hand. > [!WARNING] > **AIS Fleet recognises one owner per boat, so this moves her AIS Fleet identity to them.** It is worth knowing exactly what changes before you ask for it. - **On AIS Fleet**, your boat then appears the way any AIS vessel does: her position, and no journal, no logged track and no owner photo, **whatever your Saillogger sharing switches say**. People following her here will no longer see those Saillogger extras. - **New AIS Fleet followers, and AIS Fleet messages about her**, reach them rather than you. - **On Saillogger, nothing moves.** Your logbook, your journal, your sharing settings, your public link and your own followers stay yours, and boaters following you through Friends are unaffected. - **We e-mail you when the link is made**, so you hear it from us rather than from a follower. - **It is not something you can undo yourself.** Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) and our crew can move her back the same way. [For family and friends without Saillogger](https://saillogger.com/docs/follow-without-saillogger.md) covers the same ground from the boat owner's side, in the Saillogger guide. > [!NEXT] > Feeding what your own AIS receiver hears into the network, and seeing it on the map: [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md). --- # Share your AIS receiver Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver/ Feed what your own AIS receiver hears into AIS Fleet and see it on the map. Your phone running the app aboard, or any receiver you point at the address we give you. Free on every plan, and private to you. > [!NOTE] > **This page is for members with an AIS receiver of their own.** If you are here to watch vessels, nothing on it is needed: the map works exactly the same without it. AIS receivers provide much of the coverage on the AIS Fleet map. If you have one aboard your boat or on a shore mast, it can contribute reports to that network. Those reports help update vessel positions and departure and arrival notices, including in places with little other coverage. AIS Fleet calls each receiver you share a **station**, and lists them under **My Stations**. Sharing is free on every plan, with no limit on how many you run. ## What sharing grants, before you wire anything up **Nobody but you sees the station.** Other members never see its name, its position or that it exists, and nothing on AIS Fleet says which station reported a vessel. **The vessels it hears become part of what AIS Fleet knows.** They are drawn for every member, they feed the departure and arrival notices, and they are included in the vessel data we license to other software and to the partners we supply, as section 3 of the [Terms](https://aisfleet.com/terms/#shared-receivers) sets out. That permission covers reports already sent and **continues if you stop sharing**. Adding a station is also what the Terms are asking you to accept, which is why you may have been asked to read them again. ## Your phone as a station If you use the AIS Fleet app on a phone that is on your boat's Wi-Fi, connect it to the receiver in the app and it becomes a station on its own. There is no separate sharing switch: a receiver the app is reading is a receiver that is contributing, and disconnecting or removing it is what stops it. The phone appears under **My Stations**, named as the app named it. On the website you can rename it or remove it, and after a removal the app asks you to start sharing again before it can report. **A phone row has no switch-off on the website**: its switch is the connection in the app. One phone is one station, however many receivers it is reading. [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md) covers what the app does with a receiver, including drawing what it hears directly rather than through the network. ## Add a receiver 1. Open [aisfleet.com/stations](https://aisfleet.com/stations) and sign in if asked. It is also **My Stations** in the account menu. 2. Choose **Add a station**, then **A receiver**, and give it a name you will recognise, such as "Masthead" or "Shore mast". 3. Choose **Add receiver**. If **A receiver** is greyed out, direct receiver forwarding is not enabled at that time. You can still connect a receiver through the iPhone app, or write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) for help. ### Point the receiver at us The page now shows a host, a port and the protocol, UDP. Enter them in the network output settings of whatever holds your receiver's data. Any receiver, plotter, multiplexer or program that can forward NMEA 0183 sentences to a network address will do, and most can: - **An AIS receiver, a transponder or an NMEA Wi-Fi gateway** with a network connection usually has a **UDP output** or **send to** setting. Enter the host and the port there. - **In OpenCPN**, add a network connection of type UDP with the host and port, and turn on output for it. - **An AIS dispatcher program**, or a small computer running a receiver of its own, takes the host and port as a UDP destination. Send the AIS sentences as they come from the receiver. They begin with `!AIVDM`, and with `!AIVDO` for your own boat when the receiver is a transponder; she counts as a vessel like any other. If your GPS sentences travel on the same feed, they tell us where the receiver is listening from, and that position is shown only to you. Anything else on the feed, depth or wind for instance, is ignored. The host and port are not secret the way a password is. Open the receiver under **My Stations** at any time to read them again. If you want a different port, remove the receiver and add another. > [!TIP] > Give the forwarder only the AIS sentences if it lets you choose. GPS sentences are worth keeping on if your receiver has no transponder of its own: they set where it is listening from, and they stop a quiet night being reported as an outage. They do not lift your uptime, which only moves when a boat is heard. Everything else travels for nothing, and on a metered connection at sea that is data you pay for. ### Is it working? Each station's row tells you: - **Live**, with the number of vessels heard in the last 24 hours, once data has arrived within the last ten minutes. - **Last data** and a time, when it has gone quiet. - **Waiting for the first data**, when nothing has arrived yet. The page updates while it is open, and the first data usually shows within about a minute of your receiver starting to send. If it stays waiting, check the host and port, that the output is UDP rather than TCP, and that the receiver is forwarding AIS sentences. **Live with a vessel count of zero** means data is arriving but no vessel positions have been counted. That can happen in quiet water or when the feed contains GPS data without AIS; check the receiver's own display or output if vessels are nearby. ## See what it hears on the map {#see-what-it-hears} Once you run a station, the map gains a **Local AIS** button under **Traffic**. It opens what all your stations are hearing right now, together: - A **switch** that draws those vessels on the chart, on by default. - **A row per station** saying whether it is reporting, how many vessels it has in range and how far it has heard today. - **The vessels themselves**, grouped by whether they are under way or stopped, each with its distance from your nearest station, with the ones heard earlier in the day below. - **Show all on the map** frames the heard boats and your stations together. Navigation aids and other transmitters your receiver hears are listed under what they are rather than drawn as boats. On the chart, each station is drawn as a receiver mark with a dashed ring for **how far it has reached today**, and the vessels your stations hear are named a zoom or two before the rest of the traffic. Tap any of them and the panel says your station heard her and when. Turn **Traffic** off and only what your stations hear stays, beside your own boats, which is the quickest way to watch your home waters from a shore mast. The **Types** panel gains a small legend for these marks, and a type you hide there hides the boats you heard too. Two limits to keep in mind: - **A vessel drops out of the layer when your stations have not heard her for a while**, so the chart never claims a boat is in range because she was this morning. She may still be on the chart as ordinary traffic, and the panel keeps her under "Heard earlier today". - **Your stations report in batches, so this view runs a little behind the receiver itself.** On a phone that gap is longer for a boat sitting still, so a moored neighbour can leave "in range" while she is plainly still there. The app aboard hears the receiver directly and does not have this gap. ## When a station goes quiet A station that used to report and has sent nothing for an hour earns an e-mail, and a second one if it is still quiet after 24 hours; nothing more is sent until data resumes, when one all-clear goes out. The same notices appear under Notifications, and you choose whether you get them under **Your stations** in [Notification settings](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you). A phone is not counted as quiet when the app is closed, a station you switch off is silent on purpose and gets no notice, and a station that has been silent since long before we first saw it is left alone rather than greeted with an outage. ## Where the receiver listens from A receiver with GPS sentences or its own transponder on the feed sets its position by itself. A shore receiver without GPS has none, and you can set one by hand under the gear on the station's page: it draws the receiver, and how far it reaches, on your own map. It is shown only to you, and the figures on its page do not need it. ## Switching off and removing **Switch a receiver off** when it is out of use for a season and on again when it returns; its record stays, and the months it was off read as time not spent hearing and as days with no boats. (A phone has no such switch: disconnect the receiver in the app.) **Remove it** and its coverage record, including its statistics, goes with it, though the vessels it already reported stay on the map. Closing your account removes every station you were running. > [!NEXT] > How much of the time it has been working, and what it has been hearing: [What your station has been doing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/station-statistics.md). --- # What your station has been doing Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/station-statistics/ Read your station's vessel counts, uptime and range charts, and understand how quiet water and gaps in reception affect the figures. Open a station's row under **My Stations** for its own page: how much of the time it has been working, and what it has been hearing over the last 30 days. **Nobody but you sees any of it, and there is no league table.** The gear at the top right holds the station's settings on a page of their own: the address to point the receiver at, where it listens from, its name, switching it off, and removing it. A receiver you have just added and that has not sent anything yet opens straight on those settings, because the address is what you came for. ## The figures The page opens with a card of five numbers. - **The big number is the boats your station heard in the last 24 hours**, and beside it what it hears on an average day across the same 30 days the chart below draws, so you can tell a busy day from a quiet one at a glance. Older history moves neither. - **The last hour**: boats heard just now, and of those, the ones **only your station** reported. Those are the boats that are on the map because you were listening and nobody else was. The unique-vessel figure is usually lower where other receivers cover the same water. It measures your station's contribution to coverage, rather than the quality of its equipment. A boat counts once however many times you hear her, and only boats count: aids to navigation, base stations and search aircraft are kept as coverage but are never called boats. ## Uptime **Uptime is the share of the time your station was hearing boats**, over the last 24 hours and over the last 30 days. It counts from the minute you added the station, so a receiver you paired this morning has a real number straight away, and a station younger than a day shows one figure rather than two, because two would be the same measurement twice. Time is counted in **ten-minute blocks**, and a block counts when your station heard a boat's position in it. One boat is enough: a marina of moored boats reads as time spent hearing, because your station heard them. A still night in an empty anchorage lowers the figure even though nothing is wrong, so a busy port is a kinder test of a receiver than a lonely bay. **Time the station is switched off counts against it.** The figure measures the whole window, from the day you added the station, and a station that is off is not hearing. Two things that help make sense of a low number: - **If your receiver is a transponder it hears your own boat**, and she counts like any other, so an anchorage that is empty apart from you still reads as time spent hearing. - **For a phone, the app hears while it is open and connected**, and locking the phone pauses it. That is fine and expected. If your uptime is low and the water around you is empty, the figure is telling you about the water. ## Boats heard each day The first chart draws every day your station has been running, up to the last 30, plus today as it fills in. A young station draws the days it has had rather than a month of blanks. - **The full column** is the boats that sent a position and this station heard, counted once per day. - **The darker part at the foot of each column** is the boats **only your station heard**: the ones no other receiver or feed reported that day, including any other station of yours. That darker part is the coverage nobody else was giving the network. As more receivers join near you it falls, and that is the network working rather than your station failing. ## Range each day The second chart is your station's range each day, in nautical miles: how far it reached. It is measured from the traffic itself. We take the two boats farthest apart that your station heard that day and read **half** the distance between them, because a receiver sits somewhere in the middle of what it hears. It is an estimate rather than a survey, and it needs no position for the receiver, so it works from the first day of every station. **A quiet day reads low even when nothing has changed aboard**, so read it as a trend over a week rather than as a measurement of your aerial. > [!NOTE] > **This is not the same number as the dashed ring on the map.** The ring around your station on the chart is the farthest single vessel it has reached recently, which is what "how far can I hear" means when you are looking at a chart. The chart on this page is half the widest span between two boats, which is the honest average reach of a receiver whose own position we may not know. The ring is normally the larger of the two. Tap or drag across either chart to read a single day. It opens on the most recent finished day; today is the last column, still filling in. **Days run midnight to midnight UTC**, so a day's column may not line up with your own calendar day. A day's figures are fixed once it has ended. ## Days with nothing to show A day you added the station, a whole day it was switched off, and a day we have no record for are drawn as a faint tick on the baseline rather than a bar, because nothing was heard and there is no measurement of the water to draw. **The daily average is a different question**, and it counts every one of the last 30 finished days, or every finished day since you added the station where that is fewer. A day the station was switched off counts in it as a day with no boats, so a station run on one day of thirty, hearing 50 boats, averages two a day and not fifty. The day you added the station and a day we have no record for are the two that stay out of it: on the first the station did not yet exist for most of the day, and the second is our gap rather than yours. That is why the chart and the average can look like they disagree about the same day. The chart plots the water and the average scores the contribution, and on a day nobody was listening there was no water to measure. > [!NEXT] > If something is not behaving the way this guide says: [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md). --- # When something is not working Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting/ The things that go wrong on AIS Fleet, in the order they happen: the sign-in code, a vessel you cannot find, a vessel who has vanished, notices that stopped, an upload that failed, a station that stays quiet. Choose the section that matches what you are seeing. For a missing or stationary vessel, start with **when she was last heard** on her panel; the position and speed describe that report, not necessarily where she is now. ## I cannot sign in - **The code has not arrived.** Give it a minute, then look in spam or junk; it comes from `noreply@aisfleet.com`. - **The code says it is not valid.** Use the newest e-mail: a code lasts ten minutes, and asking for a new one retires the old one. After five unsuccessful attempts, request a fresh code. - **You have asked several times and nothing is coming.** We stop sending after a few in quick succession, which is what stops somebody filling your inbox by typing your address. Wait a quarter of an hour and ask once more. - **You closed this account before.** That address cannot sign in and cannot sign up again either. Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com); if it is inside thirty days we can bring it back. [Closing your account](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#closing-your-account) Still nothing? Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) from the address you are trying to use. ## I cannot find a vessel - **"No boats match that."** The name she broadcasts is often written differently from how you would write it: run together, shortened, or without punctuation. Try a shorter, distinctive part of the name. Her nine-digit MMSI settles it either way. - **The search box will not search.** It needs at least three characters. - **"We are not tracking MMSI ... yet."** The number is valid and we have never had a report for it. Check the nine digits first, since a typo looks exactly like a vessel nobody has heard. **Follow it anyway** asks the network to watch for her; come back and follow her once she appears. - **A search on a call sign or IMO number came back empty.** Both are reported by a minority of vessels. Search her name instead. - **Search says it is busy.** That is us asking you to slow down, not a verdict about the vessel. Wait a moment and try the same words again. - **She has no AIS transponder.** Many small craft do not report to this network. Some Saillogger boats also share positions directly, but search can only return vessels AIS Fleet knows. ## I cannot see a vessel on the map {#i-cannot-see-a-vessel-on-the-map} In the order they are likely: 1. **Reports may have stopped reaching us.** Offshore and sparsely covered coasts often have gaps. A new position appears when another report arrives. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md) 2. **You are zoomed too far out** for a vessel her size to be drawn. At ocean scale only the larger ships appear. 3. **You have her type switched off** in the **Types** filter, or **Traffic** switched off. A list you have switched on while she is on it makes that impossible, and so does a fleet you have switched on while she is in it. 4. **Her list is switched off**, or she is beyond your plan on a list you subscribe to: listed under **Beyond your plan** in that list, not drawn. 5. **Her transponder is off**, in port or otherwise. Nothing is being broadcast to hear. 6. **Your stations have not heard her for a while.** The Local AIS layer draws only what they are hearing now, so a boat that left your range drops out of it while she may still be on the chart as ordinary traffic. 7. **She has never been heard.** We know some vessels by MMSI without ever having had a position for them. There is nothing to draw, so she appears on her list rather than on the chart. If she is a boat you follow, her row under **Lists** tells you which of these it is faster than the chart will. ## Her position is hours old That is a different question from a vessel who has vanished, and it usually has a simpler answer: nobody has heard her since. A boat at anchor with her instruments off, a boat out of range, and a boat with her transponder switched off all look the same from here. The panel says how long ago it was, and that is the honest answer we have. Nothing on the page is a promise about where she is now. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md#what-a-mark-on-the-map-means) ## Her journal or her track has gone If a journal, logged voyage or owner photograph disappears, the owner may have changed their sharing settings or access password. That change alone tells you nothing about the boat's condition. AIS positions can still appear when reports arrive. [Boats that log with Saillogger](https://aisfleet.com/docs/boats-that-log-with-saillogger.md) ## I am not getting notices - **Check the boat's own row** under **Boats you follow** in Notification settings. A boat can be quieter than the row above it. - **Check the master row.** **Followed boats** turned off for a column stops that whole column, whatever an individual boat says. - **Check the list's notice switches.** Favorites starts with notices on; custom and subscribed lists start with them off. Turning a list on for the map does not turn its notices on. - **Check you followed her rather than following it anyway.** Asking the network to watch for an MMSI is not a follow, and it starts no notices. - **Check she is not beyond your plan.** Follows past your limit are listed and not announced. - **She may simply not have moved.** A boat at a berth for a fortnight generates nothing, and that is correct. - **She may be out of range.** A departure worked out from movement needs reports to work from. - **Nothing appears on your phone.** If **Push** is available in the iPhone app's Notification settings, check that it is enabled on this phone and allowed in iOS Settings. Check the type and boat switches too. Departure and arrival pushes are quiet and appear in Notification Center; quiet hours also silence other pushes overnight. If Push is not offered, keep **E-mail** on for notices while AIS Fleet is closed. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) - **The app says you have reached your push device limit.** Turn off Push in AIS Fleet on a device you no longer use, then try enabling it on this phone again. If you no longer have that device, [contact support](mailto:info@saillogger.com). Your other registered phones can keep receiving notices. ## I am getting too many Turn the boat's **E-mail** off: she stops arriving in your inbox and stays somewhere you can look her up. The **...** on a notice about a boat you follow does the same in one tap, with **Mute her**. Muting is not unfollowing. [Choosing what reaches you](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) A notice that came through a list you subscribe to has no mute of its own: the list's own switches are its volume control. [Lists](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md) ## A photo will not upload | What you saw | What to do | | --- | --- | | The photo is too large to open | Save a smaller copy as a JPG and send that one | | We could not read the photo | Download the original fully or export a fresh JPG copy, then try again | | We did not receive the photo | Worth retrying. If the same picture keeps failing it is probably still in iCloud rather than on the device: save a copy to the device and send that | [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md#if-an-upload-fails) ## My station stays quiet - **The host and port must be entered exactly as shown**, and the output must be **UDP** rather than TCP. - **The receiver has to be hearing traffic.** A receiver on a bench with no antenna has nothing to forward. - **Live with a vessel count of zero** means data is arriving but no vessel positions have been counted. If vessels are nearby, check that the feed includes AIS, rather than only GPS sentences. - **A phone station pauses when the phone is locked** or the app is closed. [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md#is-it-working) ## Something says I need a different plan It is a limit rather than a fault, and nothing has been deleted. Follows, lists and fleets past your plan stay listed and go quiet; a track window you do not have says which plan has it. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md#where-you-meet-a-limit) ## Something is missing in the app Adding a receiver that is not your phone, station statistics, and starting or managing a fleet are on the website. Sign in there with the same e-mail address. [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md#what-still-lives-in-the-browser) ## The page is blank or will not load Check your internet connection, then reload the page. If it still fails, try a current browser and check whether a content blocker is preventing scripts from loading. The map needs JavaScript; the guide can also be read as [plain Markdown](https://aisfleet.com/docs/all.md). In the iPhone app, check TestFlight for an update and reopen the app. If the problem continues, contact us with your device and browser or app version. ## None of this is it Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com), or reply to any AIS Fleet e-mail. Tell us the vessel's MMSI if it is about one particular boat, which screen you were on, what you expected and what happened. That is usually enough for us to see it from here. > [!NEXT] > The short answers, including the ones people ask before signing up: [Questions people ask](https://aisfleet.com/docs/faq.md). --- # Questions people ask Source: https://aisfleet.com/docs/faq/ Short answers to the questions that come up most about AIS Fleet: whether you need a boat, what it costs, whether it is legal, why a vessel vanished, and what other people can see. Short answers, each linking to the page that has the whole of it. ## Getting started ### Do I need a boat to use AIS Fleet? {#do-i-need-a-boat} No. You can watch vessels without owning a boat. You need an e-mail address to create an account. [What AIS Fleet is](https://aisfleet.com/docs/what-is-ais-fleet.md) ### Is it free? {#is-it-free} Following five vessels is free, on a plan that is not a trial and does not expire. The map, the search, the notices, the photos, the messages and your own AIS receiver work the same on it as on any plan. Paid plans follow more vessels and draw a longer track. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) ### Do I need an app? {#do-i-need-an-app} No. Vessel watching works in a browser on a phone or laptop. The iPhone app, for iOS 17 or later, is in open beta and can also read a receiver on your Wi-Fi. On Android or iPad, use the website; there is no Android app or dedicated iPad layout yet. [AIS Fleet on your phone](https://aisfleet.com/docs/the-app.md) ### There is no password. Is that safe? {#no-password} AIS Fleet uses a short-lived e-mail code instead of a separate password. Protect your mailbox, sign-in codes and signed-in devices. Changing your mailbox password does not end an existing AIS Fleet session; contact us if you suspect unauthorized access. [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md) ### My sign-in code has not arrived. {#no-sign-in-code} Give it a minute and look in spam. Use the newest e-mail; a code lasts ten minutes and a new one retires the old. If you have asked several times, wait a quarter of an hour. [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md#i-cannot-sign-in) ## Watching a vessel ### Can the boat tell that I am following her? {#does-she-know} A linked AIS Fleet member or Saillogger owner can receive a new-follower notice with your display name, according to their notification settings. They never see your e-mail address. Most vessels have no linked account to notify. [Follow your first vessel](https://aisfleet.com/docs/follow-your-first-vessel.md#who-hears-that-you-followed-her) ### Is tracking a ship legal? {#is-it-legal} AIS is an unencrypted safety broadcast, but that does not grant unrestricted rights to record, use or republish it. Local rules and the AIS Fleet Terms still apply. Respect the privacy and safety of the people aboard. [Watching respectfully](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md#is-watching-a-vessel-legal-and-is-it-fair) ### Why has a vessel disappeared from the map? {#vessel-disappeared} Most often she is out of range: AIS is line-of-sight radio and coverage is thin far offshore. Other reasons are the zoom, a type filter, or her transponder being off. [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md#i-cannot-see-a-vessel-on-the-map) ### Why is her position hours old? {#stale-position} Because nobody has heard her since. A boat at anchor with her instruments off, a boat out of range, and a boat with her transponder switched off look identical from here. The last-heard time on her panel is the number to read. [Where the positions come from](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md) ### Can you tell me when she will arrive? {#eta} AIS Fleet does not provide an ETA or arrivals board. The destination line some vessels broadcast is entered by hand and may be out of date. You can follow her for detected departure and arrival notices; for schedules, check with the vessel's operator. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) ### Does it cover my area? {#coverage} Coverage varies with receiving stations and the reports available to our network. Explore your area on the map and check vessels' last-heard times. Coverage is often better near busy ports than offshore. If you already have a receiver, sharing its reports can help; you do not need one to use AIS Fleet. [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md) ### Does my phone buzz when she leaves? {#push-notifications} Departure and arrival pushes are quiet: when **Push** is available and enabled in the iPhone app, look in Notification Center. Other push notices may make a sound, subject to quiet hours and your iOS settings. If Push is not offered in your app, keep e-mail on for notices while AIS Fleet is closed. [Departures and arrivals](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md) ### I followed a ferry and now I get a dozen e-mails a day. {#too-many-emails} Turn her **E-mail** off. She stops filling your inbox and stays somewhere you can look her up, and she keeps her slot. [Choosing what reaches you](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#choosing-what-reaches-you) ### Can I post a screenshot of the map? {#screenshots} Check the Terms and any map attribution or third-party rights before posting. Keep the report's age visible, and ask permission before reusing catalog photographs or a boater's shared journal. [Sharing a screenshot](https://aisfleet.com/docs/how-ais-works.md#can-i-share-a-screenshot) ## If you own a boat ### Why is my boat on your map? I did not sign up. {#why-is-my-boat-here} She can appear when a receiver reports her AIS broadcasts to our network, without you signing up. Some Saillogger owners also enable direct position sharing. Members may contribute photographs separately. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) ### How do I take my boat off AIS Fleet? {#take-my-boat-off} You cannot take an AIS broadcast off the internet, and no site can offer that: your transponder transmits in the open to every receiver in range. What you can decide is what travels with the position. If her marker here comes from Saillogger rather than from a receiver, the **AIS Fleet** switch under **Settings** > **Integrations** turns that off, and **Sharing** governs the journal and the rest. For a privacy or safety concern, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI. [What you control](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md#what-you-control) ### Can somebody else claim my boat? {#someone-claimed-my-boat} Every claim is checked by a person against a document showing the MMSI is theirs, and an MMSI belonging to an active Saillogger boat is refused outright. If you think a claim is wrong, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com). [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) ### Somebody added my boat to a fleet. How do I leave? {#leave-a-fleet} Every fleet e-mail ends with a link that takes her out in one tap, and the fleet's page has **Leave fleet**, behind the row at the top of its roster. Tick **Also block** as you leave and that organizer cannot add her again. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#leaving) ### Somebody is watching my boat and I do not like it. {#unwanted-follower} You can remove a follower and block messages. You can also report unwanted attention or a privacy concern to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com); include your boat's MMSI and the activity involved so we can review it. [Your account and privacy](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#if-someone-is-watching-you) ### Somebody published a photo of my boat. {#photo-of-my-boat} Members can contribute photographs, and every submission is reviewed by a person. If a published photo shows something you would rather it did not, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI and we will take it down. [Vessel photos](https://aisfleet.com/docs/vessel-photos.md) ## Following, lists and fleets ### Following, a list and a fleet: what is the difference? {#lists-vs-fleets} **Following** a boat puts her on your map and tells you when she moves. **A list** sorts the boats you follow, and can be shared for other members to subscribe to. Both run one way: she joins nothing. **A fleet** runs both ways: everyone in it sees the roster and shares one chat, and a boat claimed here is told when she is added and can leave. [Lists or a fleet?](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#lists-or-a-fleet) ### Can I start a fleet for my club or rally? {#start-a-fleet} Yes, on a paid plan, and you do not need a boat of your own to run one. Members whose boats are claimed here join the roster and the chat, as far as their own plan keeps fleets active: on the free plan that is one at a time. [Run a fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#run-a-fleet) ### What does subscribing to somebody's list do? {#subscribe-to-a-list} It puts that list's boats on your map and, once you turn its notices on, tells you when they move. It does not make you a follower of each boat: their owners are not told and you see only AIS. [Subscribe to a list](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#subscribe-to-a-list) ### I subscribed to a list of ten boats and only some appear. {#list-boats-beyond-plan} Your plan's follow limit is full. The rest are listed under **Beyond your plan**, still there, not drawn and not announced, and they come through when you make room or move up. [What your plan counts](https://aisfleet.com/docs/lists.md#what-your-plan-counts) ### The boat in the next berth never announces herself. {#neighbour-not-announced} Nearby notices are given once per visit, when a boat comes into your chosen distance from outside it. A boat that is already there when you switch the row on, or that never leaves, is not announced; she will be once she has been well outside the distance, away for a while, and comes back. A boat lying still is also not announced when your own boat is the one moving. The list or fleet's notice rows say how many boats are within the distance now. [When a boat comes near yours](https://aisfleet.com/docs/departures-and-arrivals.md#near-your-boat) ### There is no "comes within" row on my list. {#no-nearby-row} That row is measured from your own boat, so it appears once you have claimed her and she has been heard on AIS. Until then the list keeps its departure and arrival row, and **Near your boat** in Notification settings says what it is waiting for. [Claim your boat](https://aisfleet.com/docs/claim-your-boat.md) ### Can a fleet tell me when its boats move, or come near me? {#fleet-notices} Yes. Open the fleet from **Fleets** on the map: its page has the same notice rows a list has, behind the row at the top of its roster, off until you turn them on, and only you can set them for yourself. The nearby row needs your own boat linked and heard on AIS. [Notices from a fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md#notices-from-a-fleet) ## Account and billing ### How do I cancel? {#cancel} If you subscribed on the website, under **Manage billing** on the Plan screen; the plan runs to the end of the period you have paid for. If you subscribed in the iPhone app, in your Apple ID subscription settings, because Apple bills it. [Plans and billing](https://aisfleet.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) ### How do I delete my account? {#delete-my-account} **Account** in the account menu, then **Danger zone**. It closes at once and becomes unrecoverable after thirty days. Cancel an App Store subscription yourself first, and note that photographs you contributed stay published. [Closing your account](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-account-and-privacy.md#closing-your-account) ### Is AIS Fleet available in my language? {#language} Not yet. The site, the app and every e-mail are in English. ### Something is broken and none of this covers it. {#still-stuck} Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com), or reply to any AIS Fleet e-mail. Tell us the vessel's MMSI if it is about one boat, which screen you were on, what you expected and what happened. [When something is not working](https://aisfleet.com/docs/troubleshooting.md)