The latest upgrade to instrumentation on Ishmael is an AIS receiver. (AIS means Automatic Identification System)

All commercial boats ... read ships that travel much faster than sailboats are required to have AIS Senders. With this receiver, any ship that is equipped with a sender can be seen on our chart plotter using Open CPN. The unit plugs in with simple USB connection.

The name, direction and point of closest approach for each ship is shown and calculated. Alarms can be set for anything that approaches too close.

This is mostly for night sailing when fast moving ships could conceivably sneak up on you.... since sailboats show a pretty minor radar image, this is added safety.

Notice the size of the unit.... yes that is a double A battery beside it in the picture.

Of course the cable and aerial will cost plenty to get it permanently installed but it will provide additional comfort for night sailing.