Both these incidents illustrate the fact that yacht safety equipment is useful only to the extent it can be accessed in difficult conditions, that it is in working order, and that the operator is thoroughly familiar with its operation. They also illustrate that guiding a rescue vessel into the vicinity of survivors in the water or in a life raft is not the end of the rescue problem. There remains the problem of visually spotting the victims among waves or swells, often in low visibility conditions.
After two major collisions with substantial loss of American lives between US Navy destroyers and merchant ships, man
AIS, or Automatic Identification System, is one of the most significant marine safety innovations in a decade.