MOB Alarm?

Im headed north for our first bigger trip and will have a 4 year old and a dog with me. Has anyone looked into or used the MOB alarms that look at proximity to the boat or moisture to alarm when someone may have gone overboard?

Would love any thoughts. I know some integrate with other electronics, I am all Furuno (I don't think there is an option there) and Maretron for sensors/alarms.

T-4 to departure so hope to make a quick decision.
Thanks...
Arthur

I spent quite a bit of time reading through the Furono literature earlier in the year, and do not recall seeing anything similar to what you describe. Except the standard - hit the MOB key to mark the spot. Perhaps there is another supplier out there? A good idea, especially when having a young child on board.

I don’t know anything about it but I saw a Weems and Plath alarm system that uses a smartphone app to indicate a MOB event. Is says you don’t need cell service to work. Under $200.

I think it would be great to have a MOB device on the child and the dog. However, I do question the utility. The only reliable MOB device for the child is the adult that will need to watch the child at all times when they are outside the confined interior of the vessel. When the child is on the deck, the flybridge, or the cockpit, an adult needs to be with them actively monitoring them.


My wife just bought a plastic kiddy pool to use in the backyard with our infant grandson. With the pool came three laminated badges that said, "designated observer" or some such thing. It also came with instructions that a piece of twine or yarn should be used as a neck lanyard and that anytime a child or children were in the pool, a responsible adult should be designated as the observer and they were to attend 100% to the children and not be distracted by other activities such as playing a game, barbecuing, using a cell phone etc... If the person did need to check a text, they were to pass the badge to another responsible adult who would not do anything but watch the children until relieved.


My wife thought it was funny, I thought it was genius. Not that anyone would use the system, but it did bring home the importance of monitoring a child in a little kiddie pool and the importance of not allowing one to be distracted. With a toddler on board, the same burden would apply. A PFD of course is required. A MOB alert device would be nice. However, neither should cause us to lessen our vigilance with a small child on board.


We aren't at that point yet since our grandson is only 10 months old. However, it won't be long before we are faced with the same dilemma. It will be our practice to ensure that anytime he is outside of the cabin, someone will be needing to watch him full time and not distracted by ANY other activity (not even checking TF).


Again, I'm sure you know all this but....


I have no idea about a dog. Love dogs, but not on my boat.

There are lots of systems out there to watch and alert you to MOB events.
A few:
http://www.fellmarine.com
https://marss.com/products/mobtronic-cruise
Raymarine LifeTag Man Overboard System Features
MAN OVERBOARD MODULE: MOM 8A
Emerald Marine Products | ALERT Man-Overboard Alarm Systems
https://crewwatcher.com/

I would say anyone onboard should have a mustang auto-inflate PFD. On this you can attach a MOB or PLB that auto-actuates in water. Many of the new ones are local AIS transmitters that broadcasts 8-10 miles range. I don't know if AIS displays can generate an alarm when they see a particular AIS id.

We had a dog PFD for our dog when we were out on the water and he didn't seem to mind it. Not sure what to do for a 4 year old kid though.

Dhays quote "A MOB alert device would be nice. However, neither should cause us to lessen our vigilance with a small child on board."

Did anyone mention anything about not being diligent or lessening their vigilance? Just a simple question from someone looking for information about a supplemental safety device.

The nice thing about the dog PFD is that it has a handle sewn into the back, so you can easily haul him out of the water without wrestling with a wet pooch.

The FellMarine version is primarily for outboard powered boats, although they have a version that could be wired up traditionally. If you're solo boating, at least the MOB kill switch would cut the engine if you fell overboard. There is an override so you can crank it back up and go after the MOB.

On the smartphone app, I don't know if the app has to be in the foreground, forcing you to dedicate a device to MOB monitoring.

That's the reason I was looking at the AIS fishing net beacons. put the vessel name MOB_MyBoatName so anyone within range knows MOB is man overboard. Just make sure to keep them turned off when not needed. I wonder how long their batteries hold a charge when not being used?

https://www.amazon.com/Marine-Fishing-Tracking-Locator-Equipent/dp/B07CMHC55N

Thanks All, I think I might bring the CrewWatcher with me on the trip. I like the idea of an engine kill for single handing, but want to make sure the range would be ok.

Dhays,
Respectfully I wasn't inferring that the child would not be watched, and I feel that from your comments that you haven't had experience with young children in some time. As you said an infant should always be watched especially near water, however a 4-5 year old is a pretty active and capable human, able to open doors, locks, swim, dive into the water, etc, but also totally find playing by themselves for hours. Underway its a no brainer to always keep him in sight however its simply unrealistic that one adult will literally be next to him 24x7, at the dock or anchor it would be great to have something that alerted if he fell in the water or left the boat, he always wears a lifejacket as does the dog. Im actually more worried about the dog going in so that was the original thought.
No offense intended but I wanted to be clear that I think my situation is different than having an infant on board.

Arthur

Perhaps when your child is a little older, a PLB attached to their vest may be the best route if you don't already have one. Relatively inexpensive, and they are immediately pinging on the 406MHZ frequency with your personal info - Help me. But they need to opened up and initiated which is beyond a 4 year olds capabilities who has gone overboard. My kids are older so I have lost track of this age, but I would assume a 6-8 year old could be taught to do it, if repeated and drilled often. Not sure.

Yes, the dog is probably the most likely to go overboard.
One suggestion. Get the dog used to the PFD maybe at home first.

We got a new PFD for our dog when she grew out of the first one. This PFD was substantially bulkier. She usually scoots around the boat quite nimbly, but not realizing how wide she was, the edge of the PFD caught on the corner of the cabin and knocked her overboard while underway. Luckily I saw it happen, and so it just turned into a good DOB practice drill.

We have the Weems & Plath CrewWatcher as well as their Personal Rescue Strobe. We’ve tested both and they work just as advertised. We haven’t tested the CrewWatcher with a dog yet, but it would work just the same! We’re actually planning to do a Live Facebook video with the CrewWatcher where my wife (wearing a wetsuit and PFD) will jump in the water while we are underway. The video will follow the action from the alarm to the retrieval.

As official Weems & Plath retailers we have both safety items (plus other W&P products) in our online store. Trawler Forum members get 10% off all Weems products using the coupon code WEEMSTFDISCOUNT

Our Lab loves going boating and is fearless about jumping on and off the boat. I am always concerned about him going overboard even though we diligently watch him. I think we will get a MOB device for him. We have a PFD for him with 2 handles and he likes to wear it since he gets treats when we put it on him. He even tolerates being carried around by the handles. My back not so much since he is 85 pounds.

Moonfish said:

We have the Weems & Plath CrewWatcher as well as their Personal Rescue Strobe. We’ve tested both and they work just as advertised. We haven’t tested the CrewWatcher with a dog yet, but it would work just the same! We’re actually planning to do a Live Facebook video with the CrewWatcher where my wife (wearing a wetsuit and PFD) will jump in the water while we are underway. The video will follow the action from the alarm to the retrieval.

As official Weems & Plath retailers we have both safety items (plus other W&P products) in our online store. Trawler Forum members get 10% off all Weems products using the coupon code WEEMSTFDISCOUNT

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Does their app have to be on the main screen for it to run, or can it run in the background like a GPS or Music app?

Fletcher500 said:

Dhays quote "A MOB alert device would be nice. However, neither should cause us to lessen our vigilance with a small child on board."

Did anyone mention anything about not being diligent or lessening their vigilance? Just a simple question from someone looking for information about a supplemental safety device.

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No they didn't. I didn't mean to imply that Arthur would be less diligent or vigilant, however I think that can be a pitfall with safety devices. It appears that you did infer that meaning from my post however.

Arthurc said:

Respectfully I wasn't inferring that the child would not be watched, and I feel that from your comments that you haven't had experience with young children in some time. As you said an infant should always be watched especially near water, however a 4-5 year old is a pretty active and capable human, able to open doors, locks, swim, dive into the water, etc, but also totally find playing by themselves for hours. Underway its a no brainer to always keep him in sight however its simply unrealistic that one adult will literally be next to him 24x7, at the dock or anchor it would be great to have something that alerted if he fell in the water or left the boat, he always wears a lifejacket as does the dog. Im actually more worried about the dog going in so that was the original thought.
No offense intended but I wanted to be clear that I think my situation is different than having an infant on board.

Click to expand...

I understand. As I said, a MOB alert device would be nice to have.

stubones99 said:

Does their app have to be on the main screen for it to run, or can it run in the background like a GPS or Music app?

Click to expand...

Once the beacons are paired to the device and activated, the app can run in the background so you can use the device normally.

Here’s a nice explanation of how it works from Bill Parlatore: https://www.followingseas.media/blog/2017/10/9/monday-minute-safety-on-the-water-using-iot

dhays said:

No they didn't. I didn't mean to imply that Arthur would be less diligent or vigilant, however I think that can be a pitfall with safety devices. It appears that you did infer that meaning from my post however.

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Read the first paragraph of your initial post.

Fletcher500 said:

Read the first paragraph of your initial post.

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Will do.

I think it would be great to have a MOB device on the child and the dog. However, I do question the utility. The only reliable MOB device for the child is the adult that will need to watch the child at all times when they are outside the confined interior of the vessel. When the child is on the deck, the flybridge, or the cockpit, an adult needs to be with them actively monitoring them.

Click to expand...

Not happy with Weems and Plath

I bought 4 of the Weems and Plath MOB devices because we often have grandkids on th boat. Maybe it’s just me, but I spent multiple hours trying to get them to work with no success, and they were not cheap. I’m gonna try 1 more time before I send them back, but unless someone else has positive experience with them I’d say forget it.

DonScatt said:

I bought 4 of the Weems and Plath MOB devices because we often have grandkids on th boat. Maybe it’s just me, but I spent multiple hours trying to get them to work with no success, and they were not cheap. I’m gonna try 1 more time before I send them back, but unless someone else has positive experience with them I’d say forget it.

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That is disappointing. How are they not working? I was thinking of getting one for our dog.

I can get them through the initial setup , but the final step always fails. I’m using an iPhone 7+, and the documentation speaks to a specific Bluetooth standard. Im going to t y with an older iPad, but it’s been very frustrating, and there is NO support from W&P

Ok, well I guess that decides it for me. I will look for a different solution. Thanks for the info.

DonScatt said:

I bought 4 of the Weems and Plath MOB devices because we often have grandkids on th boat. Maybe it’s just me, but I spent multiple hours trying to get them to work with no success, and they were not cheap. I’m gonna try 1 more time before I send them back, but unless someone else has positive experience with them I’d say forget it.

Click to expand...

Well that's not good. We paired ours up (carefully following instructions) and they worked great, both immersing in water and by distance. Since the initial set up a couple of times one of them had trouble re-connecting, but after closing the app and trying again it worked fine.

I was ready to pull the trigger on a couple of these - especially for use when towing our RIB. But I was put off by the admittedly few Amazon reviews. I went to the WP site which then redirected me to the CW site. I tried to access FAQs and the Knowledge Base but both links dead end. I got an automated response to an email so now I’m waiting. I’m not excited about having to dedicate an iDevice while in transit, but it beats showing up at our destination with no dingy tagging along! (I’m still investigating battery powered wireless IP cameras).

Any updates from the Forum?

I ended getting pretty much every option to try them out and decided it’s not worth the hassle. They all now sit in a box.
On the camera why battery powered? Can you get an cat5 cable to your stern? Lots of good Poe cameras.

I installed the RayMarine system (life lock?). It doesn't have the range to cover my entire boat, so lots of false positives. Coverage in the cockpit, which is probably the most important area, is good, but it can be set off by someone going to a forward stateroom or up to the tower, or even on to the bow deck. Although I have never had a actual MOB, in simulated testing, it works well -- I am not worried about false negatives. I don't use it much (on multi-day trips, whoever is on watch wears one, and anyone going outside at night wears one).

Arthurc said:

I ended getting pretty much every option to try them out and decided it’s not worth the hassle. They all now sit in a box.
On the camera why battery powered? Can you get an cat5 cable to your stern? Lots of good Poe cameras.

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Pulling cable on a Bayliner 4788 is worse than a root canal with no anesthetic. But I just realized I do have easy access to 12v power so now I just need to find a 12v wireless camera. I have two iPads on board so no problem with displays. With multiple cameras I can monitor the cockpit fo MOB, the towed dinghy, or the stern corners for docking. Of course I’d need to set up a LAN unless I can connect to my Axiom 3.

Oh well, off topic. Maybe I will order a pair of Crew Watchers once we get to more active cruising and dinghy towing in March. Through Amazon I can always return them after a weekend tryout.

We use an iPad at the helm as a backup to the plotter. Usually we run Aqua Map, SEAIq and Crew Watcher on it. Crew Watcher and the iPad have no problem running properly this way. After a full year of using the Crew Watcher it has performed perfectly. We've also tested it a few times (submersion and distance) and it works as advertised. We keep the fobs attached to our inflatable vests which we always wear.

Ken