Over most of the last 500 years mariners have relied upon a map and a compass to find their way around. With their compasses, sextants and charts sailors braved wind, rain, and other hazards to take a sighting and figure our where they were. We have only had access to GPS, chart plotters, radar & moving map displays in the last few decades.

Even if you did a great job of figuring out where you were, you had no information on where anybody else was. Now, let's roll the clock forward and add "Automatic Identification System", or A.I.S. This is a worldwide standard  currently applied to all commercial ships (registered in any country) operating in US waters, as well as for ferry boats, oil tankers and any passenger vessel for hire. This technology came about in the last two years due to the convergence of GPS, digital mapping software, and the efforts following 9/11 to improve maritime security. Essentially, each commercial vessel is required to carry an A.I.S transponder which transmits its location along with key identifying data including ship's name, destination, type of cargo, dimensions, course and speed. All this is easily displayed on appropriate mapping software deployed throughout the maritime industry. The USCG has an excellent page outlining the capabilities of A.I.S.

For the first time, ship captains, port authorities, ferry operators, and recreational boaters can see where other traffic is located, where it came from, and where it is going. This is a monumental improvement to be able to assess and avoid other vessels. With appropriate mapping software, an A.I.S receiver and a PC, a navigator has vastly improved situational awareness of his surroundings. He also has the ability to contact any ship he sees on the screen, as needed, with a touch of a button.

Our opportunity is this:  many ship operators, the U.S.C.G, marine authorities, and others carry and use A.I.S all the time. They see any craft passing through an area which has an A.I.S transponder running. Under current international law, this includes any vessel in coastal waters or in any  harbor, bay, or anchorage, over over 65 feet, over 300 tons, or any vessel carrying passengers for hire.

The plan is to install A.I.S transponders on all of our craft. These transponders will show our vehicles with name, course, speed, dimensions, weight, and other data on any other vessel's GPS map display. However, instead of seeing a typical ship moving along at 10 to 12 knots, our craft will be shown speeding across the screen at up to 160 knots (KIAS) - or 180 mph (260 ft per second).

The A.I.S system enables our vehicles to be seen in a whole new way - silently & electronically. We will be the only vessel moving around at more than 50 knots - fairly hard to miss. Basically, by applying A.I.S technology we will acquire the best advertising you can get - plus immediate recognition among marine professionals. Each of our WI-FI linked offices and customer lounges will feature large LCD displays of our routes showing exactly where our vessels are located in real-time. This will offer easy comparison of the speeds of other passenger ferries, catamarans, and tour boats.

The A.I.S antenna will probably be installed in either vertical fin just forward of the of the  spar (position to be determined and refined during sea trials). The vertical fins are made of composite construction - as is most of the vessel. The integrated mapping software enables a ship's captain to find out any other ship's contact information so that they can be called immediately on marine radio. This is a great safety feature and will also assist our marketing in key port locations on both coast of North America.

This very brief history of marine navigation is not intended to be a serious academic exercise. There are plenty of those in your local library. Rather, this is intended to throw into sharp relief the tools a mariner had access to before (limited and time-consuming) to what  is available now (digital & abundant beyond belief). This provides a perfect window to showcase the surface-effect vehicle to the marine community at nominal cost. Everyone on the shoreline or on the water will see us physically - the A.I.S. will allow others to see us electronically.

The map of Puget Sound below is from SeaLinks who have developed A.I.S systems for commercial and military applications. Commercial vessels traveling when this screen shot was made are shown by green target symbols below.

Bay Area WI-FI. A second recent development is the ability to transmit WI-FI signals up to five miles (on 802.11G) using newly-developed transmitters . Properly deployed, we can blanket key sections of San Francisco Bay with WI-FI service. When appropriate East Bay Transport will partner with Comcast - or similar cable operator - to set up a wireless network for our fleet and our customers. WI-FI base stations placed in Emeryville, Sausalito, San Rafael, Vallejo, Downtown San Francisco, SFO, Oakland, Foster City and East Palo Alto will allow our staff, passengers and guests to work on their laptops in flight or at any of our customer lounges. We could name our courier & air-taxi service "Cyber Flight", and give passengers passwords for the day of their flight (along with a printed receipt when they purchase their tickets online). This wireless network will include 8 nodes and essentially cover San Francisco Bay from Novato to Palo Alto.