SEAWORK 2015: RESCUEME MOB1 IS THE SMALLEST LIFE-SAVER

A new product that will be presented at Seawork 2015

There are things we buy and hope to never use: bicycle helmets or life insurance, for example. New in this range of products is the AIS Man Over Board personal locator rescueME MOB1 by Ocean Signal, a UK based specialist for live saving equipment at sea.Being 30 percent smaller than comparable products, it is supposed to be the world’s smallest personal locating AIS man over board device with integrated DSC. Its dimensions of only 134 millimeters and 92 grams allow it to be attached to inflatable life-jackets of any size.

In (the worst) case of a man over board (MOB) event, rescueME activates automatically or manually – depending on the programming. The first AIS (Automatic Identification System) alarm signal will be send within 15 seconds and transmits position information of the person in the water to all AIS receiving vessels in vicinity and – most important – to the chartplotter of the mother vessel. Additionally, the MOB1 can be programmed with the ship’s MMSI number in order to transmit a Digital Selective Calling (DSC) VHF alarm.

Once activated, the operational life of the MOB1 is expected to be 24 hours. An integrated strobe light facilitates search and rescue actions. The tiny life saver is on the Seawork Innovations Showcase 2015 list and will be presented from June 16th to 18th in Southampton, UK. And despite all its smart features, let’s hope to do without.