Boat Tracking Device Recommendation

Maritime Topics Commercial Fishing
1

Here is a little background…

My dad is a commercial fisherman. It has been his livelihood his entire life. He docked his boat one evening. The next morning when he went to the dock it wasn’t there. I don’t know if you can understand how disheartening that is. We have finally scrounged up enough money to get a new one. I’m looking for a tracking device should, God forbid, if it ever happens again the least we could do is find it.

I’m looking for recommendations for a device that would

  1. constantly emit a GPS signal that can be tracked in real time
  2. has an extremely long battery life
  3. can be discreetly hidden
  4. does not need to be hooked up to a power source

I will also welcome any other anti theft device.

2

What size of boat?

3

The new one is a 24 footer but I don’t know what the stolen one was.

4

Have a look at this one.

https://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=128

5

I have seen this item recommended multiple times on Amazon but I wasn’t able to find out if any personally had one for their boat.

6

You can go to the support gCaptain amazon links found here: If you do make the purchase decision thru Amazon that gives gCaptain a little credit.

https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/support-gcaptain-via-amazon/45437

1 Like
7

Hiding a tracker on a 24 foot boat is going to be a challenge.
First things first, make sure your VHF is set up connected to a GPS and programmed with a MMSI and set to answer position requests. You just might get stupid thieves who have no idea about DSC and just use the radio as-is.
Likewise besides for being useful to you, thieves may have no idea that having AIS on is bad or even what it is.
Lastly, you can get one of these things and hide it. There are about 1,001 versions of these things all over Amazon and FleaBay. YMMV, I have not used nor tested any of them.

8

The Marine Exchange of Alaska sells an AIS tracking subscription and weld on, self-contained GPS transponders that are independent of any ship’s equipment (it’s great for barges without any machinery or power source). Its tracked by land based antennas and satellite. I think the subscription is something like $2500 a year. I’ve never heard what the transponders cost.

There are lots of GPS “asset trackers” on the market.