Detection, Prevention and Recovery

Safety Functions and Prevention Helpers

The safety layer covers wave prevention, traffic awareness and emergency stop-the-boat logic for MOB and deadman events, always with clear boundaries and visible reason codes.

Suite Overview Safety + Prevention

Sensor Basis For Hazard

Safety cues come from the same motion foundation as the Attitude module: 9-axis orientation and dynamics plus fore/aft force signatures for load transfer and impact awareness.

Hazard Cue Families

Surfing tendency from acceleration and speed spikes.
Pitching severity and bow-bury tendency from pitch dynamics.
Sudden descending and slamming impact cues from fore/aft force transitions.
Pooping-risk proxies from stern lift and wave-phase timing.
Broaching tendency from combined heel, yaw and force behavior.
Pitchpoling risk indicators from rapid pitch acceleration and load transfer.
Rudder-stall sentinel from command-versus-response divergence.
Pressure-drop sentinel combined with wind-shift and gust signatures for early squall detection.

See the article library for the seamanship background behind these cues.

MOB Response: Stop The Boat First

The default MOB philosophy is to stop the boat, not pretend that fully automatic sail recovery is possible.
Under sail, the system can cancel route and maneuver logic, inhibit tack and gybe, round up hard, and try to hold the boat near head-to-wind with minimum drive.
This is especially important for singlehanded or tethered-overboard cases, where the first priority is to stop towing the casualty through the water.
The MOB state is latched, logged and pushed to helm UI, iPad, voice alarms, relay outputs and shore-facing emergency updates.
A dedicated MOB relay path can also be triggered for simple hardware deployment such as a floating rescue line, buoy, light or similar emergency aid.

Deadman And External MOB Triggers

Deadman can be armed from the helm UI, iPad and the watchkeeping timer workflow.
If the deadman prealarm is not acknowledged in time, it escalates into the same high-priority MOB/deadman safety path.
Compatible external trigger sources can feed that path too, including dry-contact inputs, AIS MOB / PLB events and Garmin-compatible MOB/watch sources when they emit a real system event.
The MOB/deadman interface can also trigger a reserved emergency relay for deploy actions such as a floating rescue line, buoy, ladder release or other simple onboard recovery hardware.
Garmin watch or tag interfaces are treated as useful trigger inputs, not as the only protection layer.
The result is one authoritative emergency state across displays, alarms, relays and logs instead of several conflicting local interpretations.

Active Prevention Logic

Configurable auto round-up and bear-away strategies.
Timed recovery windows with explicit status and countdown.
Confidence gating before any automatic action.
Operator alarm and acknowledgement before unsafe transitions.
WORK mode interoperability so prevention logic can be applied with clear mode semantics.
Sail-trim advisories can recommend reducing or adding fore and main sail to keep the boat balanced and stable.

Traffic And Obstacle Safety

AIS/RADAR warnings can escalate into alarm state and the avoid workflow.
Temporary dodge handling is available in course mode with a controlled offset.
Clear resume-to-route actions are available when the hazard clears.
The system warns if resuming would force a dangerous wind transition.
Manual override remains immediate and authoritative.

Security And Emergency Escalation

The system supports rapid emergency escalation to shore for abandon-ship, medical and technical distress scenarios.
Emergency 1/2/3 are hardware trigger buttons wired into the onboard system for immediate use under stress.
Those trigger paths can also be interfaced with compatible external MOB/watch platforms, including Garmin-type sources, when they provide a usable network or dry-contact event.
The automatic emergency system can trigger relay outputs in the Relay module, where 8 configurable relays are available for vessel-specific emergency actions such as deploying a SAR buoy, releasing a floating safety line or activating other emergency equipment.
Once triggered, the system keeps sending emergency updates automatically to SailingKSF with position, heading, speed, weather and sea-state context.
Configured contacts can receive SMS and email notifications with the latest emergency status and vessel data.
This helps keep the boat visible to land support even if the skipper is heavily occupied with immediate safety actions.

Camera Safety Step (Roadmap)

Planned bow and aft camera feeds will add another layer of context for incoming-wave interpretation. They will complement the already implemented attitude and force hazard cues. Pressure-sensor trends are already fused with wind-shift and gust analytics to increase early squall-detection confidence, especially at night.

Related across the suite

Current page focus: Prevention logic for high-risk wave and wind events.

Prevention cues for broach, surf and pitchpole tendency.

MOB and deadman stop-the-boat response.

AIS/RADAR warning and avoid workflow.

Relay outputs for vessel-specific emergency actions.

Pressure-drop plus gust/shift squall awareness.

Emergency shore updates with position and context.

Feedback And Comments

This project is still in progress, and I would genuinely like feedback on what is missing, what feels unclear, and what would be most useful offshore. The first sea trial is planned for the 2026 sailing season, and every comment is reviewed by me before it appears publicly.

No public comments yet. You can be the first to add feedback.

Built For Singlehanded Offshore Reality

These public pages focus on what the suite actually delivers offshore: steadier steering, fail-safe automation, and practical offshore support that reduces workload without taking control away from the skipper.