Photo Phuket News
Our SetSail spies in Thailand have just made us aware of some interesting regulatory changes for those cruising in Thai waters. According to the Phuket News, all foreign-flagged vessels must now be equipped with AIS tracking devices. There is no vessel size limit on the requirement–all boats small and large have to comply.
Additionally, all boats–foreign and domestic flagged- moored and anchored in and around Ao Yon must move immediately, or risk seizure by the Thai government.
The Phuket News article has some clarifying details and is definitely worth a read for those of you who may be considering cruising in Thailand: Click here.
“There are two reasons why we focused on Ao Yon,” he explained at a meeting at the Royal Phuket Marina. “One is that it is near the navy base and the other is that we found there were a lot of yachts moored there with no owner in sight.
“This is our main problem — that we couldn’t find the owners. Sometimes they leave boats there and go back to their home country, and we don’t even know who they are.
“This motivated us to ban all yachts [Thai and foreign-flag] from Ao Yon. Any yachts left, whose owners we cannot identify, will be seized,” he explained.
– See more at: http://www.thephuketnews.com/details-of-phuket-yacht-clampdown-clarified-48680.php#sthash.jerI4lBy.dpuf
“There are two reasons why we focused on Ao Yon,” he explained at a meeting at the Royal Phuket Marina. “One is that it is near the navy base and the other is that we found there were a lot of yachts moored there with no owner in sight.
“This is our main problem — that we couldn’t find the owners. Sometimes they leave boats there and go back to their home country, and we don’t even know who they are.
“This motivated us to ban all yachts [Thai and foreign-flag] from Ao Yon. Any yachts left, whose owners we cannot identify, will be seized,” he explained.
– See more at: http://www.thephuketnews.com/details-of-phuket-yacht-clampdown-clarified-48680.php#sthash.jerI4lBy.dpuf
Posted by Sarah.Dashew (September 18, 2014)
September 19th, 2014 at 11:38 am
To be fair I think we can in future expect this from more and more governments who wish to monitor their waters. It makes it far easier for them to identify vessels of interest (especially those not transmitting). Big brother really will be watching us more and more.
March 4th, 2015 at 11:02 pm
A great way to help pirates.