If you're at all interested in Class B AIS, today's Panbo is a must-read.

I'm a bit perplexed by the US Coast Guard's newly announced AIS Class B guideline: vessel names will not be transmitted. Wow! Why not?

Here's part of the text from a slide presented Friday afternoon at a special meeting with the Coast Guard's Jorge Arroyo and the FCC's Ghassan Khalek, as reported on Panbo:

Um, OK. But even if vessel names are not official, nor "data-based", they remain incredibly convenient! How does virtually everybody on the water keep track of vessels cognitively, and refer to boats in communication? By name. Why do you suppose that is?

It ain't just quaint nautical tradition, folks.

Vessel names are tremendously "ergonomic" for human brains, in a way randomly assigned ID and registration numbers can never be.

By the way, what is this "data-based" complaint about vessel names, anyway? I'm somewhat familiar with database architecture and data management principles, so here's my guess: I think what they mean is that vessel names are essentially meaningless text string "blobs" with no specific utility or value in the database.

No utility because lots of vessels can share the same name; the name can't be used to identify a specific vessel, and doesn't even help associate an AIS database record with the corresponding records in other databases, such as state vessel registration databases.

No value because vessel names don't correspond to anything official, and can be changed at will. From a data integrity perspective, they're just random strings of nonsense.

Except that, you know, they represent the NAME OF THE BLOODY BOAT!

Surely MMSI will cover the data integrity requirements just fine?! Of course vessel names lack the uniqueness and persistence that database managers value so highly, but those qualities are inherent in the MMSI.

My opinion: Let's rethink this vessel name restriction.

[Here's the text from the slide above, for the benefit of search engines:]

Vessel Name
-Although many numbered vessels paint a name on their boat, they are not official (nor data-based)
-Thus we intend to adopt the following vessel name convention base on vessel number, either:
     -US#ST1234XYZ - U.S. State Numbered Vessel
     -US#123456 - U.S. Coast Guard Documented Vessel