The most common boat in trouble is a small open boat or inflatable with no VHF, no AIS and no EPIRB — just a phone. VesselSOS makes that phone count: a live link for someone at home, and an emergency screen with your position, MAYDAY wording and the responsible rescue centre.
Solo at five in the morning, anchored on a mark or drifting a bank — nobody at home knows more than “back by noon”. The live link changes that: your position and battery in their browser, no app to install, no account. If the dot drifts where it should not, they see it happen.
An outboard that will not start is a technical-assistance case: the app shows who takes that call where you are — rescue service, coastguard or a local tow operator. The escalation logic is spelled out in Mayday or a tow? When it genuinely is life-threatening, 112 and the read-aloud MAYDAY are a three-second hold away.
Spring and autumn fishing puts you on cold water in an empty bay. Your coordinates are on screen the moment the app opens — GPS needs no mobile network — and the pre-written SMS with a map link goes to everyone you chose, through coverage too weak for anything else.
A lifejacket does the surviving; the app does the finding. VesselSOS is an aid, not a rescue service — in immediate danger, call 112 first.
The emergency screen and SMS work anywhere your phone works; the responsible centre is chosen from your position. On inland waters that call is 112.
The emergency actions are a three-second hold on large targets, built to work when your hands are not at their best.
Whatever you fish from — motorboat, inflatable, rowboat. One account covers every craft you use, and the profile travels with every alert.
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