AIS navigational status
AIS navigational status 8: Under way sailing
Under sail alone. What status 8 means, what speed and track should go with it, and how often it is simply wrong.
What status 8 means
The vessel is under way using sails only. A sailing vessel with its engine running is, for the collision regulations, a power-driven vessel and should report 0.
What should go with it
Varies with the wind; tacking produces a zig-zag track.
Navigational status is entered by hand on the bridge; speed, course and position come from a satellite receiver. Read the status as testimony and the rest as measurement. Where they agree you have learned something. Where they disagree, the measurement is usually right.
How it goes wrong
Usually set by larger sail training ships and some yachts; most yachts use Class B equipment, which does not transmit a navigational status at all.
The matching lights and shapes
The AIS status mirrors a state defined in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs), which also say what the vessel should display:
Rule 25 — sidelights and sternlight at night; a cone point down by day when motor-sailing (which should then report 0, not 8).
Summary for orientation only. The COLREGs text is the authority; this site is not a navigation reference.
All sixteen codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Under way using engine |
| 1 | At anchor |
| 2 | Not under command |
| 3 | Restricted manoeuvrability |
| 4 | Constrained by her draught |
| 5 | Moored |
| 6 | Aground |
| 7 | Engaged in fishing |
| 8 | Under way sailing |
| 9 | Reserved for future amendment (HSC) |
| 10 | Reserved for future amendment (WIG) |
| 11 | Power-driven vessel towing astern |
| 12 | Power-driven vessel pushing ahead or towing alongside |
| 13 | Reserved for future use |
| 14 | AIS-SART, MOB-AIS or EPIRB-AIS active |
| 15 | Undefined (default) |
For the field as a whole — and how this site handles it — read AIS navigational status codes, all sixteen.