Pleasure craft and yachts on AIS

Which AIS codes count as pleasure craft

AIS code 37 is pleasure craft. It sits in the 30s range, where each code is its own meaning, alongside 36 for sailing vessels. There is no size or hull distinction: a 6-metre RIB and a superyacht can both report 37.

Owners pick the code themselves when they set up the transponder. Plenty of sailing yachts report 37 rather than 36, so the line between this category and sailing is blurry.

How to spot one on the live map

Pleasure craft are seasonal and coastal: dense in marinas and around popular anchorages on summer weekends, sparse in winter. Most tracks start and end in the same marina.

A large share of leisure boats carry no AIS at all, so the pleasure craft on any map are a small, self-selected sample — the owners who chose to fit a transponder.

Open the live map → Positions there are the latest known, with their source and age.

Who has to carry AIS

AIS is voluntary for recreational boats in most jurisdictions; large commercially operated yachts can fall under SOLAS or national rules. Class B transponders, the cheaper units fitted voluntarily to small craft, have no navigational-status field at all and report position less often — every 30 seconds while moving for the common CS type. A small boat that shows "no status" has not forgotten to set one; its equipment cannot send it.

The navigational status to expect

Ship type says what a vessel is; navigational status says what it claims to be doing. These are the statuses that normally go with pleasure craft:

• 15 · No status (code 15, or Class B, which has no status field)
• 0 · Under way using engine
• 5 · Moored
• 1 · At anchor

Where the type code misleads

A boat sold with its transponder can keep broadcasting the previous owner's vessel name until someone reprograms it, so the name on the map is not always the name on the transom.

Many boats switch AIS on only when under way, so a marina full of boats can look empty on the map.

Questions

What is the AIS ship type code for a pleasure craft?

Code 37. Sailing vessels have their own code, 36, but many sailing yachts report 37 instead.

Why does a yacht on AIS show no navigational status?

Most yachts carry a Class B transponder, and Class B has no navigational-status field. The missing status is a property of the equipment, not an oversight by the crew.

Do private boats have to carry AIS?

In most countries, no. Recreational AIS is voluntary, so only a fraction of leisure boats transmit. Large yachts operated commercially can be required to carry Class A under SOLAS or national rules.

Further reading

• How AIS actually works
• AIS vs radar vs satellite tracking: what each can and cannot see
• Reading an MMSI: what the nine digits mean
• All 100 AIS ship type codes, one page each
• Port activity index
• AIS transponders and receivers for small boats — Class B, receivers and what to look for