Yes, but does anyone know you're there?

Playing chicken with a 100,000 ton monster. At twenty knots, one of these takes over a mile and a half to stop - as long as somebody's quick enough to get to FULL ASTERN in time. Picture from www.ship-technology.com.

But ask yourself two questions. Is it turned on and working? And in a busy sea-lane with their hands full, have they got enough time to give it full attention? At a closing speed of twenty knots plus, you have only three miles of searoom to decide. So do they. But you're not sure they can see you. So that's not exactly a lot of space to play chicken in. Especially if your hull is made of GRP which doesn't show up on radar and you're not carrying a reflector.

Radar reflector? That's that funny cylindrical thing, about two feet tall by nine inches diameter near the top of your mast. Or, if you've inherited the budget variety, it's the octahedral-shaped gadget like a kite that you haul up as high as you can. There's an even cheaper one which is not much more than a strip of metal hanging from a shroud. Whatever you have, its function is to bounce a ship's radar waves back wherever they came from. The idea is that incoming radar waves from the approaching leviathan ping off the reflective aluminium surfaces, reflecting back an echo to the ARPA to warn it that you're there. At least that's the theory.

The problem is reflectors like these are only PASSIVE. The radar waves bounce off them alright - assuming they don't miss because the target is so small (and over a distance of three miles, two feet by inches is small). But the returning echo it sends back is diminished because it's only a reflection. In other words, the return signal from your vessel is weaker than the incoming one - and could be just too weak to register on the big ship's ARPA system. Passive reflectors may only cost from thirty to a hundred and twenty pounds odd, but from a life-saving point of view is that necessarily the best economy?

The business end of a ship's radar - candid camera you definitely want to be seen on. It could save your life!

For a piece of equipment that could save your life, it looks like nothing. Well actually, like a piece of left-over lead pipe. It is integral for a good one to have its own antenna, which should be mounted as high as possible and free of obstructions, preferably to the top of the mast. Why? Well you want to be seen, don't you? And radar works on line of sight. The higher your return signal, the further away it can be picked up - and the greater your chances of being seen.

Two things happen with an active radar reflector. First, you get a bleep or a flashing light if your vessel is scanned by a radar signal. If you haven't already spotted it, that warns you there's a big ship in your area. Second, it's an enhancer, right? An active receiver not a reflector. So the incoming radar pulse is easily isolated, AMPLIFIED and RE-TRANSMITTED back in the direction it came from - stronger than it was when it came in.

There's another plus too. Because it's electronic, it's effectively bigger than it looks - from the way radar waves recognise it, at least six times larger than that kite thing you had up the mast previously. You can be seen - which is kind of vital when you consider the difference between you and a super-tanker at twenty knots and over. You can be seen - even though you're a midget David to his ginormous Goliath.

And that's amazing when you think of the differences. You're small and heeled over, tossing up and down on every single wave, a difficult target to spot, particularly at night. He's big and shoving through the water like a mobile rock, about as obvious and subtle as the Isle of Wight. You don't want that to run you down because nobody knew you were there.

Now add to that the fact that you're sending back a strong signal - a smaller blip, yes - but probably just about as strong in intensity as his is. It's amplified to be loud and clear. It gets heard by his scanner. It gets seen on his scope. His ARPA system can see you and sound a warning. And better still, it can discern you as exactly what you are, not a confused echo - strong enough to stand out from the clutter.

The cost? For something that could save your life several times a day without you knowing it, a lot less than you think. A good one will be around five hundred pounds, plus whatever extras you choose and the fitting charge. But do shop around, choose a manufacturer that you know and trust, have the unit fitted and tested by experts who know.

Now back to our winter forecast - and predictably, there's more fog.