Last year Active Captain set up the eBoatCard scheme with the promise that live boat position reporting would become a reality soon. In expectation the OCC set up a private group within the eBoatCard Scheme. Last month they finally released a manual position reporting function and they promise to automate this soon with realtime position posting from sources such as Sail-mail Yellowbrick, AIS websites and IOS devices.

The good news is that the manual reporting is now working and 3 OCC members have posted their boat 's positions. These on zoomable and posted on Google Maps.

For existing members of the eBoatCard OCC group visit http://www.eboatcards.com/occ/locations/ and log in.

If you have an eBoatCard account and want to join the OCC private group then go to http://www.eboatcards.com/occ/ and apply to join. This group is moderated so only members can join and we have to approve your application so there will be some delay.

If you don 't already have an eBoatCard account you can create one free of charge by going to http://www.eboatcards.com/

The eBoatCard is a bit like Facebook for Boats and allows private and group posts in addition to position reporting.

Hi Simon
Thanks for responding to the suggestion. I 've joined the ecard scheme etc to see how it works and, although I can see the short term advantages of piggy backing on another initiative, I 'm not sure that it 's as authentic as buildng the facility in to our own website. I feel sure that this is what most members would expect in the longer term. Some members might even find that a free site such Active Captain develops into such a successful communication tool that they find their OCC membership somewhat irrelevant and certainly less value for money. Just a thought.