SP Sailing Plan
When: shortly before, at, or within a few hours after departure.
Puts the vessel on the plot. It carries the vessel identity, port and time of departure, destination and ETA, the intended route as a series of legs, communications details and the medical resources on board. From this AMVER dead-reckons your position until the next report.
PR Position Report
When: within 24 hours of departure, then at least every 48 hours.
Updates the plot with your actual position, course and speed at a given time. Many masters simply send it with the noon report; more frequent positions make the surface picture more accurate for the rescue coordinators.
DR Deviation Report
When: as soon as the route, destination or ETA changes materially.
Use it when you divert for weather, change port, or your ETA slips by a day — anything that makes the original Sailing Plan a poor predictor of where you will be. It restates the voyage from your current position onwards.
FR Final Arrival Report
When: on arrival at the destination port.
Takes the vessel off the plot. Send it as you arrive — at the pilot station or on berthing — so you are not tasked for a rescue you can no longer reach.
How an AMVER message is built
Every report starts with a header line naming the report type (for example AMVER/SP//), followed by letter-coded lines, each closed with a double slash. The same letters mean the same thing in all four reports, so once you can read a Sailing Plan you can read any of them. This is the set of lines the generator produces:
| Line | Content | Used in |
|---|
A/ | Vessel name and call sign (identity of the reporting ship). | SP · PR · DR · FR |
|---|
B/ | Date and time (UTC) the report applies to. | SP · PR · DR · FR |
|---|
C/ | Position — latitude and longitude at the time in line B. | PR · DR |
|---|
E/ | Course made good, in degrees true. | SP · PR · DR |
|---|
F/ | Speed, in knots. | SP · PR · DR |
|---|
G/ | Port of departure and its position. | SP |
|---|
I/ | Destination, its position and the ETA. | SP · PR · DR |
|---|
K/ | Port of arrival and the time of arrival. | FR |
|---|
L/ | Route information — one leg per line: rhumb line or great circle, speed, and the next turning point with its ETA. | SP · PR · DR |
|---|
M/ | Communications — coastal radio station watched, Inmarsat or other means of contact. | SP · PR · DR |
|---|
V/ | Medical personnel or resources on board. | SP · DR |
|---|
X/ | Remarks — typically the time of the next report, ports of call, or anything AMVER should know. | SP · PR · DR · FR |
|---|
Y/ | Relay instruction — other reporting systems the message should be forwarded to. | SP · PR · DR · FR |
|---|
Z/ | End of report. | SP · PR · DR · FR |
|---|
Practical notes from the bridge
- Times are UTC in the day-hour-minute form (
DDHHMM Z MON YY). Keep the ship's clock and the report consistent — a Position Report timed in local time will move your plotted position by hours. - Route legs (L-lines) tell AMVER whether you are steering rhumb lines or great circles between the turning points, and at what speed. Import the passage plan instead of typing it: the Sailing Plan tab accepts V2PS
.gpx, Bon Voyage .bvs, Bridge Master .route and SPOS .xml files. Store the master copy of the route in the Passage Library and reuse it on the next voyage. - A Deviation Report replaces the plan, it does not patch it. Give the new destination, ETA and remaining legs in full so the plot is rebuilt from your current position.
- Do not forget the Final Arrival Report. Until AMVER receives it, your vessel stays on the plot and may be asked to assist with a casualty you have long since passed.
- Need the ETAs for the L-lines? ShipETA Pro solves waypoint ETAs and required speeds from the same route file.
The authoritative reference is the AMVER Ship Reporting System Manual published by the US Coast Guard; when in doubt, the manual wins.
