Patent ID: 8271155

Claim:
A safety system for a marine vessel, the vessel including one or more engines coupled to one or more propellers for propelling the vessel through water, and the vessel being provided with a digital anchor in communication with the one or more engines for maintaining the vessel substantially at a defined location when the anchor is activated, wherein the safety system includes a sensor assembly coupled to a data processing assembly for sensing a region of the water at least partially surrounding the vessel for detection of one or more persons present in the region and for modifying operation of the digital anchor in response to the one or more persons being detected, wherein the system is operable to respond to the detection of the one or more persons by one or more of: (a) deactivating the digital anchor; (b) operating the engines so as to maintain the vessel in a proximity of the one or more persons; and (c) deactivating drive to the engines in an event that the one or more persons are closer to the propellers than a threshold distance.