Buy a Tile sport and tape it in your kayak they work great. GPS Tracker I put them on all my different key sets. You can find your phone with the Tile on your keys.
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Wrap in paper and gorilla tape it under the coaming. Then you can easily remove or switch hulls. It will never get wet with the tape.
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You can even share you Tile with another contact on your phone. .
Down side someone in China is tracking me.
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I use the Apple AirTags in luggage and have one on my dog along with another more accurate satellite GPS.
Velcro dog has never gone more than fifty feet so I could probably take it off but I tie him up outside stores.
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Whoa. I have a tile for my keys. It is not GPS. It is Bluetooth based, so it only has a range of maybe 100 yards. Supposedly you can mark something as lost on the Tile app and if someone else running the app gets in range it will tell you where but otherwise it is useless for tracking a stolen boat.
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I use a GPS tracker because we hike a lot in remote areas and the AirTag is not good enough.
When we bought him he was already seven months and I was afraid he might run off.
i don’t always put the GPS tracker on and the AirTag is enough when the neighbor kids take him out I can see where they go all around town. The kid was about eight when she started taking him and it was slightly dubious.
Bluetooth is good enough usually. The GPS tracker
is only 40 euros for two years which I think is pretty good but the battery only lasts a day.
I do have a Tile on my keys. Havent needed yet.
And my uncle does have them on his keys and a few other things, and they have used to find his jeys. But really my aunt has them to make sure he can be found, as he is in early states of dementia.
A limitation I have found with Tile related to using it to tracking a missing boat is that only when it is near other phones running the Tile app will it be located. Being bluetooth (not GPS), the tags require a local smartphone to connect to provide location and send that info to the cloud. Tiles only connect to phone of people who are running Tile, which is not common. I sent a Tile on a test with my partner (her phone doesnt run tge Tile app) as she travelled across San Francisco, and in a few hours she was only located twice. Not an issue if you are trying to find your own keys, as your phone will connect to the Tile when you are in range. But a concern if the Tile tag is away from your phone, like when tracking a stolen boat.
I believe Apple airtags are picked up by any iPhone, not just those using airtags. So airtags do seem much more found when away from your phone range.
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I looked at Tiles years ago and decided the very limited range and the fact that the batteries could not be renewed wasn’t practical for gear tracking. I did buy some for Christmas gifts for some young relatives who were constantly losing track of keys and their backpacks but apparently they all eventually lost the Tiles as well!
The Tractive GPS pet tracker tags are rugged, waterproof and have unlimited range and a 7 day battery charge life, but cost $96 per year for the tracking subscription. Not practical for a permanent tag on a boat but would still be a useful option for trips or long distance travel where you have to leave a boat exposed to potential theft.
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Tile worked on my keys 30 miles away.
Batteries are replaceable. Electronics change greatly in years. There is a waterproof tile now.
We have used tiles as a backup for keeping track of one of our house cats that was allowed to go outside in a fenced yard. He is a champion fence jumper and when he did get out of the yard the tile tag was useless if he got out of range of our own wifi/bluetooth. Tags only worked for about 6 months and everytime a new battery was installed the firmware was out of date with changes in the public sharing on wifi networks and the tile could not be reliably tracked.
The it mine 3 years ago for Xmas just found and used them now. They warn you if battery is getting low.
Want better get a monimoto they use in motor cycles. Alerts you when it is moved a few feet.