But I'm the ham and the guy playing around with the SSB and sometimes my crew doesn't appreciate being sent up to steer on a stormy day especially if we're chatting with other boats etc which they like to be part of (it's also typically just 2 of us, so getting on the SSB tends not to be worth it if she's sleeping etc) I agree with your basic sentiment, I won't kill myself trying to solve this, but it's worth trying a few easy fixes to see if I can. Also, Chris at Alpha Spectra also said it is very bad for the AP to be knocked out by the SSB if you happen to forget to take it off.

This issue is a major reason I plan to use Iridium and UU+ for weather and email, rather than SSB/pactor.