Whats your favorite sailors app ?

[Peter Johnson]

Hi fellow sailors

When sailing I find iPhone and also iPad very useful as extras to normal marine equipment.

I was wondering which apps you find useful on your device ? Android users please join in also.

Here are the apps I personally find very useful:
Navionics: marine maps and plotter
Marine Tool: DST planner, calculations and conversions
Shipfinder: AIS (needs internet access)
BoatersRef: In fact more like a book. Contains a lot of useful stuff
Imray Chart Symbols: Symbols and practical info

So which apps do you use ?

[GrowleyMonster]

For iphone I like Day Tides. No internet access needed. It will give you the tides at any station in the world but just for that day. Tide Planner is the paid version and you can specify a different date. But you can of course reset the system date to the date in question and Day Tides will think it IS that date and give you the info. Cludgy but okay for a free app.

Also for iphone the rather expensive iNavX, but only for U.S. coastal waters. Very good chart navigation program. Only problem is you can't load charts directly from your computer so if you have a big library of charts already, you are still stuck with the US NOAA free charts and free charts from some other areas, unless you subscribe to their site. Still, excellent for US waters.

I just got my first Droid, a Galaxy Tab2 7" and I am liking it so far. I have Marine Navigator which can use charts from your PC. Works pretty good. Also Google Earth. Great app but of course only when you have internet available.


I have a lot of my reference material on both devices. Bowditch, Coast Pilot, etc. Only truly essential stuff do I keep on my little boat in hard copy.

[sailorboy1]

I don't run any sailing apps! In fact I don't run any apps period!

I go sailing to get away from this type of stuff. I kind of wonder if an app is worth messing up my sail for the "usefullness" of an app?

[tamicatana]

AyeTides and Memory-Map

[Mike OReilly]

iNavX for plotter/planner (with purchased Canadian charts)
MotionX-GPS for basic GPS capabilities
WhatKnot for learning new knots
Captain's Tool Box for a host of basic references (COLREGS, clouds, ship light configs, unit converter, etc.)
Passage Weather (not a real app)

[mrohr]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

I don't run any sailing apps! In fact I don't run any apps period!

I go sailing to get away from this type of stuff. I kind of wonder if an app is worth messing up my sail for the "usefullness" of an app?

Don,you da man! Couldn't have said it better. +1

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

I don't run any sailing apps! In fact I don't run any apps period!

I go sailing to get away from this type of stuff. I kind of wonder if an app is worth messing up my sail for the "usefullness" of an app?

+2 I leave the cracked screen ithinghy in the nav desk so I don't need to be connected.

[Snore]

Adobe!


Since the PO did not leave me all the manuals I have them digitally. if even greater use are the digital shop manuals for the engine and transmission. While the Nav stuff is nifty, Adobe has been a life saver (figure of speech).

Bill

[Cormorant]

On my Droid 3 Android phone:

--Smart Compass (turns your phone into a hand-bearing compass)
--Windfinder (wind speed and direction forecasts at 3-hour intervals for any location you choose)
--MX Mariner (chartplotter app with offline charts preloaded for whole US east coast)
-- Navionics US East Coast
-- Tide Chart Free (offline tide info for any locations you choose)
-- GPS Essentials (basic lat/long/speed/bearing etc)
-- Google Sky Map
-- Astroid (moon rise + set /planet rise set times)

Not to mention my e-book reader app and my audiobook app, both full of good nautical titles. . . .

Pretty amazing to carry all this in your pocket.

[mikereed100]

I bought a Nexus 7 so I could use Navionics. As it turns out I can't get Navionics on the Nexus 7 so I was going to return it until I got a load of the Google Sky Map which turns the tablet into possibly the coolest toy ever.
Also use;
Audubon birds (has bird calls as well as multiple photos)
Kindle (I can read in the bunk after my wife goes to sleep)
MX Mariner (great app using built in gps and free raster charts, don't need internet)

[four winds]

GPS Essentials is a great app.

I use it every day sail (six times in 2013 so far) to record a track to be viewed on Google earth.

Gives a look at how close to shallow water the boat came and a better idea of tacking angles, etc. Also, average speed, max speed, duration, distance sailed. Has many features in the dashboard like bearing, reverse bearing, sun/moon rise and set times, and many things I can't remember that would appeal to more advanced sailors than myself.

Marine Navigator Lite

No quilting of charts, but still a good backup chart tool for free and free NOAA charts for US.

Tide Charts Free

The graphics are well done in my opinion.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by mikereed100

I bought a Nexus 7 so I could use Navionics. As it turns out I can't get Navionics on the Nexus 7 so I was going to return it until I got a load of the Google Sky Map which turns the tablet into possibly the coolest toy ever.
Also use;
Audubon birds (has bird calls as well as multiple photos)
Kindle (I can read in the bunk after my wife goes to sleep)
MX Mariner (great app using built in gps and free raster charts, don't need internet)

I got Navionics Caribbean on my Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7" droid tablet and it works pretty good. Not very good charts, though. Especially in Belize.