It is always beside me, sometimes in my purse or handbag, sometimes in the back pocket of my jeans against a buttock, sometimes it hangs between my breasts, or slipped under a wetsuit … It has a sensual touch, sensible multitouch, very easy to use with 2 fingers…Ummm…
No worry I will not talk about the latest sex toy in fashion, but my favorite gadget namely the iPhone, especially about some applications available for sailing enthusiasts.
You will find below a list (not exhaustive: leave a comment if you know of any I left out! ) of some applications available for what is primarily a phone, but can do many other things. Several apps are particularly useful for sailors (some are available in multi languages). I had the chance to try some (iNavx, SailTimer, Navionics, SailMaster, Sailer, RacingRules, Knots…)…), and the result is often amazing. As the saying goes: ”There’s an APP for that!”
This article is divided into 2 parts, all related to sailing:
- Part I covers “Navigation , Marine Weather and Tide Prediction” Apps
- Part II will cover “Learning, Gaming and Apps for Second Life”
~
Warning: Don’t forget your iPhone isn’t waterproof… According to your usage, a waterproof case or transparent flexible bag is highly recommended…
~
Navigation, Marine Weather and Tide Prediction Apps
iNavX: (http://www.inavx.com/)
INavXTM brings official NOAA RNC raster United States waters marine charts to your iPhone. Included detailed chart coverage: West Coast, Gulf Coast, East Coast, Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, and Virgin Islands. Navionics Gold+ maps are available for the rest of the world
In addition to real-time chart plotting, iNavXTM supports waypoints & routes including KML (Google Earth) and GPX import/export, track log, measuring bearing/distance, GRIB weather forecast, tides/currents, anchor alarm and port/navaid search.
Navionix: (http://www.navionics.com/MobileMarineFeatures.asp)
The 2009 NMMA Innovation Award at MAATS, Navionics mobile is ideal for boaters, fisherman and watersports enthusiasts of all kinds. You can plan your on-the-water adventures anytime and anywhere….check tides, set your routes and markers, and search marinas. While on the water track your navigation, capture geotagged pictures, and create a virtual travelogue of your entire trip that you can share with your friends and family on Facebook. For those friends not yet on Facebook, simply email them your adventure log and let them view it overlaid on Google Earth and Google Maps.
~
MotionX GPS: (http://gps.motionx.com/activities/sail/)
“What the MotionX-GPS application does is combine GPS technology with the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer (the technology that senses movement) to create a highly accurate navigational interface.” - Sailing World, April 2009
The application has all the essentials a racing sailor would want: Digital Compass, Navigation (waypoint input, latitude/longitude, Velocity Made Good, Speed Over Ground, etc.)
AyeTides: (http://www.ayetides.com/)
AyeTides displays tides and currents for locations around the world.
Based upon Mr. Tides, AyeTides is tuned for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is a stand-alone application and does not require internet access to function. Have tides and currents at your fingertips at all times!
SailMaster: (http://sailmaster.structure6.com/)
At a fraction of the cost of stand-alone tactical systems, SailMaster provides all the information needed to optimise sailing and racing performance.
Main features: Current boat speed in either knots or km/h, Digital Compass, Actual direction of the boat, expressed as a compass heading, Calculates any variance in your actual direction and indicates the change as either a lift or header, Configurable count down timer for 15, 10, 5 or 3 minute countdown, A warning is given on each minute, with alerts on the last minute and beeps every second for last 20 seconds, Displays the angle of heel of the boat, in both numeric and bar chart formats, Displays the height and times of tides at your current position, Plot courses by entering a list of GPS coordinates in an easy to use interface.
Save courses for later use, or plot them as you go using the “Drop Mark Here” feature, An intuitive dashboard allows you to navigate your course, and displays Time and distance to the next mark, Speed can be shown as VMG relative to the next mark.
~
SailTimer: (http://indepthnavigation.com/)
SailTimer is now available as an easy download in iTunes for iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone has a GPS in it. But even when there is no GPS (on an iPod) or no internet connection (for Google Maps), you can get some very helpful tacking information. Just enter the angles of the wind and your destination, and presto: you get the optimal tacking angles. Add the distance to the destination and you can tell your overall tacking distance. And if you add your boat length, you can even tell how long it is going to take to get there. Even on an iPod, with no GPS.
As you can see from the screenshots above, you get navigation capabilities designed especially for sailors. Standard GPS chartplotters do not account for the obvious fact that sailboats zig-zag across the wind. How can they calculate your correct ETA if they don’t know how far you are tacking? Unlike the cost of GPS chartplotters, this is an inexpensive download for a device that you can carry around in your pocket.
Sailer: (http://www.gps-laptimer.de/)
Harry’s GPS Sailor is a GPS based navigation tool / sailing companion. Like all apps from Harry’s GPS Suite it uses an advanced GPS Engine developed and published during the last years on the PalmOS platform. For this Sailor app, the engine was expanded for the specific situation on a ship. One example for this expansion is treatment of speed. GPS is weak delivering exact speed informations at low vessel speeds making it necessary to utilize special algorithms.
FEATURES: This version brings a number of unique features to the iPhone platform. Examples are: visualization and measurement of heeling including a visual alarm when heeling in larger that 20 / 25 degree; display of racing rule #10: when boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a starboard-tack boat; full navigation support, course can be defined using polar coordinates, defined waypoints, or using a course given; full integration of Google Maps; while navigation is started, deviation from course, distance to waypoint, and velocity made good (VMG) is displayed continuously; extensive reference on nautic information: signal flags, morse code, lights and shapes, wind speed.
Wind Meter: (http://goingapps.com/default.aspx)
Use your iPhone to estimate the speed of the wind. Wind Meter works by measuring the volume of the wind on your iPhone microphone and converts it into a wind speed reading. Wind Meter supports multiple units of measure including Miles Per Hour, Knots, Kilometers Per Hour, Beaufort, Feet Per Second, and Meters Per Second.
~
.
Sextant: (http://www.italentproductions.com/sextant.html)
With Sextant for iPhone navigate with your GPS while you fake out the crew with this old style technology. Sight the horizon viewing along the top edge and tap horizon. Sight a star viewing along the top edge and tap celestial, it displays the angle. You can sight along the right edge for a little more accuracy. The animated sextant display remains pointing at the horizon as you rotate to shoot the star, the iPhone in the last image is actually rotated to the right to align with the star.
~
Tide Planner: (http://www.tucabo.com/products/tides-planner/)
The essential companion for sailors, divers, canoeists, fishermen, surfers, swimmers, photographers and anyone involved with sport or leisure at the seaside.
Windbuoy: (http://www.windbuoy.com/)
Windbuoy for the iPhone reports wind and weather info (wind speed & gust, water and air temp, wave height) for any of 100′s of NOAA buoys.
~
.
.
Anchor Alarm: (http://blog.chrisparsons.net/)
Anchor Alarm is a easy to use application that lets you set and monitor your position relative to an anchor point. It shows your distance from the point, and bearing to the point. If your current position strays too far from that set point, an alert will sound. The main use for Anchor Alarm of course is for setting an anchor drag alarm when you are at anchor on a boat…
~
.
iSail: (http://www.isail.fr/WordPress/)
Be the first one to start the race.
On the starting line, the application will provide you accurate informations about timing and positionning to help you get a better start. Features : Start Countdown (4,5,8, 10 minutes countdown and 3 minutes for eggs cooking), Easy adjust and synchronisation for the countdown, Vibrable and Talk to give you clear audible information about remaining time, Distance to Line (After entering the position of the committee boat and the pin, gives distance to the start line), Multi language (English or French depending on the setting for text and vocal announcements), Night and Day color scheme, Offset for distance to line, Lock button, Time to Line computation, Start sound, Map with line position…
Other Apps:
Further readings on the web:
To be continued with Part II: Learn/Knowledge Apps, Sail Games and SL Related Apps.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, great information Bea! Thanks for the research! No more 10k outlay for nav gear! Woot!
Nice list, I just switched to a Nexus One for the open-structure, better screen and speed. Am following the rapid deployment of super apps for it, most free or pennys ..
look at this one for the Android based smartphones.
http://sites.google.com/site/beercanracer/home