Boat Apps

[SRyall]

New to the boating lifestyle and wondering what boat app you use?

 

[JASinIL2006]

To do what?

 

[Scott Danforth]

if you have to use an app for anything, especially boating.... you have lost.

you check your local radar weather for boating conditions.
you check your local tides.

 

[adangelo77]

Scott Danforth.. I guess your living up to your slogan "grumpy old guy"

I haven't used any apps because we are on a lake, but if your boating in larger bodies of water there's an app called Wave boating which may be worth checking out. I haven't used it but I know it's loaded with nautical charts and easier to read then nautical charts

 

[GA_Boater]

Scott Danforth.. I guess your living up to your slogan "grumpy old guy"

I haven't used any apps because we are on a lake, but if your boating in larger bodies of water there's an app called Wave boating which may be worth checking out. I haven't used it but I know it's loaded with nautical charts and easier to read then nautical charts

I'm a grumpy old guy too and if you are relying on a telephone to navigate on any body of water, well....................... What happens when you drop it in the drink?

 

[Horigan]

I like Navionics as my backup app. Lots of features, including auto-routing or dropping position markers when I drop crab pots.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Scott Danforth.. I guess your living up to your slogan "grumpy old guy"

I haven't used any apps because we are on a lake, but if your boating in larger bodies of water there's an app called Wave boating which may be worth checking out. I haven't used it but I know it's loaded with nautical charts and easier to read then nautical charts

I have had multiple boating classes

I have been behind the helm of boats for almost 50 years now (since dad let me drive the family's old Dunphy )

I have a real dash mounted GPS with down view and side scan

I have a hand-held sun-light readable GPS that floats packed in the ditch bag as a backup to my primary GPS

I have a compass on the boat, because GPS direction doesnt work when you are going really slow (like in the fog or heavy rain)

I have a second dash mounted depth finder because one could fail.

My boat has a mounted VHF radio

I have a hand-held VHF radio that floats packing the the ditch bag as a backup to the boat mounted VHF

I boat in Florida's Gulf Coast, so trying to read a phone screen is not only dangerous at 50mph, its also impossible because there isnt a sun-light readable phone. try shielding a cell phone with one hand, hold it in another while zipping along and dodging boat traffic

I boat in Florida's Gulf Coast, if the phone is in the sunlight for more than 5 minutes, it goes into overheat shutdown. as compared to some friends phones that just have the screen explode

I boat in Florida's, where there are not enough cell towers for the amount of cell traffic when I am close to civilization because there are too many millennials taking pictures of their face and their food and posting to facetube and instatweet

I boat off-shore in Florida, sometimes well outside of the reach of a cell tower

Before Florida, I boated in Lake Michigan, the bay of Green Bay and many many lakes and rivers all before owning a cell phone

I wear Grey polarized sunglasses to read the bottom (When driving, I wear yellow or brown polarized sunglasses)

I can navigate at night by landmarks

mostly where I boat, there are signs that state "do not rely on charts, local knowledge required" because the channels change with every tide.

I found that out the hard way more than one occasion

When I travel, I am usually in locations without cell coverage. I have printed maps, a GPS unit and a compass.

so tell me why I need to check out an app on my phone that is nearly useless unless I am in shore close enough to a tower to get signal. The purpose of being on the boat is to get away from the phone

If you must rely on an app to tell you how to boat, you have lost.

 

[adangelo77]

Scott I'm not making this personal and never doubted your skill or experience I'm just pointing out that all the guy is asking for is tips on apps people use on their phone and your making it seem like people that use their phones on their boats are losers. He's a new boater like I am and I wouldn't appreciate being belittled for asking for advice which is what these forums are for. Comments like that discourage people from asking for help. Also not everyone is the same or boats the same areas, maybe he doesn't have a boat with gps and all the navigation bells and whistles in which case a phone is likely the best bet to use for navigation. There are tons of apps and tons of people that use apps on their phones for navigation, have an open mind.

 

[matt167]

phone's often have a GPS for speedometer applications ect... But when they use driving maps/ nautical maps, they use triangulation from cell towers mostly. All modern decent smart phones do have a GPS chip built in but the application will only use it if it cannot triangulate between cell towers, and they are not high power chips.

They will work fine on inland lakes and rivers. Garmin has many small fish finders like the striker 4 plus which also has GPS waypoint capabilities. Way better than a cellphone and they are like $150

 

[Scott Danforth]

Scott I'm not making this personal and never doubted your skill or experience I'm just pointing out that all the guy is asking for is tips on apps people use on their phone and your making it seem like people that use their phones on their boats are losers. He's a new boater like I am and I wouldn't appreciate being belittled for asking for advice which is what these forums are for. Comments like that discourage people from asking for help. Also not everyone is the same or boats the same areas, maybe he doesn't have a boat with gps and all the navigation bells and whistles in which case a phone is likely the best bet to use for navigation. There are tons of apps and tons of people that use apps on their phones for navigation, have an open mind.

I am not belittling and I do have an open mind. I have many friends that say....hey try this app. I say bring it along..... and 5 minutes into the boat ride they are going..... I have no cell signal..... or I cant read my screen...... or can I plug in my phone/tablet. I also know from real world experience from having them along that cell tower based triangulation is at best, +/- 75 feet, assuming you get a cell signal. at +/- 5' from a satellite, you can get into trouble with a regular GPS in many places. especially when the difference between 8' deep in a channel and 8" deep outside the channel means you are calling for a tow.

I also know that if you must base your boating on an app prior to being properly prepared, you have lost.

if you can afford buy a new cell phone, you will have spent less on proper GPS equipment than you did for just the warranty on the phone. Especially in this day and age of the ability to buy a real GPS/sonar unit that 6 months ago was $1000 and today its $250 that comes with a lifetime upgrade. even the Striker 4 plus that Matt above indicated can be purchased for $99 on amazon or $59 as a factory refurb unit. and that is 100 times better than a cellphone app.

 

[roscoe]

I'm with Scott, Buddy tried his app and compared it to my handheld gps and my chart plotter.
It was way off. We were on a lake that is surrounded by 12 or more cell towers, and the app had us 100' away when we were anchored on a rock shoal.

Cell phones are kind of nice to call the wife on the way home, so she can turn on the deep fryer and heat up the oil.

 

[kaulbr]

Definitely check out Navionics. I use it as my primary GPS. Great app and relatively cheap.