We’re always keeping an eye on the latest and greatest in sailing technology. One of the newest and most helpful pieces of technology we’ve found may already be in your pocket… the iPhone! The iPhone has quickly become a favorite tool for many SF Bay sailors. After searching through the app store, it’s easy to see why. We found 5 apps that are particularly useful for sailors. Leave a comment if you know of any we left out! A special thanks to Bruce Powell, OCSC Instructor, for the great advice!
AyeTides displays tides and currents for locations around the world. 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! An easy way to plan ahead or be helpful as crew.
MotionX GPS was designed by sailor/inventor/entrepreneur Philippe Kahn and was used by Kahn during his record setting Transpacific Run. The app has a virtual compass for navigation and a stopwatch to record time, distance, speed and average pace. It lets you email your tracks and waypoints with your photos so they can be viewed on Google Earth and Google Maps. It’s also available in MotionX GPS Lite.
Having problems with the instruments on your boat? Now you can use your iPhone to measure wind speed. Wind Meter works by measuring the volume of the wind on your iPhone microphone and converts it into a wind speed reading. To use, simply point the microphone into the wind and push Get Wind! Wait a few seconds and push Got Wind! The final reading is the average of the period. We’ve gotten mixed reviews about this app, but at $.99 it’s worth a try.
Get the latest weather updates from the meteorologists at the Weather Channel. The new 2.0 version has animated future radar, video and severe weather centers. Great addition to an sailors iPhone.
Boat Speed, Waypoints/Course, Lift/Header, Digital Compass, Count Down Timer, Angle of Heel, Tidal Info and Course Plotting.
I made a small sailors app that can do travel, distance and speeds calculations. Also distances to horizon and visibility of a lighthouse can be calculated.
Here’s a free Android app for tactical sailing during a regatta. It has a start race timer, many readout screens similar to TackTick device, it can record your track in GPX format which you can then email to yourself or someone else. Very useful and its completely free.
Two new sailing apps are Compass Eye (which was named Gizmodo’s App of the Day a few months back) and Boat Beacon (just announced last week). Compass Eye will turn your iPhone into a compass that doesn’t change its reading when the boat rocks and enables sailors to take compass bearings. Boat Beacon provides an easy way for your family to keep an eye on your location. It also shows the location of boats heading toward you.
You left out iNavX which I’ve used on my iPhone and iPad with NOAA charts.
This one looks just like the real thing. Sweet sailing with tutorials included!
How about YachtWeather. It provides key information giving temperature, wind direction and speed, wave height, wave length, wave period, storm risk, precipitation risk, humidity, pressure, etc. And best of all its FREE!
There is also a cool and easy-to-ready app called Marine Instrument Display (MID) for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store.
I don’t know about Android. I use Sailboat Race Starter on iPhone and it works great…includes a sync function for the countdown too.
These are very cool apps. We added a blog on our site with a link to your site, for any one interested in checking these out. Personally I guess I realy need to get an iphone now that their are so many cool apps!
Hello. You may find SailBlaster of interest. . .
My personal favorite is called Navionics… GPS, tracking, tides, currents, and a full chart.