The Commodore Chronicles

Great sailing apps to make your life easier…………..

Sorry for the late issue of this weeks Blog – we’ve had a hectic week, with lots of courses going on and customers getting in some last-minute charters before the kids go back to school.

So, here we go with this weeks blog!

We get asked a lot about sailing apps for your smartphones, and what ones we use or recommend.

There is so much choice out there, and a lot of it is down to personal preference and what works for you. We find that the subjects of greatest interest or relevance are these:

• Navigation & passage planning
• Weather
• Tides & tidal flow
• First Aid & Safety
• Learning & fun

One thing to remember, is that whilst sailing the last thing you want is to damage or lose your expensive phone. To that extent we always recommend a waterproof case and lanyard, ideally attached to you! And yes, we’ve all had a phone go overboard at some point, and despite what the manufacturers say, none of them like saltwater!

So, onto the apps we think are useful to have: (we don’t get paid to recommend any of these, we just think they are useful to have!)

 

Navigation & passage planning:

Navionics:

This is a brilliant app and uses the charts you’ll find on most chart plotters fitted to yachts, including our charter fleet. It’s free to download but you have to create an account with Garmin (who own the app now) and there are subscription costs each year but you get a live and constantly updated chart which is handy as a quick-guide, and in particular for zooming-in on marinas to see the pontoon layouts etc (But not to be used for navigation!).

There are others out there, like iBoating and iNavX, but we find the familiar look of Navionics works well, when you consider that most of the multi-function displays you get on boats tend to use Navionics charts as standard these days.

RYA SafeTrx:

This is a brilliant free App from the RYA which helps you plan a passage and allow loved ones to track your progress. You set your estimated start and finish times/locations, press the “Set Sail” button and away you go. Then if your passage doesn’t go to plan and for instance you over-run your arrival time it will alert your emergency contacts on shore, who can if necessary raise the alarm with the Coastguard. It also allows you to add in crew members and give a lot of information about the vessel, passengers, departure and destination points plus all manner of other information. Well worth downloading if you have non-sailors at home who worry about you!

 

Weather:

There are literally hundreds of weather Apps out there, although a lot won’t give you offshore wind conditions, so you need to pick carefully if you intend to go offshore, or undertake that first crossing of the English Channel. We do recommend that you download 2-3 different wind Apps and cross-reference them all, as some aren’t updated as regularly as others.

Windy:

The most popular one we see sailors using is ‘Windy’. There are loads out there, and most tend to give pretty similar results, so it’s really up to what you find useful and easy to use. The great thing with Windy is that when you download the App it starts a setup process which asks you what hobbies you are planning for, how advanced you want to dive into the weather, units of measurement and so forth. It then sets it all up as you need it. Downside to this is that it’s not free to use. You can do a 7-day trial, but after that its £89 for one year, or £199 for lifetime use, which is a lot, but if you need wind forecasts often, then it may be a sound investment. If not, there are free alternatives

XCWeather:

Another great App we see sailors use a lot. This is Jonno’s go-to wind app. It’s got a beautifully simple and easy-to- read interface, and pretty much provides all you need to plan a weekends sailing quickly and without hassle. This is free to download and use.

Met Office:

A nice and easy-to-use App by the Met Office. Well worth downloading. This is also free to download and use.

 

Tides & Tidal Flow:

Again, there are literally hundreds of tide and tidal flow Apps out there to use. Our go-to ones we use are below.

My Tide Times:

This is a great App, and they do two versions, a free one which has adverts on and a paid one for £2.99 without the adverts and its got a few other features. The App shows an overview of where you are (if you let it track your location) and shows all the tidal stations in the area. Click on one and it’ll show you your high and low tide times for that station, sunrise and sunset times, moon phase and current wind speed. You can also add certain locations to your favourites for quick and easy future reference. The App does have limitations however, you can only check tide times up to 7 days ahead. So for longer-term planning, you may need to use an alternative App or source.

iStreams:

For those needing to know tidal flows over the course of a few hours, this is a nice quick-reference over having to delve through tidal streams atlases. There are Apps for all manner of locations, and the ones we use a lot are the Solent, English Channel and Channel Islands. Easy to use, you just tap in your chosen date at the top, and you can scroll left or right on the screen to show High water +/- through the day. Easy! The App does cost £3.99 to subscribe, which can get expensive if your sailing waters cover a wide are and you have to download 2+ of their regional Apps. However, for the average sailor who may stick to local waters, this is a great App to have.

 

First Aid & Safety:

This subject can cover a whole multitude of things, but we will focus on one subject we feel is most important when out sailing – First Aid.

Whilst we heavily recommend you undertake an RYA First Aid at Sea course with us, there are some really helpful apps which can guide you through dealing with the typical injuries that are commonplace on a boat. The British Red Cross offer a brilliant one, as does St Johns Ambulance.

British Red Cross:

This is one of Jonno’s go-to first aid App, which has been designed in an easy-to-read format. You simply select if you want to ‘watch’ or ‘read’ the guides, and then you get presented with a nice long list of the typical injuries or events you can learn about. Well worth downloading, and its free to use. Perfect!

St John’s Ambulance:

Again, another one of Jonno’s go-to Apps (Not that he’s accident prone!) is the one by St Johns Ambulance. They’ve designed this free App in a beautifully simple interface that gives a short, simple guide on how to deal with an injury on board. It does tend to refer you back to phoning for an ambulance a lot, which isn’t always practical once in the Solent or further afield, but the basics are there.

 

Learning & Fun:

Again, this is all down to what you think of as fun. One handy subject we would all recommend you practice on in your spare time are your sailing knots. You can never get too much practice, so ask us for an offcut of rope, download a knots App and go for it.

Knots 3D:

This is by far the best App we’ve found, and it’s been designed really well, for anyone to learn knots at any speed. The App simply gives you a selection of hobbies, you click on one you want (hopefully boating!) and it lists all the typical knots you will come across in the boating world. Click on a particular knot you want to learn, and it shows you an animated sequence of how to tie the knot. On the right hand side of the screen is a slider, so you can speed up or slow down the animation.

There is also a series of notes, explaining where you’d use that knot, the history of it (sounds boring but it’s not, seriously!) any other names it goes by, and other related knots you might want to learn. This App isn’t cheap at £5.99 but it’s a one-off purchase, so once you’ve got it, its yours. There are others out there, but we always use this one as our go-to App.

 

Summary………………

With so much choice out there, it really is a case of picking what works for you. The above Apps are what we use, and most see action each time we go sailing. We would still recommend you plan passages and navigate using charts, including pre-planing for weather plus the usual unforeseen changes that occur such as berth availability, and that you undertake the right level of training to suit the sailing you undertake.

And of course, most importantly that you embrace the mantra that is Jonno’s six P’s – “Preventive Planning Prevents P**s Poor Performance”!

Keep on sailing!