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After owning the same sailboat for a good long spell, I naturally became quite familiar with the electronic navigation kit, including our modest (by today&#;s standards, anyway) Garmin chart plotter. That is to say, when I needed to, I knew where to find most of its features without pushing too many buttons or resorting to the dreaded user manual.
That&#;s not the case, though, when I step aboard friends&#; boats and encounter less-familiar brands of plotters, often set up in peculiarly whimsical ways, or when I take the occasional charter and try to reset the previous skipper&#;s preference for, say, chart soundings in fathoms or meters instead of feet.
And then there are those sea trials aboard newly launched sailboats that may or may not have calibrated instruments or even a cartography chip in the plotter, as was the case aboard a large cruising cat I found myself on in an unexpectedly shallow corner of Florida&#;s Biscayne Bay.
Here&#;s my take on Situational Awareness 101: Having easy-to-use, familiar nav equipment isn&#;t just a convenience; it&#;s a real safety issue when you suddenly find yourself tacking into unfamiliar territory or when sea conditions change unexpectedly. That&#;s not when you want to go scrolling through pages of unfamiliar menus looking for settings and information such as tides and current.
As the Boy Scouts like to quip: Be prepared. And with relatively inexpensive prices for hardware and plenty of free or low-cost apps among which to choose, it&#;s pretty darned easy to put together a take-it-with-you navigation toolkit that can double as a backup should the primary system on your own boat fall prey to the electron demons.
I&#;ve used the free navigation app iNavX for a while now. I have it on my iPhone (it&#;s also available for Android) and use it mostly to check my surroundings underway, and to get an idea of what might lie between my location and the next waypoint.
Call me old-fashioned, but I find planning longer routes much easier on a bigger screen such as what might be found on a tablet or multifunction display, or on paper charts. So, my first step was to contact customer support at iNavX to see what I should look for if I wanted to move up to an iPad. They promptly recommended any new iPad with cellular capabilities because it would have a built-in GPS receiver that works without a Wi-Fi signal; a used or refurbished device would need the same, I was told, plus it should have at least 64 GB of storage and be able to run iOS 13 or later software, or, even better, iOS 15 or newer software.
It took a little patience and hunting online, but I found an iPad Air 2 that met those specs on Amazon for just under $240. Had I searched longer, I probably could have found something suitable for even less, but with an upcoming trip, I was eager to get charts downloaded and sorted.
iNavX instrument readings (top), Marine Traffic (bottom)
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One of the things I love about iNavX is that it provides free access to charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There&#;s also an in-app store with offerings such as iNavX Professional+ charts, Blue Latitude Charts for Mexico, Explorer Bahamas, Waterway Guide, AIS Live coverage and Theyr Premium Weather. iNavX is also adding inland waterway cartography.
In basic navigation mode, iNavX is easy to use. You can set waypoints with the tap of a finger, plan out routes, view bearings in either degrees true or magnetic, get speed over ground, and customize a long list of other chart settings. You can also pair it on your or tablet with a vessel&#;s networked chart plotter to monitor depth, wind, engine, batteries and the like.
If you already have an AIS receiver or transponder on board, the app can display targets in chart mode. If you don&#;t, iNavX AIS Live coverage is available in some areas for a fee. The AIS Live server provides AIS targets within 30 nautical miles of your boat.
The price is right, though I initially found juggling the free NOAA raster charts a bit daunting. They are listed by region, and each chart needs to be downloaded for use. The USA East, for instance, lists charts from the US Virgin Islands to Cuba and northward to the Canadian border. That&#;s a lot of unfamiliar place names to scroll through.
The Professional+ charts also need to be downloaded, but they are listed by state and are much easier to find. Regional sets, such as the USA and Canada, can be purchased for around $25, and updates are included in the subscription fee.
For fear of being perceived as a big spender, I also downloaded Navionics&#; latest Boating app and purchased cartography for the US and Canada, also for just under $25. Navionics offers similar packages for just about anywhere in the world you&#;d care to sail, and the charts are the same as what&#;s available on Garmin (its parent company) chart plotters. Navionics recommends an Apple device running iOS 13 or later.
The newly launched iNavX Professional+ chart series offers premium vector charts delivering country-specific coverage at a very reasonable price.
The app lets you add a number of layers of information on its cartography and download daily chart updates. It also provides some serious navigation power, including Auto Guidance+, which will plot a route automatically. Basic navigation is fairly intuitive, and route planning is as simple as tapping the chart to set a waypoint or route, a feature that would be quite useful when planning a sailing vacation in some new, warm and sunny place.
A few precautionary words about auto routing, though: Before relying on it, carefully review where the route will be taking you. Setting a course from my home north of Boston into Boston Harbor, it would send me through a narrow piece of water called the Small Boat Channel, which is probably fine for a powerboat, but it can be a nightmare for a vessel under sail in certain wind and current conditions. And on any charter, remember that the software might not account for areas where the charter company doesn&#;t want you to go. Straying into the wrong place when following a machine-generated route might cost you your security deposit if the boat should be damaged.
Navionics provides a number of ways to customize charts, with overlays for satellite imagery, relief shading to show depths, and sonar contours. Weather, tide and buoy reports are all included, and the app can pair with onboard AIS receivers.
C-Map cartography, which I also use on the iPad, has similar features, and the same caveat applies when using its route-planning capabilities. C-Map charts are free when connected to Wi-Fi; offline cartography access and extended weather are available only to premium subscribers.
While all of these nav apps can provide AIS data when paired with an onboard receiver, another handy tool is the app from Marine Traffic, which displays near-real-time AIS information for vessels worldwide. The free version of the app provides interesting information about targets, including flag of registry, call sign, MMSI number, speed and size. You can use the app to search for ships and pleasure boats by name, or scan a harbor to see what&#;s anchored or underway nearby. Marine Traffic&#;s starter plan, which costs around $10 for a year, adds a number of other tidbits about vessels, ports, ship&#;s tracks and weather maps. It&#;s all pretty cool stuff to have at your fingertips.
Before relying on auto routing, carefully review where the route will be taking you. What may be fine for a powerboat could be a nightmare for a vessel under sail.
I&#;ve also loaded up the iPad with a few of my favorite weather apps, such as Windy, Predict Wind, Storm Radar, WindAlert and SailFlow, and I&#;ve added links to regional NOAA text weather forecasts so that they are available as Wi-Fi allows. And I&#;ve downloaded PDF copies of a few other free NOAA publications, including Coast Pilot 1 and Coast Pilot 2, which give detailed coastal information about the waters from Eastport, Maine, to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I also have the US Coast Guard&#;s Light List, Volume 1, covering the Atlantic coast.
With my new toolkit in hand, I&#;ll be ready to plan my next trip ahead of time and be able to change waypoints on the fly using apps that are quickly becoming old friends.
Boat of the Year judge and CW editor-at-large Mark Pillsbury is a die-hard sailor who has owned a number of sailboats, including a Sabre 34, on which he lived for 15 years.
Although boating has been done for centuries without any fancy apps or technology we have today, we relied on many different apps aboard PIVOT. During our 6,000-mile boating journey around the United States and Canada, we consistently used several marine and boating apps on both our smartphones and tablets. We&#;ve compiled the apps we&#;ve personally used most frequently, from navigation assistance to boat locators and social networking for boaters. By downloading these apps before you leave your dock, you&#;ll set yourself up for success by having the right tools (or apps) to enjoy a stress-free boating experience. In this comprehensive guide, we&#;ll explore some of the best boating apps available today and which ones we actually use. Whether planning a leisurely cruise or embarking on a nautical adventure like America&#;s Great Loop, these apps will surely enhance your boating experience.
Note: We use affiliate links which provide us a little kickback each time you use one of our links and make a purchase, without any additional cost to you. We do not recommend products that we don&#;t already love or have heard great things about, so you can trust we&#;re only suggesting great products to you.
A screenshot of our BOAT Folder pt 1 A screenshot of our BOAT Folder pt 2Navionics is a top-rated navigation app that provides detailed charts and maps for boaters worldwide. Its strengths lie in its extensive coverage and user-friendly interface, making it easy to plan routes, mark waypoints, and navigate safely on the water. We love the ability to mark anchorages, customize relief shading to identify areas of shoaling easily, and its connection to Active Captain. Garmin owns Active Captain, an open-source software that collects reviews on anchorages, marinas, and other important boating information in one easy-to-use platform. Navionics was our most used app while living on a boat.
Price: the app requires an annual subscription, and the price depends on the extent of maps you want. For example, the navigation maps in the United States and Canada cost $49.99/year.
AquaMap is another popular boating navigation app that offers a wide range of features. In addition to detailed charts and maps, AquaMaps includes advanced navigation tools such as route planning, weather, tides, and AIS integration. We used AquaMaps primarily for two use cases:
We also downloaded Bob423&#;s Tracks, which overlaid onto AquaMaps and helped us navigate the chronic shoaling areas on the ICW. AquaMaps also has a built-in anchor alarm, and a connection to Active Captain, which we use frequently! Our friends have also told us that AquaMaps are superior in the Bahamas.
Price: The app requires an annual subscription, and the price depends on the number of maps you want. For example, the navigation maps in the United States and Canada cost $14.99/year or $49.99 for a forever license.
Ditch is a new navigation app released in . Ditch brings &#;Local Knowledge&#; to your navigation by using real AIS data combined with NOAA and USACE, all with their AI Smart Path technology. Waterways are constantly changing, and accurate, historical AIS information is a great way to ensure your tracks are currently navigable.
Price: The app requires an annual subscription, currently $30 / year (as of 7/)
Argo is another navigation app that compiles offline charts, weather, wind, tides, custom depth shading, charts, and routes into one seamless app. We love the custom depth shading, which allows us to identify areas of shoaling and log captain reports easily. Having personally met the founder of Argo, Jeff Foulk, we really like how the app blends marine navigation and social boating. We didn&#;t use Argo while boating, mainly because we didn&#;t learn about it until later! If you use Argo, let us know what you think in the comments!
Price: Free for their Basic Plan, Argo Premium is $19.99/year.
Read The Best Marine Weather Apps for Boating to see what marine weather apps we recommend and regularly use!
Tides is a handy app that provides accurate tide and current information for thousands of locations worldwide. We used Tides to plan our trips to optimize current, save fuel, safely navigate shallow waters, and avoid strong currents. While the app&#;s basic features are free, premium features such as extended tide forecasts and offline access require a subscription. Tides offers essential information for boaters in an easy-to-read format so we can easily plan our cruises with the tides. We often used Tides on the east coast to favor the current in our direction of travel, giving us an extra boost of speed.
&#; Add Tides to your smart watch to know the tides at a glance!
Price: Free
Boating Apps for CommunityOne of the best parts of boating is the community. Hands down. These are a few apps that use apps to strengthen the boating community by allowing you to connect with other boaters, communicate with messaging, and ask for recommendations or suggestions.
Nebo is a unique boating app that combines a captain&#;s log with social networking, allowing users to share their boating experiences with friends and fellow sailors. It was easily one of our favorite apps on the water because it allowed us to connect with other boaters, ask boaters for recommendations, and have a unique flag icon that helped us find other Loopers. We&#;re huge fans of Nebo for elevating our Great Loop experience, and we wouldn&#;t do the Great Loop without Nebo and the hardware device.
Price: The Nebo Starter Membership is free, the Nebo Silver Membership is $53.90/year, and the Nebo Gold Membership is $99.99/year. The Nebo Link has a one-time cost of $199.
Sea People is a new app developed by the crew from Sailing La Vagabonde. This app is designed to track your voyages without needing a hardware device; instead, it uses your &#;s internal GPS. It&#;s designed to make connecting with other boaters and staying in touch with the friends you make on the water easier. If you&#;ve tried Sea People in Beta, let us know what you think below!
Price: TBD
Although Travel Boast isn&#;t a &#;boating-specific travel app,&#; it is a fun way to document your travels by boat (or other means of travel) and share it with friends and family or on your social media accounts. The app allows you to customize your travels through an easy-to-use interface.
Price: Free with in-app purchases for upgraded features
For more marine navigation equipmentinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
Boating Apps for MaintenanceYachtWave is a comprehensive boating app that offers a wide range of features tailored specifically for yacht managers and boat owners. With a tagline Boat Ownership has Never Been Easier, YachtWave focuses on the daily and yearly maintenance obligations of boat ownership. After setting up your boat(s) and their engines, generators, and heavy equipment, you can add your spares and set up your boat maintenance tasks. The best part is that you can share this with other crew members if you are not personally maintaining your own boat. Since your maintenance is moving from your captain log into the YachtWave App, you can now easily share and search your information and pull it up whenever you need it.
Price: Free for personal use.
Boating Apps for LockingLock Status is a great app for finding information about upcoming locks. We found it a great resource when planning our travel itinerary for the following day, as it allowed us to see what was coming up and the last lock-through that occurred.
Price: Free
Read our post on How to Lock A Boat (Our Step-By-Step Process)
Boating Apps for Vessel TrackingMarine Traffic is a must-have app for boaters seeking real-time vessel tracking and AIS data. With its extensive database of ship positions and comprehensive coverage of maritime traffic worldwide, Marine Traffic provides invaluable insights into vessel movements and navigation hazards. While the app&#;s basic features are available for free, premium features such as extended vessel details and route predictions require a subscription. Marine Traffic remains a valuable tool for boaters seeking to enhance their situational awareness of the water. We frequently used this app since we didn&#;t have AIS and wanted information on barge, tug, and ship traffic in the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, and Midwest rivers. Whenever we experienced fog, we used Marine Traffic to give us extra data on boats near us.
&#;&#; AIS data is sometimes delayed through Marine Traffic so keep that in mind
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases.
Boating Apps for EmergenciesThe US Coast Guard app is a great way to request a USCG Safety Check, review your safety equipment, check state-by-state safe boating information, file a float plan, and report hazards, pollution, or suspicious activity. We used this app to look up boating rules as we cruised, ensuring we followed the rules and obeyed the laws on the waters to the best of our knowledge.
Price: Free
Boating Apps for TowingThe BoatUS app allows you to carry your BoatUS membership card easily, request a tow, add your insurance policy, and find out location information such as weather, tides, buoys, and discounts. We used the app to keep our BoatUS membership card handy as we thankfully did not need a tow.
Price: The app is free, but a Boat US yearly membership costs $215/year for unlimited towing with other cheaper membership options available.
We used BoatUS to have peace of mind while cruising, knowing help was only a radio call away. Sign up for BoatUS here!
The Sea Tow app allows you to request a tow, carry a digital version of your Sea Tow membership card, and show your latitude and longitude.
Price: The app is free, but Sea Tow&#;s yearly membership is $249/year.
The C-Tow app is specifically for Canadian boaters or boaters who are boating in Canada and want towing assistance. The app allows you to request a tow, carry a digital version of your C-Tow membership card, pinpoint your GPS location, check current Environment Canada marine weather conditions, including weather alerts, see tide predictions for coastal areas, check your speed and heading, and locate nearby marinas, marine facilities, and fuel docks. Note that some Sea Tow and BoatUS memberships won&#;t cover you in Canada, so if you&#;re doing the Great Loop you may want to look into C-Tow!
Price: The app is free, but membership ranges between $145-250/year.
Boating Apps for Anchor AlarmsHaving an anchor drag alarm is easily one of the best apps to have readily available if you&#;re planning on anchoring. We recommended downloading a few apps before leaving your home port and testing them one by one when you arrive at your anchorage to find the app you like best. If you don&#;t want another app, specifically for anchor alarms, try out Aquamaps if you already are using it for navitation.
This simple anchor drag alarm is easy to use with various options depending upon your anchoring set up. It allows you to set a circle perimeter or an arch, has a dark screen mode for anchoring at night, and makes adjusting your alarm distance easy.
Price: one-time cost of $4.99
You can easily set your distance, see your past movements, and set your anchor alarm after anchoring. You can also be alerted on a secondary .
Price: $5.99
This anchor alarm app has many similar features to the previous apps and is free.
Price: Free
Check out our blog post on the Marine Weather Apps for boaters!
Boating Apps for MarinasDuring our Great Loop, we found that many larger marinas worked with companies to make reserving a marina spot easier. As we planned our route and marina stays, we often reviewed these apps for availability and amenities. Here are the two most popular marina apps:
Snag-A-Slip is owned by Marina Life Company and is an easy way for boaters to book a marina or private boat slip. The app allows you to explore marinas from Canada to the Caribbean, book your slip or mooring ball with their easy-to-use app reservation system, and pay via card. It helps take the Google searches and tag with a marina out of the equation. Snag-A-Slip doesn&#;t charge booking fees and offers their service free of charge with a price match guarantee.
&#; Pro tip: Snag-A-Slip partners with Sea-Tow to give members an extra discount!
Price: Free
Dockwa is a convenient app that simplifies the process of finding and booking marina slips and moorings. With its extensive database of marinas and user-friendly interface, Dockwa makes it easy for boaters to search for available dockage, reserve slips in advance, and manage their reservations on the go, making marina bookings hassle-free. Pro tip: Dockwa partners with Boat US to give members an extra discount!
Price: Free
Use our Referral Code 450ZMS3 for a $15 discount on your Dockwa reservation!
In conclusion, there are many apps for boat navigation and boat apps in general. Whether you&#;re seeking navigation assistance, boating community, vessel tracking, marina bookings, or tide information, an app can help you navigate confidently. As a software engineer (Elliot) who loves to test the latest apps and software development, we thoroughly enjoyed using and experimenting with the wide array of boating apps. We hope this list of boat navigation apps and other boat apps gives you the resources you need to have an enjoyable time out on the water. If you have any favorites that we may have missed, let us know in the comments below!
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