Plastic Classic Forum

Practical Sailor did an article over a year ago on Marine chart plotting/GPS apps for smart phones. As we all know, a year is a lifetime for technology and smart phone aps have exploded over the past year. What, if anything, are people using to turn their smart phone into a back up chart plotter/GPS? And, more importantly, what do you think about it? It is February and I want to buy the app in March/April so that I have April/May to play with it and work any bugs out.

Thanks

I don't have any experience with the marine GPS for a phone, but I did play with the auto GPS for a free month. I dropped the service (auto version) because I had no real use for it, but it was fun to try out. I would not be surprised if a marine version works fairly well, or at least soon will when the bugs are worked out. I look forward to hearing from someone who has actually used it.

Dennis, I have no experience with the iphone but I went sailing in December with a fellow that had his wife's ipad with the celestial app. It was cool. If you held the ipad flat like a book it showed the sky you were looking at, at that moment in time. If you turned 90' it corredted for that view. If you inverted it and held it upside down over your head, it reproduced what you were looking at in whatever direction you faced. Of course you had to be in 3g coverage for it is fed by satilite, I think. Seems it would be a cool $400 addition to a celestial navigation course.

Dave.

Dave,

I have the same ap on my 'droid. You are right, it is excellent but without the sextant, reduction tables and a watch......

LazyGuy wrote:Dave,

I have the same ap on my 'droid. You are right, it is excellent but without the sextant, reduction tables and a watch......

Oh, we gotta have all that stuff. too?

Come on guys, this is the epitome of nerdery. Shirley (don't call me Shirley), there are some other comments here.

Dave.

I have an older iphone 3 but it does have a GPS chip as well as the "enhanced GPS" over the cel network.
I use the great lakes Navionics app and the "Anchor Alert" app and love them. (especially for 9.99 and 5.99 respectively!)
I've also benefited from the racing apps and learned a LOT about the night sky using the various celestial apps.

It's also nice to have internet access with it's many weather forecasting sources, live radar imagery etc. at your fingertips.

All in all, a pretty cool gadget when sailing in home waters but I'm not sure how the "roaming" charges would stack up on extended cruising. Although, I guess the GPS functionality would work for free?

I am looking for a sextant and reduction tables for an old fashioned backup.