iPhone and iPad Sailing, Boating and Yachting Apps
Apps to Enhance your next Yacht Charter
App Categories: Maps and Charts | Weather and Tides | Sailing | Yacht Management | Accessories | General
In our continuing goal of bringing you information that is helpful for your next yacht charter - we've been keeping tabs on (and using!) many of the best iPhone apps available for Sailing, Boating and Yachting. It's truly amazing how many useful applications you can store on your iPhone or iPad!
See our sailing music playlist too
Maps, Charts and Navigation
Maps and Charts are perhaps the most essential (and one of the most amazing) uses of the iPhone for yachting especially if you're bareboating. These programs pack amazing features into the iPhone.
iNavX marine navigation
iNavX marine navigation offers US waters marine charts (Included detailed chart coverage: West Coast, Gulf Coast, East Coast, Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, and Virgin Islands)
Boatbookings opinion: a must have for navigation in the US, fantastic tool, very highly rated by users on iTunes. We hope they will launch worldwide!
Price: Approximately $50
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Navionics Nautical Charts
Navionics offers charts for nearly all of the key yachting regions for the amazing price of about $15 per region (Regions include Mediterranean, US East Marine, etc).
Boatbookings opinion: fantastic value, suberb tool. Works great on the iPad's bigger screen!
Price: Approximately $15, plus in app purchases
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Boat Beacon
Boat Beacon helps you keep a watch on boats near you and others keep a watch on you to avoid collisions using Global Marine AIS systems via the Internet. It does not require an external AIS receiver or transponder equipment. Continuous Collision Detection out to 60 mile radius.
Boatbookings opinion: sounds like and excellent tool, but we havn't tested it yet.
Price: $9.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Compass Eye
Compass Eye is a great idea - combine the compass with the camera of the iPhone and you have a "see through" compass to set your bearings.
Boatbookings opinion: works nicely, we tried it out at the Voiles d'Antibes.
Price: $4.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Anchor Alert
This single focus app alerts you if your anchor is dragging. Stop worrying and enjoy!
Boatbookings opinion: great use of the iPhone GPS!
Price: $3.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Anchor!
This anchor app does as advertised, plus allows you to pinpoint exactly where the anchor is as opposed to where the boat is when you set it.
Boatbookings opinion: great use of the iPhone GPS!
Price: $2.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Google Earth
Google Earth maps the entire world, plus images of pionts of interest and local businesses. Also includes Google Ocean with points of interest below the sea.
Boatbookings opinion: this game changer just keeps getting better. Wish it had depth readings, however.
Price: FREE
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Weather, Tides and General Yachting Information iPhone Apps
Apps to plan weather, currents and tides as you never could before, and to have yachting information you need always available in seconds
Aye Tides
AyeTides is an iPhone app that displays tides and currents in ports worldwide.
Boatbookings opinion: amazing that you can have all the world's tides in your iPhone, forever, for $10.
Price: $7.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
YachtWeather
A slick weather App that provides key information to help plan your day on the water: temperature, wind direction and speed, wave height, wave length, wave period, storm risk, precipitation risk, humidity, pressure, etc. 6 hour forecasts.
Boatbookings opinion: Exellent App - and free so just get it!
Price: FREE with in-app purchases
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Boating Weather
Boating Weather gives you simple and effective weather reports for planning your day out on the water.
Boatbookings opinion: Nice, crisp forecasts - hoping someday for an international version (only US).
Price: $1.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Yacht Captain's Toolbox
This app replaces several books, manuals, study guides and other boating resources in one easy to use application. All the data is stored on your phone - no connection required.
Boatbookings opinion: nice to have all this reference information in one place.
Price: $1.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Knot Guide
All the standard knots you would use on a boat are clearly detailed in this app, with step-by-step photography so you can follow along easily. Includes 35 sailing knots and 21 fishing knots. There is a free starter version, that includes the most common knots.
Boatbookings opinion: Can't hurt to have on your phone!
Price: FREE
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Sailing iPhone Apps
Apps for the sailor, both professional and amateur, where the iPhone does the work of products far more expensive.
Wind Meter
Wind Meter estimates the speed of the wind by measuring the volume of the wind on your iPhone microphone.
Boatbookings opinion: user reviews have been spotty, some say it's great, some say the readings are not accurate in low winds. Give it a try - it's worth a buck!
Price: $0.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Yacht Management iPhone Apps
Apps that help you manage your yacht or boat
Boating Suite – Log Book and Expense Log
This app allows tracking and reporting of time and expenses while on your boat. No more keeping logs by hand and sifting through receipts at the end of the trip. Includes a Log Book, Fuel Log, Expense Log, To Do list and Shopping List.
Boatbookings opinion: A great little app to spend less time moving paper and more time captaining your boat!
Price: $4.99
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Boat Warden
Works with the Boart Warden Management System. Allows you to check the status of your boat - alarms, position, etc, from your iPhone, wherever you are!
Boatbookings opinion: Great to know your boat is safe when you're not there!
Price: FREE
Available on: iPhone & iPad
iPad Waterproof Cases
To bring your favorite toy with you on your chartered yacht, you need one of those waterproof cases to protect your dear Ipad. Perfect for all wet situations, these cases make you feel safe on every yacht and enable you to securely use the available applications while navigating on sea.
The Waterproof WaterGuard
This waterproof case has been released by TrendyDigital and will protect your iPad with a plastic that is UV stabilized.
It gives you complete access to all the features of the iPad, including the touch sensitive screen and the speakers sound system, and is the best option so far for protecting your favorite tech device against extremely wet situations.
Price: $19.99
Universal Waterproof JOTO Case
This universal case will keep any device up to 6.0" (diagonal) from dirt, sand and water up to 100 feet. It has a clear front and back so you have full access to the touch screen and camera.
The case comes in different colours and features a simple snap and lock access. It also comes with a neck strap for convenient carrying.
Price: $9.99
Other Cool, General Interest Apps
We think these are worth mentioning because they're cool!
Whale Tracker - reduce collisions with Right Whales
This unique app is designed to prevent boating collisions with with endangered Right Whales. It uses GPS and other technology to send the latest data about right whale detections, overlaid on digital navigation charts. The system hopes to limit the number of deadly collisions between whales and boats, especially large vessels such as cruise ships.
Boatbookings opinion: Bravo!
Price: FREE
Available on: iPhone & iPad
Personalised News
This award winning app assembles all of your news, finance, sports, social media and other feeds into a beautiful, personalised magazine that looks great on the iPad. Reading is simply "flipping" through the pages. You can easily set the feeds you want to see, and it loads and formats the complete articles.
Boatbookings opinion: this is what the iPad is all about - a fantastic app. Put our blog and twitter feeds into it, to keep you up to date on our news and articles.
Price: FREE
Available on: iPhone & iPad
If you know of other cool iPhone apps for Sailing, Yachting, or Boating - or even those that yachting people would enjoy, please let us know and we'll add them to the list! Just send us an email - and we'll add them to this page.
You may also be interested in our Guide to Mobile Technology and Yachting, which discusses how smartphones, readers and tablets are changing the yachting industry.
Contact Us!
Most of our Charter Consultants are fairly handy with technology and can also help you decide how to use mobile computing to enhance your next charter. Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to propose yachts, destinations and itineraries, as well as technologies, that will make for the best charter of your life!
