RYA Safety App

[R and J]

Hello,

I wonder what people think of the RYA Safety App. RYA SafeTrx?

See the link below

https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge/safety/keep-in-touch/safetrx?fbclid=IwAR2znjqCSbQbJV9BvU5zDFqsK3ZUX6MYE4FkYCX5qD-W-KZtHfiwcQMYDGw

BRe 089 Sparkle

[Paul Beardsell]

I'm liking it and using it. The user interface is slick. One improvement to SafeTrx would being able to download the GPS track in some common format such as GPX.

[R and J]

Thank you for your input Paul.

I have an very experienced friend who has a Drascombe Coast. I asked him about the app. He also has downloaded it but suggested he may not use it much as he felt it was suited to longer trips than his current activity.

My experience is more of offshore/coastal with VHF, DSC, and AIS. We called the coastguard on VHF with a destination and ETA when on an exposed passage. Then again on arrival.

We have bought our BRe with the intention of sailing shallow waters on a day sailing basis with occasional overnight stops.

I am intrigued by the possibilities of mobile phone and apps. Do we need both the old and new?

Is there an age divide here?

BRe 089 ‘Spakle’

[Sea Simon]

I tried this a while back.

TBH i prefer the old cg66 scheme, plus call out/in.

Apps...mmm... I'm perhaps of an age where they don't come naturally?

This one i stopped using because.
1. It keeps defaulting to tracking at 10 minute intervals, that with gps on my cheap samsung android phone seems to  run the battery down much too fast for my liking.
2. More importantly. Beware not being able to sign off the app/log arrival due to poor mobile phone coverage. The resulting text alerts really freaked my wife out, and....
They start arriving when you are only 30 mins overdue. Not much of a delay in my world, certainly not grounds for declaring an emergency!
3. I'm not smart enough to see how to ensure that the app defaults to 30 mins tracking/position reports (my BRe wont get far in 15 mins!). Nor can I extend the "alarm period" to say at least 1hr.

I go afloat to relax, i find this all a bit of a "big brotherish" hassle tbh.

I do usually get radio checks off NCI on most excursions. Do HMCG now not take voyage reports, as they did before?