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Mobile device navigation

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Graham W:
I've just had a notification that my UK subscription for Navionics+, which I use on my elderly iPad and sometimes my iPhone, has come up for renewal for £35.  I don't use most of its features and the one I really want (other than daily chart updates), is synchronisation with my old Garmin GPS/fishfinder, which is not available.  If I want to update the Navionics-based charts on that, I have to use an app called Active Captain, the annual subscription details for which seem to be shrouded in secrecy, so I suspect £££.   This is grotesque as Garmin owns Navionics and the latter can be synchronised with virtually every other plotter brand on the market.

As I don’t see why I should pay twice for the same information, I’ve been looking at alternatives.  I like the look of C-MAP, which like Navionics has the hard-edged contours that you need when looking at a less than perfect screen.  Savvy Navvy is pretty and says that it is trying to be the Google Maps of marine navigation, taking into account wind and tides when calculating potential routes.  However, its chart contours are too soft and don't show well on my iPad.  I couldn't seem to get into iNavX without spending large sums of money and it appears to be focused more on the Americas.

Does anybody have a personal app preference that they recommend, including any that I may have missed?  I did a forum search for the above apps and Navionics was mentioned by far the most.  One person mentioned C-MAP, one uses iNavX and no-one mentioned Savvy Navvy at all.  Note to their marketing department - drop the jokey app name!

Sea Simon:
Don't forget to look at UKHO Admiralty Raster charts.

Visit my harbour gives you a bit of a free "feel" for these. Eg.
https://www.visitmyharbour.com/harbours/solent/hamble-marinas/chart/4AB4297C95841/hamble-and-approaches-chart

Personally, I far prefer this format to Navionics, and these raster charts seem to be widely available at very competitive prices.
The fully functional versions give zoom and seamless integration from one chart to the next.

I long ago gave up on the "integrated suite of instruments", approach because one bit or another always seem to be obsolete come repair time?
Eg. I'm looking at a boat at the moment on which there is a Nexus wireless wind system, integrated with plotter, fish finder, DSC etc...
The Nexus is obsolete, and a 2nd hand mast head fitting alone (no display) will cost £500!

Havenever tried savvy navvy, perhaps because a navvy, in my book, is a chap digging at the bottom of a hole, probably on a railway or canal?
Discount codes are available if you "dig about".... on 'tinternet

Nick Orchard:
I haven't yet found the 'one-and-only' navigation app, and probably never will. Anyway, I quite like having more than one source of chart data as it can be a useful cross-check. I've been running Navionics+ on my B&G plotter for 6 years and I do like it, but as you say Graham, they are rather coy on their website about their pricing structure. Updates for the plotter version seem to be vastly more expensive than the phone/tablet versions. (Although they do let you view their charts online for free). However, it really can't be beaten for the detail of its bathymetric data, although UKHO comes close. If you like exploring up rivers and small inlets then check out the difference between Navionics and C-Map (or others) for the upper reaches of the River Dart, or the Avon at Bantham. Navionics is the only chart I know that will get you into Bantham. Garmin bought Navionics a while back so Navico, who own B&G, Lowrance etc, have bought C-Map so that they don't have to promote a competitor's product. I got a free copy with my B&G Vulcan but it was awful, so I paid for Navionics. I think they're steadily improving it but it's still not as good as Navionics.

My preferred alternative to Navionics is MemoryMap, which offers an annual subscription to all 850 odd UKHO charts for about £25 a year.  I like it because:
    I can also use OS maps on it when ashore.
    One licence covers you for desktop PC, laptop, tablet and phones etc with syncing between them.
    It's a doddle to plot a course and follow it, and it records your track.
    It's got a simple toggle between the map and a data page, and the data display can be configured how you want it. A particularly neat trick is that you can have different data pages if you hold the phone vertically or horizontally.
    I like the UKHO raster charts as you don't need to zoom in to check for hidden detail.
    You can transfer charts onto devices for off-line use.
    I've been using it for yonks so it's what I know

What's not so good about MM:
   Transferring charts to devices is a bit of a game I'd prefer not to play.
   It doesn't automatically change charts as you scroll or zoom, you have to select them manually

I also occasionally use Aquamap on my phone/iPad. £13.49 per year gets you the UK south coast, or I think about £20 gets you the whole UK. You can download chunks of your paid for area onto your phone as you need them. I like Aquamap's display which is very clear, and it also allows you to overlay satellite images with variable transparency, which is handy for checking out how well the chart lines up with reality. It also has a good anchor alarm which I use in preference to keeping my plotter switched on all night. (I usually forget to turn it off in the morning so get a fright just as I'm leaving the anchorage and the Klaxon goes off - happens every time!)

Just had a quick look at Savvy Navvy but can't say I was tempted by it. Interested to hear if anyone's got anything else they'd recommend.
   

Sea Simon:
Thanks NO, useful.

I tend to use free Navionics from EOceanic site, pilotage info also pretty good.
Some free UKHO Admiralty raster on Visit my Harbour is usable, but the largest scale zoom seems to be blocked? Maybe this is what you're not seeing?

My UKHO Admiralty sub is via London Chart Plotters, Marine Navigator App, on a Samsung tough tablet that lives on the boat. This sub is locked to that one tablet, which is a bit of a pita. Not sure what happens when that goes fro a swim!
 Positive seems to be that chart changes, by scrollling or zooming right in, are seamless. This also allows tracking, plotting etc.

The sub which you mentioned via Memory Map seems better in the multi-device respect, but not so good for practical nav in the cockpit?

If the navionics bathymetric data really is better, I wonder where they get their data from?
Afaik, UKHO and MCA produce the majority of it...some added by MOD? Maybe? I used to see some of that in a previous life; you'd be amazed what HMS Echo/Enterprise have mapped...together with Remus AUVs for littoral and submarine warfare.

There used to be available on the web a series of very detailed 3D fly-thrus (developed from multibeam sonar surveys) of several W country ports. Plymouth was amazing, just like someone had pumped all the water out!
Can't find them now. Military Security maybe?

If you dig about you can still sometimes find stuff like attached...which is probably more hydrographic detail of the lower reaches of Fowey Harbour than you'll ever need?

Graham W:
Thanks Nick for two completely new (to me) sources of navigation information.  I’ve had Memory Map forever but until recently hardly ever used it because the purchase of charts seemed less than intuitive.

I persevered with it more recently because of the excellent West Coast of Scotland chartlets produced by Antares.  Thanks to your post, I find that hundreds of UKHO charts are available for very little money - there’s almost too much to explore.

I’m less enthused about what I’ve seen of Aquamap.  The oligopolists seem to have better detail, curse them.  And Savvy Navvy appears to be more suited to soft-hued bedtime reading than real time navigation.

So I’ll probably have to swallow my principles and hand money over to Garmin/Navionics, again.   Simon asked where the Navionics bathymetric data comes from.  I think it’s from yottie depth sounders automatically (and possibly unknowingly) reporting back to Garmin through their Active Captain app.  With maybe some AI joining up any missing contour lines.  I’m sure that the Russians are very grateful.

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