Best Boating Apps
Boat Beacon
Live Marine AIS Navigation on your iPhone, Apple Watch and Android Smartphone.
Boat Beacon was designed and developed by Pocket Mariner’s sea-faring CEO after a near miss at sea – the app provides an affordable and reliable AIS-based collision detection system for iPhone and iPad or Android smartphones and tablets. For the full background to Boat Beacon, read The Skipper’s Story – How Boat Beacon Came to Be
Specifically designed for use on the water, uniquely providing Bearing, Range and Closest Point of Approach (CPA) calculations in addition to all the standard AIS information. Uses up to the second AIS feeds unlike the other AIS apps which can be a minute or even more behind real time. Transmits as well as receives AIS and the only app that continuously monitors CPA, notifying if potential collisions are detected even when the app is in the background.
Click here for Boat Beacon’s website
Compass Eye
Want to take compass bearings with your iPhone? Want a compass that doesn’t change its reading when the boat rocks? Compass Eye gives you this and more!
Compass Eye is designed to help navigate at sea and can be used much like a pair of Compass Binoculars.
Designed by a skipper for skippers, it can also be used on land as a bearing/marching compass and as it’s fully Gimballed; in the air too. Hold the iPhone vertically in landscape orientation to view where you are going and the bearings. You can also lay the iPhone flat to see the whole compass rose and heading on a live Google map.
Only available for purchsse on Apple devices (iOS).
Click here to see Compass Eye’s website
Boat Watch
Boat Watch lets you identify and learn more about any boat or ship. We use real-time AIS to discover a vessel’s name, type, destination – and more!
Boat Watch, a leading “ship tracking” app, allows users to follow movements of ships and vessels anywhere in the world. The app has grown increasingly popular with people visiting coastal or river ports, who have friends or family at sea, or who rely on catching a ferry or boat as part of their daily routine. Boat Watch has been enhanced with an Apple Watch map display showing boat movements in real-time.
Click here to go to boat Watch’s website
Sea Tow App
Available for iPhone and Android devices, the Sea Tow App is the number one boating accessory you to keep with you at all times. Your weather app. Your tides app. All in your FREE Sea Tow App. Get tide forecasts, moon phases, & next tide countdown in both analog and graph format for as many locations as you would like. Let the Sea Tow App serve as your annual tide chart, forecasting tides one week in advance. Access up to 20 tide stations for each area to give you the best information that will make your trip on the water a success.
Direction and location are no longer an issue. With the compass and speedometer functions, get your heading, lat/long, speed over ground and course over ground. Pinpoint your precise location on a map. Designed for inland and coastal use, the single map interface gives you access to the tools you need to enjoy your day on the water.
Click here for Sea Tow’s website
SeaIQ
The SEAiq apps are the most powerful marine charting apps for the Apple iPads and iPhones.
The SEAiq apps are free to download. The free versions allow full vector and raster chart display and support for the Active Captain Interactive Cruising Guidebook.
Included with the download is a free 1-week evaluation for all premium features, including: Waypoints, Routes, Tracks, Internal GPS, External NMEA over WiFi AIS Night colors, automatic download of weather data, Anchor Alarm, Variable Range Markers and Electronic Bearing Lines (VRM/EBL). You can re-install the app for additional week of evaluation.
Click here to see SeaIQ’s website
Sail Flow
Your complete sailing weather source, Sailflow gives you real-time reports from our own exclusive weather station network, plus reports from over 50,000 other weather stations worldwide.
Click here to see Sail Flow’s website
Aye Tides
AyeTides and AyeTides XL give you the day’s tides as tables and interactive graphs. See what the tides are doing next week or next year. See sun rise, moon rise, etc., and how the tides respond to the moon. All this is on your Apple™ iPhone™, iPod™, or iPad™, and best yet, no network connection is needed!