Savvy Navvy on Android: Waste of money IMHO

[ColleyV8]

I also got the free year with Gjw, first chance put in route from felinheli to Pwllheli, it was sending me east and over angelesy, instead of west and through Caernarfon bar, tried orca and it did the same, only navionics did the correct port to port,

Also buttons at bottom of screen on Samsung phone are hit and miss if they work

Won't be continuing subscription

 

[B27]

What do people want from 'passage planning functions'?

I don't think any passage I've done would have benefited from computer assistance in the planning, because everything is about how the wind pans out.
Mostly I go along the coast one way or the other, so I know I've got x hours of tide going one way, followed by 6 hours the other.
Even if I'm not going upwind, mostly I steer a course for 'best progress' which depends on the wind direction and waves, so unlikely to be calculated by an app?

I assume motorboats in flat water have a lot more to gain from planning?

 

[robmcg]

Also buttons at bottom of screen on Samsung phone are hit and miss if they work

Not just on a Samsung

 

[Dutch01527]

I had Savvy Navvy last year and initially it looked good. After a year of using it I did not renew. The reason I bought it was for the wind/tide planning for different departure times. Experience of using it was that it was not very accurate. I got better results using Navionics and Windy apps. It also became very expensive.

 

[bubblehead]

I tried a free trial with savvy navvy but it simply wouldn’t track me, when. It did, it was straight lines with massively in accurate data.
The majority of the time it just would not show my position.
I contacted them via email, got a very quick response asking if location services were on then nothing else since.
I would have been very annoyed if I’d paid for it.

 

[ylop]

What do people want from 'passage planning functions'?

I don't think any passage I've done would have benefited from computer assistance in the planning, because everything is about how the wind pans out.

The best planning software takes your boat details and the weather forecast into account and should tell you the optimal angle to sail etc. Admittedly that is forecast weather which may not pan out to be right (ideally it would cover the range of forecasts and confidence and make smart suggestions based on that but one thing at a time!)

Mostly I go along the coast one way or the other, so I know I've got x hours of tide going one way, followed by 6 hours the other.
Even if I'm not going upwind, mostly I steer a course for 'best progress' which depends on the wind direction and waves, so unlikely to be calculated by an app?

Both Orca and Savvy Navvy claim to take into account tide, and the boat's polar diagram and the wind to factor it all in. I've not used Savvy Navvy to know if it works. I used a free trial of Orca and was actually quite impressed except for one massive problem - its tidal data is nonsense (at least on West of Scotland). The tides in the Cuan sound and Doris Mor would be lovely to have some software guide me through - but it was about 4 knots off! I never saw a tide prediction >1 knot in a week of using it.

To be honest, using it in places you now well is not really where the value comes from something like this. Ideally you should be able to see when you need to leave to arrive by X time, or if I leave at X time when will my likely ETA be etc.

I assume motorboats in flat water have a lot more to gain from planning?

I don't think so - their planning is much simpler - point and shoot and usually less tide dependent.

 

[ylop]

I tried a free trial with savvy navvy but it simply wouldn’t track me, when. It did, it was straight lines with massively in accurate data.
The majority of the time it just would not show my position.
I contacted them via email, got a very quick response asking if location services were on then nothing else since.
I would have been very annoyed if I’d paid for it.

I've had similar issues in non-boating apps. Getting the right mix of app settings, OS settings, permissions etc so that it continues to track when the screen is asleep / power saving is engaged is quite hard work. I'd have hoped a big company would have enough people to help users manage that, but I'm not surprised if these are the hurdles.

 

[jlavery]

I've had similar issues in non-boating apps. Getting the right mix of app settings, OS settings, permissions etc so that it continues to track when the screen is asleep / power saving is engaged is quite hard work. I'd have hoped a big company would have enough people to help users manage that, but I'm not surprised if these are the hurdles.

As a mobile developer, getting apps to update in the background is a nightmare. iOS and Android have different settings and restrictions, and are often outside your control. One has to code the app to take into account the fact that the OS may pre-emptively kill your app for reasons of its own.

 

[B27]

I've had similar issues in non-boating apps. Getting the right mix of app settings, OS settings, permissions etc so that it continues to track when the screen is asleep / power saving is engaged is quite hard work. I'd have hoped a big company would have enough people to help users manage that, but I'm not surprised if these are the hurdles.

I don't have a Navionics track of our trip to Falmouth.
I do have a Navionics track around Falmouth: showers, shop, pub, Thai restaurant, tender back to the boat.

 

[B27]

The best planning software takes your boat details and the weather forecast into account and should tell you the optimal angle to sail etc. Admittedly that is forecast weather which may not pan out to be right (ideally it would cover the range of forecasts and confidence and make smart suggestions based on that but one thing at a time!)

Both Orca and Savvy Navvy claim to take into account tide, and the boat's polar diagram and the wind to factor it all in. I've not used Savvy Navvy to know if it works. I used a free trial of Orca and was actually quite impressed except for one massive problem - its tidal data is nonsense (at least on West of Scotland). The tides in the Cuan sound and Doris Mor would be lovely to have some software guide me through - but it was about 4 knots off! I never saw a tide prediction >1 knot in a week of using it.

To be honest, using it in places you now well is not really where the value comes from something like this. Ideally you should be able to see when you need to leave to arrive by X time, or if I leave at X time when will my likely ETA be etc.

....

A part from a couple of windy blasts around the bay in a Laser, I don't think I've had a day on the water this year where that had a chance of working. Wind forecasts have simply not been close to good enough. Even when the forecast is broadly 'right', it doesn't take into account how the wind varies around headlands and bays.

 

[David J]

After having read favourable reviews, I was impressed by Savvy Navvy's passage planning performance on both Windows PC and Windows laptop. On the strength of that I purchased the full Android licence. It boots up reasonably well, although slowly, on two Android phones but after that, the planning function (which is its main attraction) simply does not work, apart from one or two occasions where it took several minutes to kick in. It has consistently failed to boot up at all on an Android tablet.

Both phones and the tablet tablet have maximum processing capacity and additional generous storage SD cards. Despite several uninstall/re-installs, re-boots, and having no other apps running, I have had no luck with Savvy Navvy.

Looking at previous threads, it seems to perform satisfactorily for some users, but for me, frankly, it ranks as one of the most useless pieces of boatie accoutrements that I have ever wasted my money on. And that is saying something......

I just put a lot of effort into finding a bright screen weather proof tablet to use as a wifi remote to my Raymarine 12 inch E series plotter. That plotter is just too big for my sailboat cockpit. I will mount my Reymarine plotter inside and mount my tablet on my pedestal, I read this review while considering what android navigation apps to put on in addition to the Navionics app. I installed both Wavve and Navvy Savvy and, after reading this review, decided to test the NS planning feature. I only tested it to two different locations and found that it ran rather quickly with no hitches. I think a lot depend on the version and configuration of the android operating system in your device.

 

[grandpaboat]

Well I bought this App last Autumn and installed it onto a Samsung Tablet. It was a half price offer for a years subscription. I thought it prudent to have a back up to my chart plotter. Having just got around to trying it afloat I can't get the app to open. Works fine at home when I'm online. It seems to want me to log in but comes up with an error message. I've tried their chat line and it just keeps telling me there is some sort of bug that they have a fix for.
Some backup this is proving to be.

 

[grandpaboat]

Well the best thing I can say about Savvy Navvy is that I got a full refund with no quibbles. I simply couldn't get it to work offline.

 

[Plum]

I tried Savvy Navvy in 2020 and found it to be useful but needed more work on route planning and so did not renew. Lately I was going to give it another try but from what I have read in this forum not much has changed in 4 years.

 

[st599]

I understand that some people enjoy chart work and the app might be good for them. I am ex Merchant Navy and spent years navigation on paper charts. I now carry charts but do not use them. I find electronic navigation more flexible, more accurate and quicker. Only downside/danger I have found is making sure that I zoom down to the lowest level of the chart to check a plotted course or intended route. It is easy not to do so and for hidden dangers to not be visible when zoomed out.

The other issue is that chartplotters have to carry a not for navigation warning. This means that they must be backed up by paper charts.

When paper charts are withdrawn in 2030 (there are only a couple companies that are recognised to produce them), then an MCA approved chartplotter which can be used for navigation is required for yachts that are used by charities, sailing schools etc., and the proposed system requires the ability to add non-GNSS plots from three point fixes, running fixes, Radar fixes etc. and for the software to use that as it's current location.