Are Smartphones good for Sailing

[Supertramp]

Apart from emergencies and back up for Navionics and GPS, the single most useful feature is a camera which can be used in an instant for stills or video. Take 10 shots, delete the ones you don't want. I no longer use any other camera.

Other than that I'm with the stick it in a drawer brigade. In fact I do that at home too....

 

[dunedin]

Charts, gps, tidal curves & currents, synoptic charts, satellite weather views, rain radar, various webcams etc. What’s not to like?

Definitely…… plus
Camera, work torch, access to all boat manuals on PDF, anchor alarm, keep in touch with family and grand children via WhatsApp etc

 

[lustyd]

Definitely more useful than a locker full of out of date books, and no more harmful to atmosphere than TVs which have been fitted to boats for decades, or the ubiquitous walkman which allowed teens to self isolate back in the '80s.

Sailing is what you make it, not what tools you have on board.

 

[MoodySabre]

Are they good for sailing? That was the question. Well they are certainly useful but they can diminish our skills by our reliance on electronic information. I didn’t start sailing sailing at all until I was 54 (22 years ago) and after a few years pottering about I bought my current boat in Plymouth having only daysailed. A gps and charts and a channel guide and off we went, finishing with a Thames Estuary crossing and all was well. Would I now do that trip without electronic charts, enhanced marina data, real-time tidal info etc? Well I could but I probably wouldn’t. One of my cars has no big display, no sat nav, no cameras - sometimes I feel bereft of information but after ten minutes on the open road I love it.

Are they good for sailing? A mixed blessing.

 

[ProDave]

I have just set up a separate phone for boat use. Separate to my day to day phone for dare I say it making phone calls.

The "boat phone" does not have a SIM card. The plan is to tether it to a wifi hotspot from my main phone for it's data. That bit I have not tested and can't test at home as the mobile signal is too poor.

The boat phone lives in a waterproof pouch (It remains to be seen how waterproof it actually is) and the touch screen still works through the clear plastic of the pouch. It has Open CPN and O charts for navigation and every boating app or website I can think of set up.

The reason for wanting a separate phone, is for this use so many of the phone settings need to be different. For instance the screen never times out, it stays on until you turn the phone off (or put it to sleep manually) Auto screen rotate is off. I even had to turn "pocket mode" off or else when put in the waterproof pouch it thought it was in your pocket and disabled the touch screen.

In the boat it won't live in a pocket, but hung up somewhere visible in the cockpit.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

There was something special about not being contactable from Friday evening to Sunday evening.

Whether humans are designed to take as much information as they are currently is an unknown . Hopefully we won't end up like some rugby and football players with early dementia . As mentioned, as long as we apply a measure of discipline in their use it's all good.

Don't answer it!
Humans weren't designed.

Smart phones add a massive level of safety to sailing. From weather info including real time lightning plotting to quick voice contact with emergency services.

Just requires a little discipline as to how and when to use it. That is not a smartphone issue it's a user issue.

 

[ProDave]

including real time lightning plotting

Thank you, you have just reminded me of another to add to the boat phone.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

or have they taken something away from it ?

Personally, I felt ordinary mobile phones were ok but I'm not so sure about Smartphones.

Worth it, absolutely. Information can be organised and used so much more efficiently on a “Smartphone” than even a tablet or laptop. This firmly puts it into the high utility space. Power loss risks should be managed through the normal log requirements to manage position.

Have they taken something away from it? Not in the sense that the experience is diminished, but significantly reduced uncertainty. The ability to access and use instant data could reduce the robustness of passage planning but that is really a problem of the individual, not the Smartphone.

As for crew constantly surfing content and social media, sure, that’s a thing these days, but again personal choice. I have observed that keeping a lookout and situational awareness amongst phone users has been negatively impacted in some instances. I also noticed this with youths, pre digital device age, who were more interested in blathering amongst themselves, than what’s going on around them.

As an older sailor, I like my digital content from the Smartphone, as it fits in my pocket and find it useful.

 

[Kukri]

Can be vital!

Running up the Channel, we found we had sailed off the edge of the world - the Navionics chart on the plotter had decided that it stopped at Eastbourne. It turned out to be a defective card.

Yes, I had some paper charts, as you do, but Imrays’ folio for Essex and Suffolk stops short of the Long Sand Head.

Solution, run past Dover reasonably close in to get a signal on my phone, pull out my credit card, download Navionics onto my iPhone and carry on!

Someone will be along in a moment to say I should have planned the whole passage on the plotter. But unless I had done so within walking distance of a good chandlery, what difference would that have made?

 

[doug748]

Apart from emergencies and back up for Navionics and GPS, the single most useful feature is a camera which can be used in an instant for stills or video. Take 10 shots, delete the ones you don't want. I no longer use any other camera.

Other than that I'm with the stick it in a drawer brigade. In fact I do that at home too....

I must get it out and use it more for photos. They are really too bulky to use as convenient mobile phones so I leave it behind, so people have given up trying to ring me. On reflection this is probably a good thing.

Two things are great: First, downloading weather forecasts, usually even in very out of the way locations. Second, texts, which can reach you eventually, regardless of the thing being left in a bag somewhere.
I have just checked, I don't have a single app that is connected directly with sailing, even though I have had a mobile, of one sort or another, for about 25 years.

.

 

[Crisby]

I agree my iPhone is waterproof but the touch screen does not work when it is wet or your fingers are wet. The same applies to touch screen instruments.

That’s interesting, I wonder if it works in a waterproof case with wet fingers

Chris

 

[Kukri]

That’s interesting, I wonder if it works in a waterproof case with wet fingers

Chris

Mine does, to some extent. I use the expensive Catalyst cases.

 

[Boathook]

I agree my iPhone is waterproof but the touch screen does not work when it is wet or your fingers are wet. The same applies to touch screen instruments.

I'm sure that my raymarine mfd plotter works with a wet screen / fingers.

 

[MoodySabre]

Can be vital!

Running up the Channel, we found we had sailed off the edge of the world - the Navionics chart on the plotter had decided that it stopped at Eastbourne. It turned out to be a defective card.

Yes, I had some paper charts, as you do, but Imrays’ folio for Essex and Suffolk stops short of the Long Sand Head.

Solution, run past Dover reasonably close in to get a signal on my phone, pull out my credit card, download Navionics onto my iPhone and carry on!

Someone will be along in a moment to say I should have planned the whole passage on the plotter. But unless I had done so within walking distance of a good chandlery, what difference would that have made?

This shows the negative side of phones not the positive. Years ago you would have had the correct chart with you and would have plotted your position and carried on. It was only vital because you were unprepared. I don’t think that’s a good thing.

 

[lustyd]

I'm sure that my raymarine mfd plotter works with a wet screen / fingers.

Yup, my B&G works fine in the rain with wet fingers or gloves. As do all of my Garmin hand held devices (I have quite a few!) up to and including my Epix 2 and Fenix 7 touchscreen watches.

 

[FairweatherDave]

I felt I must be a real sailor when I lost signal on my single handed cruise this summer . Lulworth Cove and Chapman's Pool. Proper adventure!

 

[Concerto]

I'm sure that my raymarine mfd plotter works with a wet screen / fingers.

I beg to differ. My E7 plotter stopped responding to the touch screen on a number of times. When approaching Scapa Flow the screen had got quite wet as it was a force 7 to 8 blowing and my hands were soaking wet. It took a lot of kitchen paper to dry the screen and fingers to get it to work again. When you are singlehanded and the ram bracket on the tiller had sheared rendering it unuseable, as I was, it was not fun. I have also had the same problem with my iPhone SE 2020.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I beg to differ. My E7 plotter stopped responding to the touch screen on a number of times. When approaching Scapa Flow the screen had got quite wet as it was a force 7 to 8 blowing and my hands were soaking wet. It took a lot of kitchen paper to dry the screen and fingers to get it to work again. When you are singlehanded and the ram bracket on the tiller had sheared rendering it unuseable, as I was, it was not fun. I have also had the same problem with my iPhone SE 2020.

My wife can’t use hers, but I can. It might be the circulation in your fingers.

 

[lustyd]

Couldn't find an E7 in the current range, perhaps technology has moved on?

How were the paper charts in F8 with wet hands? Did the pencil sharpener gather all the shavings neatly? And the pilot book, how did that fare in the rain?

 

[Concerto]

Couldn't find an E7 in the current range, perhaps technology has moved on?

How were the paper charts in F8 with wet hands? Did the pencil sharpener gather all the shavings neatly? And the pilot book, how did that fare in the rain?

The E7 may be 9 years old but still functions as it was designed and I feel sure there are plenty in service or even earlier examples. The latest models may be less prone to water interference, but I cannot comment.

For my Round Britain trip I did not have any paper charts except for one covering the whole of the UK. I used the Cruising Association handbook for harbour information and a note pad with all the important information for the day. Even these got drenched several times whilst on the chart table. Maybe I sail in more extreme conditions than most.