Navionics

[Dodgy Diver]

are they worth the £35 to have on the iPad whilst out ?
thanks

 

[bowler]

I think so. We used alot before fitting a plotter.

 

[Martxer]

I use it at home to plan trip before going to the boat, I think its worth it I have just renewed

 

[Bigplumbs]

Yes. I have it on my Iphone also and I look at it a lot when not in the boat but at places to look at tides and also to see where you are etc. Very good app. Don't just think of it as a Nav app on your boat

 

[Mr Googler]

Defo is. Great app

 

[PDF]

You can do a free trial to see if it's for you. I've only just downloaded it and looking forward to seeing how it works on the boat, I've had a play with it at home and it looks good.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

+1. Another vote for Navionics on iPad. Note that only the cellular iPad has the GPS chip. You don’t need a SIM in it.

I also use the charts in my plotter.

 

[GaryJeffery]

I use both, my plotter is of an age and has a fairly small screen so it’s nice to have the course and nav info on a larger screen that I can zoom in and out of at will. Plus using the old scuba adage “2 is 1 - 1 is none” it’s always good to have a back up device. Plus there is a lot of community info and advice added about anchorages and ports that can really help you enjoy the places you visit.

 

[oldgit]

Have two "proper" chartplotters aboard plus an old laptop with Seaclear for detailed creek crawling.
My main go to piece of kit for the last few seasons is a early Ipad with the Navionics App .In both fair and foul weather .
At £35.00 for all of the UK coast an absolute bargain.
Took mine on recent car ferry crossing from Pentland Firth to St Margrets Bay and hit the tracking feature.
Only criticism of the Navionics,when passage planning you can only enter one speed for all the legs, with the Seaclear you enter any speed you like on each section .
This enables to get very very accurate ETA .

 

[Rappey]

If you dont have any form of plotter thenI would say it's worth £35 just to see yourself moving on a chart ?.
Portability, you can use it anywhere.

 

[chillee]

I've been experimenting with the Navionics app and Savvy Navvy on a Samsung tablet as my primary chartplotter. I'm only tootling around the solent so not going far. So far I prefer Navionics, the depth soundings appear to be more detailed, it's more responsive in terms of rendering the chart when zooming in and out. It still tracks me in the center of the screen when I zoom in or out, Savvy Navvy when zooming in then assume you want to stay at that zoomed in location, and not track your progress at that new level of zoom.(or I could not find a way to get it to do so anyway).
£160 for a Samsung A8 10.5 inch and £34 for navionics, seems pretty reasonable for what I need.

 

[mil1194]

Yep. Use it all the time in addition to ‘proper’ kit onboard.

 

[karl.e]

There are other apps that offer the same vector charts with routing, tides, GPS, AIS etc for 15 to 20 GBP.

i-Boating :
C-Map:

 

[dunedin]

There are other apps that offer the same vector charts with routing, tides, GPS, AIS etc for 15 to 20 GBP.
i-Boating :
C-Map:

As Navionics are primarily a publisher of charts, by definition the one thing that won't be the same when using a C-Map or i-Boating App is the charts

Yes there are lots of other products offering a version of vector charts, and most will be based upon the same underlying hydrographic office data. But both Navionics and C-Map would say they use a lot of extra information to generate the final charts, which are therefore not identical.

 

[Hooligan]

Absolutely. My plotter went down one year and i only used Navionics and was away for 8 weeks. Small hint - you have to have GPS on your iPad which means that you must have the iPad with a sim version. You do not need a SIM card in it but you must have it there. If not you do not get the accuracy

 

[Hurricane]

Or an Android Tablet - mos have GPS inbuilt.

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've used Navionics on a Samsung 10" tablet for the last few years and found it excellent. Also on my android phone so very useful, but must have gps on the tablet as mentioned. Mounted under the spray hood on a RAM mount with a waterproof case. On a long trip I do have to have power connected.

 

[limecc]

Mounted under the spray hood on a RAM mount with a waterproof case. On a long trip I do have to have power connected.

Never heard of a RAM mount, sounds like the setup I want. Do you have pictures please?

I have a 5" plotter but when you're zoomed out and going somewhere unplanned it's possible there could be disaster waiting (ie submerged rocks, submarine barrier) that should be avoided. Can't be done with a split screen so only solution is to have two devices on different zooms.

 

[Pleinmont]

Agree, have got a Simrad Go9 MFD and Samsung 10inch tablet (£150) both with Navionics + kept up to date.
Both work great for navigation. The tablet doesn't seem to have any less GPS accuracy than the Simrad but the Simrad has more functionality as you'd expect.
Have them mounted side by side - definitely more reassuring to have 2 plotters and be able to spot any anomalies or avoid lots of split screens.
Put the sonar chart mapping layer on - lots more detail.

Definitely recommended (whether Ipad or Android).