The top smartphone apps for boating

Smartphones have become pretty powerful tools in their own right. Not only do they make phone calls, they can also become powerful tools for boating even before you step out of the water.

However, like most apps out there, the signal to noise ratio is pretty high when it comes to apps that can give you a big advantage out on the water, and those that are just in it for a quick buck.

Here’s the boatsales.com.au pocket guide to the pick of the apps; the ones that contribute the most to our enjoyment out on the water via smartphone or tablet.

The official app from the Bureau of Meteorology is dumbed down somewhat to cater for every user, but it is updated regularly with marine wind warnings for each state and territory. The app’s warnings (accessed via the app's exclamation mark in the yellow triangle) contain a link to the bureau’s coastal and inland waters pages where users can drill down to find more detailed information about where they intend venturing out. You can also drill down further into the website to find the Marine Weather Services (lite) page with wind and wave charts stretching out a week ahead.

Navionics+ Australia and New Zealand
Price: From $26.99/In-app purchases

It’s good to use your smartphone as a backup when navigating waterways. One of the best applications out there is from navionics, which spins out Australia and new Zealand into a separate zone. Once you’ve committed to an annual subscription, you can patch in pay-to-use add-ons including full chartplotter-style route navigation, and community updates that tap into users’ Wi-Fi-connected sonars to update maps in real time. This latter one is a handy feature if sandbars are prone to shift in areas you rarely visit. It will also show the fishing hotspots if users mark them for reference, so be careful what information you share.

PredictWind Marine Forecasts
Price: Free/In-app purchases

This is a handy app that will let you bookmark locations, and then view detailed weather forecasts that extend a week into the future. Information includes wind, swell, rain, cloud, air and sea temperature forecasts in table, map and graph views. Dip a bit deeper into your pocket, and you can add a departure scheduler that picks the best gap in the weather, weather-dependent routing, and forecast alerts if conditions deteriorate. A “crippleware” free version with much-reduced functionality gives you a taste of whether this is the app for you.

Windy
Price: Free

If you don’t like looking at tables, Windy offers similar data to PredictWind, but using an explosion of colour. The visualisation, which includes streaming wind indicators, makes picking bad weather easy, and sliders help users scroll through data that runs up to a week ahead. Depending on how much information you need, users can choose from more than 30 data sets that includes sea temperatures, wave directions and currents. Best of all, it’s entirely ad-free.

Deckee
Price: Free

This homegrown app, officially launched at this year’s Sydney International Boat Show, relies on its users to create a database of information relevant to boaters and anglers. It contains basic maps with information such as AIS-sourced boat names and various on-land businesses of interest to boat owners. Users can dip in and provide feedback on anchorages, facilities, fishing hotspots and more. On the downside, it’s a bit light-on for content outside of the big population centres, some of the information it carries is a little old, and the location of navigation marks is yet to spread outside NSW. Still, there’s some value there.

My Fishing Mate Pro
Price: $1.99

If you’re annoyed by the official government-issued fishing apps, My Fishing Mate Pro is a good investment for the amount of value-added content it has. The layout is a little basic, but provides a handy visual guide to identify the fish you’ve caught, a detailed description to back that up, and the all-important bag limit that applies. It will even tell you if you’ve caught a fish out of season.

Coast Guard SafeTrx
Price: Free

This is a handy tool that links your trip out on the water directly with rescue services; namely the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard. It allows you to register a trip, including an arrival time, and will automatically text an emergency contact if you’re overdue. It includes a handy, overly comprehensive trip preparation checklist that gives you prompts to ensure you’re switched on to where you’re headed. It can also track your journey, and show the location of Coast Guard stations.

Service NSW
Price: Free

Boaties in NSW don't need to carry their boat licence on them as long as they have a smartphone handy, and have registered with the state government's Service NSW app. Once they've linked Maritime Services to the app, the smartphone will hold a digital copy of their boat licence that is just as good as the real one. However, the digital tick is only applied to boat licences; anyone holding a personal watercraft endorsement has to carry the physical licence on them at all times while operating the craft.

Boatsales.com.au
Price: Priceless, but free

It’s time for a new boat, and you don’t know where to look? Or have a boat, but want to flip it for something better? A good place to start is with boatsales.com.au, the iPhone app from Australia’s No.1 boating website. As well as allowing users to drill down to find exactly the boat they’re looking for (and even share the find with a mate), the app will allow sellers to list a boat straight from a mobile device with Snap n’ Sell, edit their listing, and use Ad Stats to check how many people are looking at the listing. There’s even a section for all the latest boat news and reviews.