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Recently purchased Navionics for my iPhone for $14 and it seems to be a really good thing.

Looks like one has to view the area of intended use prior to loosing 'phone coverage to download the fine details but that appears to cost no extra. Coverage is for Australia and NZ.

There is an extra Nav add on for $2 which seems to be useful.

In my opinion screen is too small to use for navigation on the run but its use in combination with my handheld GPS and the paper charts seems very worthwhile.

Has anyone else any experience with it?

Cheers,

Tom

I have had the Navionics app for over a year and like to play with it. Screen size is the only drawback.
Would not suggest it as only/major nav tool. I sometimes don't take iPhone charger and iPhone battery does not last long, especially when one is using Navionics.
Cheers, John

I don't know about you guys, all you need is a depth sounder to do contour sailing.

Navigation is easy, turn left out of Sydney Harbour, 27 light houses, turn left and you're in Cairns!

Greg, no good....my lead line only goes to five metres

cheers

PS I got the Navionics downloaded onto my computer, didnt seem to download properly??, havent had enough battery power yet to investigate it properly

Shaun wrote:Greg, no good....my lead line only goes to five metres

. . . .

I had no problems navigating using 10 metres of line and an iphone.

That is, no problems until water seeped into the iphone. I probably should have used a lead weight on the line instead.

Louis you need to DOWNload the leadline app to use it for soundings.

Comes with the Pb164 250g interface unit. (Available from all good fishing tackle shops).

Greg, that is very funny!!

Tom, I have not used any of the smartphones for marine navigation although it was something I checked out when working out what to get for Windchaser. I ended up buying a larger touch screen Garmin as I need more help than most with navigating and the extra size screen and touch scrolling proved very useful in a few tricky situations. As you said, the iphone with Navionics is probably not so great on the run but I hear many stories about how useful it is.

Tales wrote:Recently purchased Navionics for my iPhone for $14 and it seems to be a really good thing.

Looks like one has to view the area of intended use prior to loosing 'phone coverage to download the fine details but that appears to cost no extra. Coverage is for Australia and NZ.

There is an extra Nav add on for $2 which seems to be useful.

In my opinion screen is too small to use for navigation on the run but its use in combination with my handheld GPS and the paper charts seems very worthwhile.

Has anyone else any experience with it?

Cheers,

Tom

Tom, we covered the Navionics in some detail in this thread viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1287

However the Navionics works best on iPad, and I think there is a tablet version if you're not the Apple type.

Once you have downloaded the required maps, you don't need. Obie phone coverage for it to work, only if you want internet access. I don't have any oth form of navigation aid apart from compass and charts and for me, the iPad is all I should need unless I go blue water. If I did that, I would still use the iPad, but have a second unit of some kind to allow interface with the DSC Radio etc.

The iPhone version of Navionics is very useful, but the screen is very small and some of the functions arent all there.

I have both Navionics and Transas iSailor.
I used Navionics on my Broken Bay=>Coffs trip last year. Flawless and very accurate the whole way.
I have been playing around with iSailor. I like it. Much easier to use then Navionics.
I have them on iPhone and /mini iPad and I've input all waypoints for my trip Coffs=>Townsville into iSailor and am trying to find a way to import them into Navionics. More playing around.
I do have paper charts for the whole east coast which I will be noting my position on minimum every six hours and more frequently if the situation requires.

I bought a Samsung galaxy II wifi with the 10.1 inch screen and navionics runs flawlessly on that.
Android!!! Ok, technically not an iPhone
Screen is great and bigger than most chart plotters.
Add in Google overlay and you have all landmarks when close to coast.


It cost me $298 + $27 for 32mb sd card +$26 for 20000ah portable battery on ebay running GPS chews up battery, but could connect via usb to 12 volt easily via cigarette lighter instead and leave on charge.


Check out BOAT BEACON app on android!
Needs internet ( use phone as WiFi hotspot) and so limited usefulness.
Shows all boats with ais and we sat over at Tangalooma and watched all the big boats going into Brisbane and could see all their details like size, draft, current speed, where they were registered, capacity, type. Press diamond for compass rose to assist identification.