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hanks everyone for being here I'm Jeff
Cote with Pacific yacht systems today
we're going to be talking about boating
apps so there's no installation or
wiring or any type of electrical or
electronic stuff that we normally do on
boats this is mostly driven about with
the advent of technology and all these
smartphones and iPads and devices that
we have around us and what's really out
there and essa' below freezing at in the
back or anywhere and if the sound level
I'm not speaking loud enough which is
generally not a problem let me know so
basically this is kind of an overview of
how we're going to go through the
presentation so these are the different
categories because I mean there's so
many apps about everything what we try
to do is we're going to be talking about
navigation a little bit weather and
tides I'll talk about marine traffic
which is can come through AIS and I'll
explain what that is we'll talk about
control and control what what are things
about safety a little bit about sailing
I know that it's not the majority of us
but there's probably some of you in
there that look at sailing about
anchoring and then also different types
of lifestyle apps you know things that
you can do so that's kind of the
generally the direction of the apps by
the way this presentation is going to be
online tomorrow and posted so send me an
e-mail and we'll have a link to it for
anybody who wants to actually see the
PDFs of this presentation all right so
basically what are the things to
consider when you're looking at a
navigation application my disclaimer I
want to emphasize and I'm a tech geek
okay I'm an engineer I love technology I
was the first one to buy an iPad I had
an iPhone before everyone else I got the
I watch the first day came out I loved
it but all these are gadgets for me at
the end of day I would not say to anyone
let go the chartplotter on your boat and
bring your iphone and navigate with an
iphone and solely an iphone to somewhere
and not be really good at handling
marine charts now if you're really good
at piloting and your your chart works
amazing sure the iPhone is awesome
but if you're putting everything in the
basket with just an iPhone or an iPad
things are great until they're not going
to work okay
nobody at Apple and I have a lot of my
classmates that work there nobody at
Apple is designing the iPad and thinking
some voter is going to be using it to go
through a pass and if it ever fails
there's fruit and they're going to crash
into the rocks it's a it's a
recreational type of device it's not a
device that someone builds and things
that you're going to put your life into
it so just take it with that grain of
salt it's great to complement but I
would not trust it at all cost
we recommend it a lot with a lot of our
owners to use it as a second helm it's
great as a second helm the other thing
too that you've got a choice about is
going to be able to choose what type of
cartography you want on that app you
want vector or raster charts raster
charts are basically photographs of the
typical CHS charts that we're all
familiar with it's really just an image
it's a picture of that chart it's not
manipulated nothing else they can't
screw it up in the digitization it's
literally just an image that's it vector
charts or where they actually digitized
and literally start doing what's called
layering of the information and all that
information is literally manipulable you
can change whatever you can have the
water purple you can have it pink you
can have the contour lines at 66 33 11
you can have them at whatever you want
you can show the lamb not show the land
you can show contours you can show
sounding some soundings on soundings you
can manipulate the data to however you
want it that's basically a vector charts
there's camps on both sides there's
benefits to both sides
that's the difference between raster and
vector charts the other question you've
got to ask yourself is when you buy an
app especially the newer versions you
don't actually have the chart data on
the app you actually have to go online
even after the app is downloaded because
they're giving you apps for North
America they're not you're not
downloading North America charts on your
phone there's no way it's not going to
happen you've got to choose a section of
the charts that you want download them
because once you're going to be up in
the browns or desolation Sound you
might have downloaded the app but if you
don't have the charts for it you're not
going to be able to use the app ok it's
going to just give you base map base map
means pretty much within a kilometer
you're here and the shore is somewhere
there or there like you can't use that
for navigation and then the other
question you've got to ask yourself is
am I just going to use a charting app or
am I also going to have an app that has
more features in it so we'll talk about
other apps that start bundling in more
than just navigation but start doing
weather tides currents sonar and
different types of apps like that
so this is a screenshot from Navionics
and Navionics have apps that are on an
iPad I mean Android everyone they have
in all devices and you can actually see
it as well and you can see that this
definitely looks different than a raster
chart it's a vector chart this is a
chart that's been digitized for some
people it looks more newer more
technology other people like more the
familiar look of a raster chart ok I'm
going to be dividing the presentation
there's a lot of informations a lot of
apps so normally you know different
settings we do handouts but with the
Boat Show I'd never know how many people
are going to show up so that's why it's
going to be online and you can print it
off the really one that I really like is
the Garmin blue chart Garmin so big that
they actually don't buy charts they make
their own right when you're that big you
do what you want for them it didn't make
sense to give anybody else the money so
they have their own charting in-house
and it's called blue charts some people
swear by it one other thing that I like
about the Garmin blue chart I use it to
offset my Navionics because they're both
independently creating their own vector
charts from the paper charts so it's
kind of a duplication of efforts if they
both agree and they came to the same
conclusion independently most likely the
island that you see in two places on two
different systems is probably their
right but if they missed one and you see
it on the other one that you're
wondering well is the island
there or is it there because honestly
there are errors and that's they also
the caveat with anything where there's
people involved this digitization is
done by someone and that's someone it's
very tedious and they're going to miss
stuff and so there was an article in py
just recently about a vector chart that
didn't have all the right information
I've seen it I've been in places in the
Browns where there's an island bigger
than this room simply not there right
twice the size and it's got height it's
not a shoal it's like trees on it the
whole nine yards and it was not on the
charts so that's the great thing about
when you want to choose apps you might
decide to choose complimentary apps
especially in places where you don't
feel familiar with the waters right I
nav --ax is getting a lot of traction
it's pretty much the Ubik it's almost
the noble tech version of navigation
software for smart devices they're
really I mean it's it's a foot it's
basically a noble tech except for your
iPad that's what it is
but you can see also the price point and
this is probably going to just because
these price points were taking late fall
so the App Store is adjusting their
price point with our dollar but these
were prices they were probably all gone
up now you can see that's the most
expensive app you can buy but you're
buying a lot like noble tech on an iPad
okay notice that it actually support a
is doesn't mean that it's getting a is
without a black box device and I'll talk
about why the benefits of a is would
make sense especially for someone that
doesn't have another chartplotter right
or anything else this is the end-all
be-all a is on your iPad might be a
really good idea going back just quickly
to the Garmin blue chart notice how it
has built-in weather so what that means
is actually Garmin also so big has their
own weather service they don't buy
weather service from a third party they
actually have their own weather service
they're in avionics whether it's part a
big part of the avionics and what you
can do actually for I think it's a token
amount one or two dollars you can add on
a feature where you have unlimited
weather data forever what that means
that weather data is not coming
you know through words in a VHF where
you got to got to figure out where the
Front's are the winds the wind direction
you got to translate that and figure out
what you are they're showing you win
wave win wind direction wave height
through time with barometer lines the
whole line pressure gradients everything
happening right there on top of the
chart so anybody that's into either
going in places where you know there
might be you know Strait of Georgia and
you want to figure out okay are the
where's the swell going to be coming
from right what kind of seas am I going
to be getting in twelve hours six hours
instead of listening to forecasts and
trying to figure out what all that means
you can literally do play it's going to
show you the wind direction wave heights
everything right on your iPad so that
for two dollars one time fee I would
call that a deal all right but you need
obviously the Internet to get that data
I mean it's not uploaded you need to be
able to get that constantly down to get
the latest weather data marine charts
you can see NOAA gives charts away for
free in the States so there's apps that
just take that data and simply put it up
and know what the nor charts are raster
charts so it's a little bit like CHS
with CHS in Canada it doesn't give them
away you still have to buy them that's
why charts and can always cost more
Navionics is probably the ubiquitous app
that it's the first you know really to
come into the market you've most of you
if you're in a boating and you have
friends that's the app they've showed
you like let's be honest the market
penetration on that app is outstanding
they were first to market their price
point has always been very reasonable
and over time they're giving you more
and more feature sets and on top of that
now used to buy when I bought it
initially you only got British Columbia
now it's like you buy North America and
you download the charts you want for
where you're going I mean that's pretty
sweet so you're in here in the summer
and you're going to rent a boat in the
BVI's you can previous oome unless
you're spending huge dollars that the
chartplotter on board is going to be
really bad but if you want a nice
chartplotter on board on a charter boat
in the BVI's you buy the app you
download the charts before you head
there
suddenly you've got the way better
chartplotter then charter companies
going to be offering you so it can be
convenient we did that when we went to
Croatia we sell for two weeks in Croatia
and obviously I expected the
chartplotter to be terrible it was and
we came in we had both the Garmin blue
charts and Navionics and we were using
both just to give us you know a little
bit more comfort in the cruising grounds
because I had never been there nobody
had ever been there that I spoke to so I
was going there just simply with the
charts TZ touch and you see that they've
parted with time zero times zero is from
Peru noble tech bak Peru no BOTS noble
tech so they've partnered up and done an
app newer to the market not as old as I
the one that I was showing you
previously which is I nav X but you
can't go wrong with noble tech noble
Tech is world-class I mean we're working
on a 145 right now and the captain was
absolutely adamant that he absolutely
needed noble take on board for the
Caribbean in North America you know and
so there's really no budgets in those
boats and he swore by noble tech and
he's our like a real like he's a true
Mariner so noble tech has a lot of
credibility in the market it's a great
product and that's an easy way to get
noble tech type of software again on
iPad without having to pay the huge
licensing fees that you'd have to do to
run it on a computer you can see all the
they do 3d charting you've probably seen
their ads it's pretty creative what
they're doing with the charts as well
pretty powerful and then the bottom one
is digital yacht digital yacht is at the
forefront of integration they're the
kind of the whiz kids of everything that
has to do with the integrated boat
they're based out of the UK they've got
amazing product offerings that are
reasonably priced is just they do
they're really pushing the boundaries of
everything working together and you can
see all the different types of
information that they're trying to
aggregate and make available onto your
chartplotter so there'll actually going
to pull in depth speed
all this information that you might have
on your backbone that's NMEA or any may
mm and they're going to take it and send
it over Wi-Fi
to a device so instead of having just
instrument repeaters in your boat you're
suddenly going to have a device that has
everything that's on your boat all kind
of data like wind speed all this other
stuff now is showing up on your iPhone
or on your iPad so it's basically making
your smart device and instrument
repeater multifunction and instrument
repeater but it doesn't stop there you
know that you can start having a is
range bearing it's just tied like it's
basically the end result I mean it's the
all-in-one okay all right so this is
going in a little bit Navionics this is
the look and feel of the Navionics app
I'm not going to talk of everyone like
that but I'm highlighting the look and
feel you can see the different type of
information you can have they've also
now added Navionics whether it was used
to not be there but now with Garmin
Garmin was taking market share from that
because it's kind of nice to have know
whether at the especially within if your
cell range right the no weather without
having to listen to a VHF channel it's
kind of like it's endearing let's be
honest and the other thing too that's
amazing about those apps and I use them
all the time is I get this question from
crew and for my wife all the time how
long is it going to take us to go from
here to there tomorrow that is the most
common question it's what I used to do
my dad when are we when will we be there
how long how long is it going to take
what time do we have to leave all those
questions and before to do that on paper
is extremely time-consuming
you gotta especially if you're north
island or middle island you got passes
to go through right or even in the gulf
islands what time you're going to be at
a pass depending on the boat you have
you might have to be there at slack
what's great about that is you can
literally within like 15 seconds you can
know exactly the distance from A to B
but not by bird flight but by literally
a safe route and so if your passage
planning you can say well we can go
there tomorrow there tomorrow there
tomorrow or there tomorrow 17 miles 22
miles 11 miles 8 miles right and then
they'll tell you because you enter your
boat speed it's going to take us blah
blah blah right
do the math for you and then after the
on top of it you can look at the past as
well if we go there we want to go up to
plus islands from you know desolation
sound you're in preeto we got to go
through a pass are we going to hit the
pass at right time what time do we have
to leave all those things can be done
instead as eventually the helm
because most chart plotters do that you
can just simply do it in your iPad on
the aft deck you know in the cabin
wherever you want to be you could be in
your dinghy doesn't matter and you can
route that and you can do that without
the internet that outer routing
capability is actually built-in once
you've downloaded the charts okay so
that's a big win for passage planning
really liked it and this is definitely
you can also see dust tides all right so
I use it for anchoring all the time yes
I have a tide book that I buy every year
I have one how often do I look at it
never but I have one and I look at tides
on there to just figure out okay what's
the tide you know I've got a sailboat
six foot draft you know am I going to be
swinging with boom boom make sure I'm
all good tides are not gonna be too low
I'm fine and then that's how I make my
decisions okay you see blue chart same
thing some people swear by Garmin right
and they're used to the feel of Garmin
sharp laughter's this would be a way to
get blue charts right so it's consistent
with what you have on your boat other
owners really alike they'll maybe have
are a marine or Simrad or for uno but
they want something else again it would
be good to complement with a different
technology again for those especially if
you're going places where you may be
west coast of Vancouver Island there's
different places buns bees these places
where it's a little sketchy right it's a
little bit nerve-racking it's not clear
navigation it's not like going Malaspina
if you hit land you're there's no rock
in between you know like so this might
be a good to give you a little bit more
comfort that you know the lay of the
land on top of the paper charts that you
have to have on board of course okay all
right TZ touch you can see how the at
the bottom what they're doing firoun is
known with doing with some really
amazing animation or
manipulation of the vector chart data
and also the satellite imagery that they
get from Google Maps and put on top and
you can see a little bit of what it
looks like I mean it it almost becomes
cartoonish almost in some ways so for
some of us that's great for other ones
maybe not so much all these things are
layers you can turn them on or off but
for some of you that have four uno on
board or really like that technology or
fertilis generally very expensive it is
the most expensive and you can't afford
a fruit on your boat but you want to
have the feel of it this would be a good
way to get it at a reasonable price all
right so what are the things that you
like what I was saying about whether
we're going to go through wetter while
you can figure what's the weather
looking forward right you can get win
alerts on your phone right which is nice
and you can get also marine weather as a
sailor I use when especially we do a lot
of crossings or boats in secret cove so
as soon as we were there we're either
going up Malaspina or across the Liske t
and so we're always going it's not
really protected so I always have to be
looking at the wind when is it going to
be today tomorrow the day after tomorrow
because if we come back and it's blowing
southeasterly 35 on the south point of
Texas ADA it's not going to be pleasant
so this would be ways for you to start
figuring out what are you going to do
this weekend what am i doing tomorrow
should I be here or should I not do I
stay here do I leave and these are all
apps that you can use for getting
weather data now remember all of this is
dependent on obviously a weather
internet connection so either you have
need a hot spot on your boat with
another phone right but you need some
way to get to the internet because that
information has to be pulled from the
Internet one thing I really like I don't
know if you guys are familiar with this
but Noah world radar is pretty cool
because radar actually you can use wadar
to actually tell where the rain is and
so you'll never hear a weather forecast
for what's telling you when south
point of winter covin chatter no there's
not enough people living on Saturn uh
for the radio would ever tell you what
the weather and Saturn is there's 100
people there in the winter but it's a
nice place to be because it's got the
lowest amount of rain in all of
southwest British Columbia so you could
be someplace and you look at radar and
like look at this there's not a single
cloud on top of sand Turner right now
all right why don't we leave and go to
winter Cove or Timbo and cabbage right
we're go there it's not raining I'm
tired of the rain I'm north island you
might be I don't know
Wallace Island or you're a telegraph
cove and it's raining there and you're
like because you know the weather
changes dramatically here within a short
distance and nothing gets stuck there it
just always flies you know so you might
be looking at that or you might be
sometimes we're south and we're like oh
why don't we go to Tribune Bay we want
to go to the beach there oh well yeah
look at the weather it looks really
clear there it's fine right and so you
can actually tell that figuring out
where you've got rain anywhere at any
given time same thing if you've got a
really fast boat or a tender this would
be a way to go get some sunshine if
you're stuck in desolation Sound and you
want to go get some Sun this might be a
way to get yourself somewhere pretty
quickly
tides now tides is where you don't
actually need the Internet tides is a
weird thing it's a 20-year cycle it's
predictable so you can actually pretty
much download the tide data and they'll
be able to tell you what the tides are
going to be you know in a three years
from now based on it's just repetitive
all right a is so what is a is a is
stands for automatic identification
system and it's basically a pro call for
data transfer or data sharing of boat
information over VHF frequencies what
does that mean that means that vessels
by law type a or grading are actually
transmitting a lot of information over
the air not be a internet no cell
connection no Wi-Fi over-the-air they're
transmitting who they are where they're
going their current speed their
current course on ground their length or
with everything about the boat like
probably 20 different values and they're
transmitting that like every like two
seconds or something all the time that's
being transmitted over the air if you're
a boater and you have a Class B receiver
only you can receive that information
and you can show that up on the radio
and the device on a chart plotter and
you can actually see those targets on
your chart plotter now there are apps
that show this information but this is
why I'm taking a few seconds or minutes
to give you a caveat because remember
your iPhone is not getting this
information from over the air there's no
VHF and Tess sounds silly but I have to
say it there's no VHF antenna on your
iPhone or your iPad the information is
being received somewhere on a land base
station taken from that land base
station sent out to a third party then
your app goes and gets it from that
third party and shows it on your iPhone
so there's a delay okay and there could
be a longer delay than you would think
it's not always could be in real time
but sometime it might not do because at
the end of the day there's a lot of
different pieces of the puzzle so if
you're looking at an AIS app on your
phone it's cool it's nice oh look John
and Joann or up in Montague and they've
arrived Oh we'll see them there this
weekend yeah we should be going oh look
they're not here now yeah I guess they
went to Rove an outstation on Salt
Spring we won't see them that's nice but
to use an AIS app on your phone to try
to avoid collision avoidance with a
freighter bearing down on you and the
southern point of herald straight and
you're using that you're like no honey
we're really fine it says that it's not
here
yeah you see it really close but the app
says it's like a mile over would be a
showstopper okay so really really
important to use a is on your phone as a
kind of a gadget okay like I have
clients that do it for example you can
see this law both in Cole Harbour that
are actually
showing their location and I have a lot
of my clients that you know they're on
the road and they just want to know
where their boat is it's part of like
you know we all love our boats for the
most part you know they're in South
America they're working on a project and
they just they look on their phone oh
yeah my boat's still in coal harbour you
know it's like a pulse right it's like a
heartbeat that's what it is right now
they're not exceeding this on their
phone to navigate to make decisions am I
going to go left or right the tugs
bearing down on me no that's not what
you're doing you're doing it for oh look
at this big boat going down the Fraser
River I wonder what it is
oh look its MV this and this coming from
Shanghai going to this port that's the
kind of information or a mega yacht they
might go on silence but maybe not right
and then you can see oh look these boats
are coming down and the other thing you
can use it for is yeah probably that
would be their uses that you would do
with your iPhone in real life you can
use a is for navigation because it's not
like radar radar you can only see what
you see right I mean it can go through a
mountain but with AIS I can light up a
is for example at captain's Cove and I'm
going to see ships in Burrard Inlet I
light it up at my marina and secret cove
and I'm going to see the ferry on the
north on power/power Riverside there's
no way that anything can see anything
from secret cove to powell river it's
impossible but there's a ferry there and
i'll actually see it on my char bloggers
so it's over the air right so it'll go
on top of mountain I mean it doesn't go
endless distances but you light up a
chart plotter in again captain's Cove
and you can see traffic on the southern
point of Saturn so it gives you an idea
of the reach and so what's great about
is you can see traffic on a pass before
you get to a pass and if you see let's
say for example you go north island you
got a lot of passes that are pretty
tight and you sometimes there's convoys
of West Sports 1 tents right I mean
there's bigger boats as you get up and
you're like am I going to be able to
squeeze through or dawns Narrows right
you're going through dogs and there
might be a few commercial traffic
waiting on the other side and before you
get to it you can see ok look at that
there's like 4 tugs waiting in line on
the other side and they're going to tell
you their length and what their
doing so it gives you a little bit of
information to passage plan a little bit
better okay so these are the different
apps that you have ship finder is a big
one again that's probably the most
popular one if a friend's ever shown you
a boat it's probably the one he's shown
you the boat way and then boat beacon
but again I it's it's more like a boat
watch yeah go ahead correct no no that's
right that's a good point remember this
is only other boats that are
transmitting their information there's
two types of transmitters there's Class
A they have two so not an option
it's non-negotiable by law they have to
transmit so there's the real bones
basically and there's class B's these
are people that are more pleasure boats
right very any of them it could be also
smaller work boats that choose to I
guess transmit their location and their
information to other boats it's gaining
popularity before years ago I used to
only see boats that would be Class A
only and if everyone else would just get
Class B receivers but now there's an
uptake in Class B transmitters
especially boats that are bigger or
faster
you know boats that they might be going
okay well you know what I've got friends
I want them to know where we are and you
have a silent button too you can say
well this weekend I'm going incognito
you shut it off and you don't see it so
there's options that you can do but it
is gaining popularity there's more and
more boats taking on Class B receiver
transmitters and transmitting their
information to other vessels so they
everyone sees each other okay the other
thing it does also I just want to say is
over time what it does is it's like with
marpa you know in marpa with radar you
have to actually acquire targets to see
if you're on a collision course if
you've got a is on board and well you
don't even have to have a gaius if
you've got an AIS Class B receiver your
char plotter will actually if it's
connected to an AIS receiver will
actually calculate if this freighter
bearing down on you coming at 24 knots
because that's what they're doing when
they're rounding you know Saturno
on the southern point and you're in the
middle of the strait to Georgia you're
looking you're like Oh
we're fine now that things bearing down
at 20 to 24 knots right like it's a
speed boat right and your thing out
we're fine you want to know should I
slow down or am I going to miss it right
you can there's different ways you can
do it if you have piloting skills to
know if you're on a collision course I'm
not going to tell you that because it's
not my place but there's ways of
figuring that out just with there's ways
but if you want to have better security
what you can do is you can look at a is
data and a is data is actually going to
look at your course on ground your speed
on ground their course on ground speed
on ground assuming everything stays
constant are you on a collision course
and they'll alarm on that collision
course say I want a three nautical mile
warning on a collision course you
wouldn't turn that on in the river
because you'd be on a collision course
with every single boat every minute
right but you've got a river that when
you disable it you got to re-enable it
when you get to San hands and you're
doing a crossing - for example active
pass right all right so control what
does control mean control means what the
manufacturers have been doing and we're
seeing a lot of traction on this is
manufacturers have been creating
obviously char plotters which are now
called MFDs multifunctional displays
which means it's a device that does
anything it's got radar you know chards
sounder all this everything years ago
this is like for Ray Marine came out
with an app that you could actually view
what was on the chart plotter so it was
kind of a repeater this big deal by the
way is the e7 it was like unbelievable
so suddenly as an owner you could have
one chart plot or somewhere and if you
just want a repeater station just
repeater that you can't engage or do
anything with you could literally see
everything that's happening on the e7 on
your iPad which is kind of neat so if
your budget you know doesn't allow you
to have two char plotters lower/upper
how you can have an upper helm char
plotter and then an iPad a little helm
right that you're normally not at the
lower hem and leave it there and you can
see whatever's there is up there
so not bad it's well it was free so it's
you know no-brainer if you had an iPad
over time what they've done is they've
said okay not only are you able to
repeat information
but you can physically control the other
device remotely meaning you can turn on
the radar turn it off you can look at
the radar page just one second look at
the sounder page you can move your boat
you can not move the boot but move the
screen pan away look at another area
zoom in zoom out you can do anything you
want like if you were at the chart
plotter or MMD so what's happening is
owners that used to be on the fence or
bringing a chart plotter I've got owners
and say Jeff I'm at the flybridge
ninety-five percent of time but
sometimes I go down below before I was
like I don't feel like buying a second
chart plotter for the lower helm when
I'm there ninety five it's another three
four five thousand it hurts mm like what
can I do or for those that don't really
have equal use of both Elms they might
decide well I'm gonna save some money I
mean we can't do all we want and they
might say well I'll put it up at the
upper helm which is where I am all the
time I'll get an iPad and I'll use it as
a repeater station control station at
the lower helm and if I'm ever down
there it's either that or nothing all
right so that's how they look at it you
have a question yeah absolutely built-in
Wi-Fi within the display so you don't
even need to create your own network so
there's a Wi-Fi that's actually within
the device and it sends that signal out
and this but you got to remember to like
I have this of course I have this I have
this on my boat but it's not always I
sometimes lose the wife kind of
connection right a boat has tons of RF
tons of RF I sometimes lose the
connection but you see on my boat it's a
gimmick right it's cool yeah it's fun
but if I lose it the screen freezes
something happens I'm not saying I'm
down at the lower helm and it's going to
take me 30 seconds to go to the upper
helm because the stairs are steep it's
flying seas I don't know where I'm going
and I'm down here and I was putting all
my trust into this iPad and now I lost a
Wi-Fi signal and it froze and I'm really
in trouble 99.9% of the time won't
matter but you know those places we know
those places where sometimes it's not
the place to
lose a hand right and so that's where
again through Murphy's Law you know it
is it always seems to be happening when
you need it where you've got to make a
decision of how badly do you need that
second helm and if it's more kind of a
nice-to-have than a control station and
those apps and the realities they're
free so if you buy a new Raymarine
system or Garmin system you'll actually
have that you just download the app and
depend if some sharp loggers have Wi-Fi
built in some other ones it's a module
because it's an add-on garment on their
top-end it's a it's built in lower end
it's a little module you put in for a
hundred bucks then you just simply buy
you don't buy the app you download the
app and suddenly you're controlling
everything on that sharp water you could
be anywhere you could be on your back
deck you could be in your cabin now for
navigation it's not that practical I
think from a safety perspective but at
night winds are hauling you're at an
anchor it's sketchy right it's really
starting to be sketchy
suddenly it's was calm day it's blowing
thirty five Willie Wallach walk when
when you know boats are dragging or you
want to be in the cockpit in the wind in
the rain with everything going or what
you do is you turn that on you have
radar overlay on a chart plotter you're
in your salon and you're seeing your
boat swinging an anchor suddenly now
you're seeing literally all the other
boats in the bay because you've got
radar overlay you're seeing if they're
dragging on you like yeah he's still
there yeah she's still there oh yeah
they're still there good right you're
swinging you're swinging you're painting
the bottom right you're like yeah I'm
still in the same arc I'm not constantly
going like this which would mean you're
dragging all those things are nice and
you're doing that without actually being
at the helm when it's cold raining
sideways and there's a storm you're
doing this inside the boat and you've
got full access your chartplotter
without being outside so these are all
the different apps you can see like I
mean all the companies have them right
Garmin marathon is another one Laurens
Cimarron ray control for runo frou-frou
first watches is also it allows control
of a Wi-Fi radar they were the first to
make that I didn't put B and G in there
but BMG has one too for you guys that
have sail boaters sailboats if you
the bng system they do a two-for new
first watch was the first to do a Wi-Fi
radar so I put one on on a boat last
year Klein didn't want to display wanted
a low-cost radar for the rare times in
July and August that they get caught in
the fog for him and never happened it
happened once he got scared he's like
okay I'll put radar but I want to be
really low-cost so we ended up putting a
Wi-Fi radar onboard so there's
absolutely no display other than power
cables going to that radar and the radar
is shown on an iPad only there's no
option for anything else so it's not for
everyone but for him it was a low cost
option to get a radar again a trade-off
okay the next thing I'm going to talk
about is I guess safety apps there's all
these different things I remember when
we did Vancouver Island years ago we
went around Vancouver Island we had all
these different boats on you know as
first aids first aid for this first aid
for that now what they're doing is you
can download a bunch of first aid apps
right onboard so instead of having these
thick books you know maybe you know
space is limited or you just simply
don't feel like having a library onboard
like we do you can start buying these
different apps you've got even one like
I would you know maybe I would some
people love their pets you know some
people don't you want an app for what
happens if your dog gets sick when
you're in the middle of nowhere there's
an app for that there's apps for
everything I mean it's it's just
absolutely unbelievable the really nice
one is that I'd like to highlight is the
RCM sar1
I think that's really cool and they do
good work for our waters right all
volunteer-based first sailors there's
different apps in terms of sailing rules
regatta you can see that's pretty giving
you a sense of you know what's the time
to tack right to get to your destination
you want to go to a and you're the
wind's coming from B boom how you sure
you get there how long should your tax
be this would help so there's different
ways you can see now this is maybe not
so much just for sailors but interesting
grip files I'm not sure it is anyone
ever heard the word grip files here
before all right well grip files
are actually what the weather
forecasters use this data this is
actually the the pressure gradient
charts that you see they're actually
using that's what a grip file is okay so
weather forecasters or not weather
forecast weather forecasters and also I
guess route planners right for people
that go ocean voyages are actually using
grip files and I have clients that do
for example Vick now II they're going to
have SS V on board and they're one of
the main reasons they're going to have
an SS be on board is so that they can
have a modem and that modem is going to
be used to download grip files with the
grip files you can actually see the
pressure gradient where you are because
you're downloading for their area and
you actually see the contours lines and
from there you can see the fronts you'll
see all the information that is used to
figure out what's happening and they're
going to use that information to figure
out because they certainly don't go from
A to B in a straight line all right
that's not how they win right so they're
going to be using different winds they
might go way more south they might be in
there's all these it's complicated and
so the people that figure out how to go
from A to B efficiently use grip files
and grip files if you're curious is the
information that actually weather
forecasting is based out of so if you're
into the wool weather thing this would
be basically the elemental knowledge you
need to have or information you need to
add to actually create those forecasts
and to figure out what's going to happen
with the weather star walk is pretty
cool let me let's be honest you know
we've probably seen those apps that you
can look in the sky and they know the
orientation and you'll know all the
constellation that's pretty awesome it's
like having a dad that knows all things
and there's no BS you know what's that
all right anchor watching Melissa the
office really loves drag queen she
thinks it's hilarious what does that
mean basically means that when you
actually anchor and you enable these
apps they're going to figure out a I
guess a diameter from the place that you
told them that the anchor held bottom
right now this is a caveat you can hear
from the tone that I'm trying to use
here the assumption is the moment you
say go and you put out your diam your
distance from where you dropped that
that's where the anchor held right so
you're going to possibly have false
positives with these apps because the
circle that you think you're going to
rotate in your anchor might have not
held the moment you dropped it it might
not have held only five feet as your
dragged it might a dragged 60 feet
before it started holding and now your
circle of a hundred feet isn't where you
thought it was it's here so you could
easily get yourself out of that circle
when it thought that you were here and
you were doing a circle right under
tension under wind so just be prepared
that the apps will sometimes give you
false indication that you're dragging
not because you're dragging but because
it actually didn't know exactly where
the center of where your boat is right
it's not that easy to know where your
anchor is holding the bottom and to know
that exactly like if there was an app
that could tell you yeah your GPS anchor
is that these coordinates that'd be
perfect you know the dream right but
unfortunately it's in the water and
there's no GPS sensor that can be
reading in 60 feet of water and then
transmitting that information to
something else to tell you that it's
changing its location so it's an
approximation and it's another tool now
other thing to remember is that while
you're doing that the GPS sensor on your
phone which every phone has a GPS sensor
and iPads with cellular connectivity
have a GPS sensor built in if you leave
them on all night and you can't close
the phone they're going to be drawing a
lot more power
and so what you need to do is you need
to plug them into a USB port so that the
next morning your phone is still powered
up and that's also the issue with all of
this and I didn't even make mention of
it it's easy to use an iPad and an
iPhone when the water is perfectly klom
those blissful days that you go across
the Strait of Georgia and it's calm you
can foot water-ski across and the only
thing you see is your wake of course
everything is awesome those that you
probably don't even need anything those
days
imagine yourself if you only have that
app and it's like a six eight foot
swells beam sees right and the winds
building and your iPad last night was
not plugged in right now you're using it
a lot it's flying around in the cockpit
you can barely hold on to the helm right
that's the nice thing about having so if
you're really committed to an iPad get a
ram mount get something that can be
physically you put your iPad in there
and it's not going to move in the worst
of conditions make sure there's a port
there to plug it in right if you're
going to put a lot of your eggs into
this navigation stuff I'd suggest having
close USB you know sock 12 volt
cigarette lighters so you can plug it in
so that it can stay powered right as
you're using it your crossing was
supposed to take three hours because you
were supposed to go 20 knots
now the crossing is taking you you're
going only 8 knots you had delays
there's fog now you're going for there
still sees you know the worst case
scenario that happens rarely but does
happen you got to ask yourself like when
things are really going to go bad am I
set to be able to handle them ok
as we go in right now we're talking
about different types of lifestyle apps
and what we're trying to say is there's
a lot of things like for example on my
boat sailor you know I don't I was
trying to do better at making knots
these are different types of apps for
that there's another one too that's
really interesting for people that don't
know this this is really big deal and
I'm probably one of the coolest things
that is happening in the marine world is
called active
so you're asking what is that active
captain is like Wikipedia for boaters it
means it's a community of voters that
are sharing about their environment
various things about their local
cruising knowledge to one another and
what it means is it's not the Word of
God but it's certainly not to be
discounted meaning all these and most
people most voters you would say as a
subset are a pretty good bunch of people
you see the way we share at marinas at
docks at Anchorage is about one another
about local knowledge active captain is
a way to capture that information so
that your network isn't just verbally
with your close circle it's literally
tens and tens and tens of thousands of
people documenting that information so
it can be seen by anybody else and you
can see it for free online okay so
they'll tell you well by the way this
reef isn't here it's there the marker
that's on the chart isn't there anymore
it's blown away it's gone there's no
more marker and then and the government
hasn't replaced it so all those things
are things that are actually viewable on
active captain Garmin for example is
actually adding it as a layer within
their blue charts so you can actually
have blue charts and you say I want to
have an active captain layer on top so
you're like take it off put it on and so
then it's going to show you information
by your peers right so it can be a handy
again for going in places that aren't
places that are super familiar and that
would be handy to do okay the other
thing too in there is TeamViewer we use
that I use that with people at work your
ability to log into your computer
remotely you can have a team of your app
on your iPad and you can log into your
computer at work and if you for example
we use QuickBooks in our business I can
go in with a team of your app and I can
look at lock into my computer at the
office and I can go into QuickBooks I
can generate reports it's like being at
my computer but I'm on an iPad on my
boat so certain apps don't come with you
on an iPad there's certain apps that
need a server they need to be on the
office whatever those are
you would have the ability of actually
seeing files doing whatever how it's
literally like being it's exactly a
little bit like the control app that was
talking about it's a full control of
your computer remotely draw box really
popular files anywhere people do yoga on
boats I've seen it I wish I was that
good workouts
I mean it's endless and this is just a
sample we started it with 200 apps all
right well thank you everyone and if
anyone has questions I'll be at the back
of the room okay thank you