iPad Navigation Apps

[Green Mountain Grady]

I have been looking at navigation solutions for my Tournament 225 that I run on Lake Champlain. Was leaning towards a Simrad or Garmin touchscreen chartplotter but recently borrowed a friends iPad with EarthNC app on it and found it to be a great setup. It's also a whole lot cheaper than installing a chartplotter! Anyone have any experience using these apps for navigation? I know there's the aforementioned EarthNC and Navionics has one as well. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[Fizzer]

I looked into this as well - in particular the navionics. The maps look pretty good on the iPad but it needs to have 3G or 4g enabled, as only these models have gps capability. A wifi only iPad won't work (which
Is what I have). Believe the navionics maps were about $50 for my region (Australia) for the iPad, but only $10 for iPhones. I have the iPhone navionics map which is ok for navigating to a waypoint but th screen is so small it's not much help for other navigation.
Hope that helps a bit, cheers Fizzer

 

[cletus9000]

I use the Navionics app in the Chesapeake and am pretty impressed with it. You do, however, need a 3G connection and cellphone signal in order for it to work properly. I have signal everywhere I fish so it is no big deal to me most of the time. In fact, I have found the Navionics app to be more accurate than my 2005 Furuno unit. That said, I don't think I'd trust it as my lone sonar.

 

[Pez Vela]

You do, however, need a 3G connection and cellphone signal in order for it to work properly ... I don't think I'd trust it as my lone sonar.

That is incorrect for any navigation app with embedded charts. A cellular connection (for the "assist" in the assisted GPS functionality of a 3G/4G iPhone/iPad) is not required. The internal GPS antenna on the 3G/4G is all you need for full functionality. And as far as sonar goes, I'm sure you meant to say, "I don't think I'd trust it as my lone chartplotter."

 

[bc282]

i sometimes bring my iPad on board to play tunes or have to do some final office work while on the troll (hate it, but sometimes gotta be done).
have a marine Navionics chart app for iPad but i use it to play while on land and not on the boat.
IMO, the iPad is just not built for marine environment or really to be used outdoors for that matter.
the screen is difficult to view with polarized sunglasses, gets washed out by bright sunlight, hope that it never gets wet, doubtful to be able to handle the vibration and possible offshore pounding and last for a long time, and you can't control the screen brightness are a few cons i see.

iPad pros are that it's cheap compared to other similar sized screen plotters, does have a decent sized screen, good graphics, pretty fast processing speed, very intuitive, small form factor, and battery lasts a long time between charges.

As a back-up, IMO, iPad is fine, but for primary plotting, you should get a real plotter.

 

[ENichols56]

This company makes a suction cup mount and a vacuum sealed water proof bag to make your ipad waterproof. http://www.seasucker.com/product-category/ipad-tablet/

Also, i use EarthNC on my Android phone without a data connection. You can choose to download a region of the charts and save it locally so you don't need a data connection.

 

[SwampGrizz]

Take a look at iNAVX for the iPad. You can always get an external Bluetooth GPS receiver like the Dual XPS150 or the Bad Elf. iNAVX, like a lot of other programs, will store your selected charts on the iPAD, so you don't need 3G/4G connectivity. The major drawback is seeing the screen in direct sunlight. If the iPAD ever solves that problem, it will be a strong product.

SwampGrizz