10 Marine Apps to Make You A Better Boater?

Every day, new applications are developed that can help you run your boat more efficiently and effectively. 

MyRadar NOAA Weather Radar

MyRadar is a fast, easy-to-use, weather application that displays animated weather radars around your current location, allowing you to quickly see what weather is coming your way. Our High Definition Doppler radar data is processed from raw NOAA weather radar data from the National Weather Service / NWS using our custom-designed, proprietary systems and software, offering the clearest, sharpest, most accurate and most up-to-date reflection of precipitation available... easily accessible at the tap of a finger on your mobile device. Price: FREE | iOS & Android

Boating USA

A favorite among cruisers, sailors, fishermen and divers. Find the same detailed charts and advanced features as on the best GPS plotters. This app includes the Navionics+ subscription. Price: $9.99 |  iOS & Android

Boat Ramps / Fishing

Trailer boaters, this one's for you. It's a free app for both i's and 'droids, from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. It gives you the locations of and directions to more than 35,000 boat ramps nationwide. You can search by zip code, city, or current location.

TRACK YOUR CATCHES

This is where fishing gets personal. You get the awesome power to see what works, and where.

CONNECT WITH ANGLERS

This is why people love Fishbrain. Share your catches with other anglers. Join conversations.

GET FISHING INTEL

There’s a map at your fingertips. Find hot new fishing spots. See what’s biting. See what bait to use.

Price: Free | www.takemefishing.org

Boating Suite

Perfect for long-distance cruisers, liveaboards, and boaters who like to know how much fuel is in the tanks — to the very gallon — this is a logging app that turns your iPhone into a digital filing cabinet with built-in spreadsheets. 

When you're on the water or about to get underway you need to enter your information efficiently.

Comprehensive reports for fuel, maintenance, expenses and total cost of ownership. Plus, a Log Book reports will give a complete picture of all your outings. Price: $4.99 | www.boatingcafe.com

Clinometer + bubble level

This professional tool called Clinometer is the most precise (all you can get with some calculations) slope measurement tool for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad using all sides of the device plus the camera. It can be used for simple applications like aligning a frame as well as for more sophisticated fields of applications where an arbitrary slope needs to be measured exactly. Price: $2.99. | iOS & Android

iNavX - Marine Chartplotter

iNavX takes handheld marine navigation to the next level. 
• Anglers: Discover new fishing spots by scouting out deep holes and inlets. Locate the best fishing conditions by identifying cold fronts. Save your best fishing spots with the only app that offers unlimited markers.
• Sailors: Plan great routes with waypoint and route management. Have proactive sail management with GRIB weather forecasts. Then keep watch with integration with external AIS receivers and responders. And remember great locations by geotagging photos.
• Boaters: Stay up to date on boating conditions with weather forecasts that includes currents, winds, and swells. Manage your equipment with nautical instrument integration. Then save and share great boating routes to share with the track log. Price: $19.99 | http://inavx.com/

Global Tide - Weather Forecast for Marine Sports

Global Tide is a free app specially made by Catches for outdoor enthusiasts to fishing, diving and surfing, providing hourly real-time forecast and analysis of weather, wave, water temperature, etc and comprehensive support for your trips.
Exclusive real-time forecast for offline tide, even without signal.
Built-in spatial data of global major cities/ports/islands and lakes, personalized search function of random GPS location, convenient and flexible with accuracy far superior to similar application.  Price: FREE | Weather & Tide App

US Coast Guard Safety App

This app includes state boating information; a safety equipment checklist; free boating safety check requests; navigation rules; float plans; and calling features to report pollution or suspicious activity. When location services are enabled, users can receive the latest weather reports from the closest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys as well as report the location of a hazard on the water or pollution, or call the nearest CG command center. Price: FREE | US Coast Guard Aux

AyeTides and AyeTides XL

AyeTides and AyeTides XL show the tides and currents for over 12,000 locations around the world*. The app gives you the day’s tides as tables and interactive graphs. See what the tides are doing next week or next year. See sunrise, moon rise, etc. and how the tides respond to the moon. But weather is less so, and changes in the weather can have immediate effects on your boating excursion. Price: $7.99 | Ayetides.com

Fishweather

This mobile app offers access to ­Fish­-Weather’s exclusive weather station network and crowdsourcing, plus 50,000 other weather stations around the world. FishWeather covers lakes and rivers, as well as ocean and bay waters. The basic app is free, but you can also pony up for premium service levels.

While FishWeather lists current winds (speed, direction and gusts) and waves (height, direction and frequency) in real time, it is the short-term forecasts for specific locales that I really like. These proprietary hour-by-hour forecast models have proven very accurate in terms of wind speed and direction, giving me the guidance to pack it in (if the forecast calls for strong winds) or the confidence to fish longer (if the forecast is for mild winds). Price: FREE  | iOS & Android

Or check out the website www.fishweather.com

Pro Knot

100+ Knots! Pro-Knot is the most trusted and the best selling printed knot reference in the world.

102 knots are BOTH animated and illustrated! The Pro-Knot App makes learning to tie knots easy and fun! Each of 52 fishing knots (MOST FISHING KNOTS of any app anywhere), 2 emergency fish hook removal techniques and 50 rope knots has its own animation video, a picture of the finished knot, step by step illustrations and instructions, and a description of the knot’s use. Price: $0.99 to $1.99 depending on the version | iOS & Android

SailSim

SailSim is dinghy/yacht sail simulator that can be used as a learning and teaching aid for sailing.  You can use this sailing simulator while you're on dry land, to discover how changes in boat heading, the set of the sails, centerboard, and boat speed relate to wind direction. As you turn your boat (just turn your smart phone), wind direction stays constant relative to the boat but the sails adjust and change shape as they would in real life. Price: $0.99 | iOS & Android

BoatUS App

The brand new BoatUS App is all of BoatUS right at your fingertips. Still the fastest way to get a tow on the water, and combines the features you love to take with you on the water like tides and marine forecasts, and allows convenient access to your BoatUS Membership or insurance policy. 

The BoatUS mobile app now offers hurricane alerts that are refreshed with every NOAA update to the forecast. 

BoatUS policyholders can also use the app to file a claim, including hurricane haul-out claims, right through their phone.

Cost: Free | www.BoatUS.com/towing/app

Sea Tow App

In addition to maintaining the great features offered by the original Sea Tow App, including GPS-enabled speed, course over ground, heading and position, marine weather forecasts and tide tables for multiple locations, the new version has a new format that is easily customizable with information and data specific to your favorite cruising grounds.

The new App also adds convenience – you can use it to manage your Sea Tow membership account. In addition, you can find the nearest Sea Tow operation to your boat’s position, along with the locations of all of its Sea Tow boats – and call for assistance with the push of a button. Price: FREE | Sea Tow App

If you have any Boat Apps you use, let us know and we will add them to the list!

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