Using your iphone as a marine gps chartplotter
Not everyone can afford a GPS chartplotter for their fishing boat, and sometimes a sounder and a good old fashioned map is enough to get people by when fishing new or old water, but with the new age of smartphones we can now turn our iPhones into a nice little GPS chartplotter to have in the boat while fishing.
Most people these days have an iPhone or similar smart phone, and this is all that is needed plus a few good apps to turn your phone into a accurate chartplotter with contour maps, water depths and the navigation markers of our major waterways.
The use of a GPS while boating is extremely handy, making navigation easy helping to show water depth, channel markers and any hazards, whilst also useful to mark any good fishing locations, trawl lines and routes.
A quick and easy way to turn your iPhone into a GPS chartplotter is to download the Navionics marine maps gps app. It makes your smartphone work just like a normal GPS chartplotter with a great base map showing water depth and contours, plus giving you the ability to save waypoints and leave tracks tat you can follow back to the boat ramp or back through a hazardous area of a waterway.
Navionics is a brand synonymous with marine navigation, and with their new mobile map applications for phones, you can cheaply turn your smart phone into a GPS chartplotter for your fishing or leisure boating.
The Navionics apps are worth around $15 and depending on which one you buy will give you access to some great nautical maps which cover the whole world. For our area, the Australia / New Zealand map covers all we need.
There are a few different options for mounting your phone in the boat for use as a GPS. Normal car mounts would do the job, but by far my favourite phone mount is the Quad Lock case and mount by Annex products. I use this case and mounting system in my car, in my boat and on my MTB. Also available from Annex is the poncho, which makes your iPhone showerproof, and still allows the phone to be mounted and used as normal. Great for protecting it from salt spray or those rainy days in the boat.
So with the Navionics app and the Quad Lock case you can now turn your iPhone or smartphone into a non expensive extremely handy marine GPS chartplotter for your boat.
Tight lines!
Hi guys, I have been using the navionics app for about 12 months. Must say I think this is by far the best app I have purchased. I know you are not to use it in place of a chart plotter but I can tell you it has helped me out tremendously in unknown waters. I have also come home in poor conditions at night with no moon by following my previous track . True it cannot tell you of movable hazards but it can give you a safe route home. Nothing substitutes for a good lookout but this can make the task so much easier and safer.