Is INavX the best for an IPad?

[bgephart]

I just "inherited" an IPad from one of my kids, and would like to try using it to plan short trips offshore Georgia / South Carolina. Looking back through the archives, the INavX app seemed to be the winner for IPads, but there haven't been any comments for some months now. I'd appreciate any up to date comments or recommendations re navigation apps. Thanks.

[David van den Burgh]

Still using it regularly on iPad and iPhone. Haven't found anything better. No complaints. Great app. It gets used more than our dedicated Garmin GPS.

[Russell]

I use Navionics primarily, but also have Garmen (for access to activecaptain data). I havnt used iNavX yet. My iPad has become my primary electronic navigation tool, my chartplotter these days is more a backup.

[SV Tatyana]

Russell,

Do you have to attach a gps to the ipad for using offshore or is the ipad capable of using the internal gps without wifi/3G coverage? I've read mixed reviews on this but am looking into buying an ipad for navigation and just using a handheld gps and paper charts as backup. Much cheaper than a chartplotter the same size if its just as reliable.

Thanks,
Richard

[Russell]

The internal gps definitely works away from land. You don't even need a SIM card in the iPad for it to work. If you have a wifi only iPad you can use a little Bluetooth GPS that garmen makes.

[Paul D.]

I have no experience using iPad navigation software on the boat but I have been researching the options when I inherited my father's iPad. (alas, no internal gps). I downloaded Tansas iSailor and have played around with it but again not used it aboard.

The one that I would go with after I either get a newer iPad/iPad mini with lifproof case or just get a Bad Elf external GPS receiver is iNavX. It seems to have the most chart options. Just playing around with the iSailor it seemed a little cumbersome. Looking around on a bunch of boards it seems most people and many professionals on the water use the INavx. FWIW.

Part of me is waiting for when all our electronics are seamlessly connected via wi fi or bluetooth. Pretty close now.

[Jim Walsh]

I have a Bad Elf external GPS and Bluetooth it to my iPad. I have Navionics loaded into it primarily because I have a Raymarine C80 chartplotter at the helm and wanted to remain with an identical chart plotting software system as my backup. Even if my chartplotter and my iPad fail I still have the Bad Elf to provide lat. and long., I also have a built in GPS in my AIS equipped VHF radio which will provide positions I can plot on my paper charts.
When I feel real adventurous I have a sextant and enough knowledge to be dangerous.

[Jim Davis]

Let me start by saying I do not have an iPad.

Another chart program to look at is Jeppsen's Plan2Nav. I have it on my Android phone and several friends have it on their iPads. It uses their C-Map products and is resident on the device so you don't need WiFi to use it. Active Captain, tidal data and currents are also built in. It does all the normal CP functions, however I don't think it will drive an auto pilot. The base Ap is free and if I remember charts about $30. I have the US East Coast charts (includes the Bahamas and Bermuda). I also have the Great Lakes/Eastern Canada loaded. AC updates every couple weeks. Charts are available world wide.

While I don't rely on it as my primary, it has paid off a few times when my Garmin didn't have good data.


http://ww1.jeppesen.com/marine/lightmar ... charts.jsp

[barfwinkle]

GM to all

In June I used iSailor for the run from St. vincent to Grenada. It was great and accurate. I've not used it enough to retain memory of all the functions, but I do like to program.

FW

[Jerry Hammernik]

What is the best size for an iPad with INavX ? 16gb 32, 64?

Opinions, please.

[Russell]

What is the best size for an iPad with INavX ? 16gb 32, 64?

Opinions, please.

The 16 will work fine for any of the nav programs, but as you start putting other things on it, it fills up quick. I use mine as my stereo on board as well, with a bluetooth speaker, I have the 32g and wish I had gotten a bigger one.

[barfwinkle]

What is the best size for an iPad with INavX ? 16gb 32, 64?

Jerry I to put a lot of music on my IPad! I just acquired an IPad Air with 128G along with a keyboard. I love it and it will in all likeliohood replace my old & dying laptop.

Fair Winds

[Rollergirl]

Then again, there's this story from Latitude 38....

After the Ventura-based Nordic 40 Seaquel was driven onto the Kona coast late Sunday night, there was initial hope — at least among some observers — that she might be salvageable. But after several days of grinding in the surf on a rocky ledge, that possibility became unlikely. Debate over the sloop's future potential ended abruptly yesterday, however, when workers contracted by Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources dragged the hull up to high ground, chopped it up and hauled it away.

Some valuable gear had been looted previously, but the engine, rig and winches were reportedly salvaged. Owner John Berg did get some personal gear off the boat prior to all that.

He and his crew, Dani Peters, are now back on the mainland. This morning we had a chance to talk with Berg, who is totally blind. "I just want to make it crystal clear that it was my boat, I was the captain, and it was me who screwed up. Even though I had sighted crew with me, it was my fault we lost the boat."

The explanation of what went wrong portrays a truly 21st-century dilemma. Berg and Peters left Hilo last week, had a "great sail around the south end of the island," and found a nice little anchorage where they swam with spinner dolphins. The next day, they were heading up the Kona coast well offshore, when the breeze died, forcing them to motorsail. Because they hadn't refueled after making landfall from Mexico at Hilo, they had only about six or seven gallons of fuel, which concerned them. But they soon had bigger problems.

They'd been navigating for weeks without a problem using iNavX software on Berg's iPad, which was interfaced with the vessel's GPS. That night they were headed for a waypoint offshore of Honokohau Harbor, north of Kialua Kona town. All of a sudden the screen was taken over by a system request to log in to FaceTime, an Apple resource, then another request to log in to the iCloud. No matter what Berg and Peters did, they couldn't clear the screen and log back in to iNavX. Berg also had that software on his iPhone, but he hadn't entered the waypoint there. The built-in chartplotter had a system that displayed NOAA charts, but Berg says that proved inadequate.

[Neil Gordon]

Then again, there's this story from Latitude 38....

How many times have we heard, "Do not rely on a single source"?

[Russell]

That story does not make a lot of sense to me.

Just because he didnt have a waypoint in his iPhone, it made him unable to navigate? Really? The chart was there, the app was there, but it was useless because an offshore waypoint that he could easily place wasnt there?

His built in chartplotter, with NOAA charts were inadequate?

One really should be able to navigate even when electronics go down, this guy had two backups and still is somehow blaming the iPad.

This sounds more like incompetence then anything you can blame on an iPad. The iPad could be reset, background apps can be closed, he just didnt know how to use it. I disable the ability of any apps to run in the background, or send "notifications" when I am using it for navigation. And even if the iPad had fallen overboard, he had 2 other electronic means of navigation and hopefully had paper charts which alone should be adequate.

The moral here has nothing to do with using an iPad to navigate.