Useful Apps
Sailing is an adventure filled with excitement, discovery, and sometimes, unpredictability. With the right tools, you can navigate the seas more confidently, plan your journey better, and enhance your overall experience. Here are the top 5 sailing apps we recommend for a more seamless and enjoyable yacht charter.
SailTies
Building Your Sailing Profile with Sailties App.
The Sailties app allows sailors to create and customise their sailing profiles, enhancing their maritime experience. Users can input personal preferences, track sailing routes, and document memorable voyages. This feature-rich tool ensures that every sailing journey is personalised and optimised for enjoyment and safety.
Sailties is an excellent free app to capture and share sailing voyages and build your sailor profile.
Imray Tides Planner
Imray Tides Planner is a comprehensive app designed for sailors to provide accurate tide predictions and information. It covers thousands of locations worldwide, offering essential tidal data for safe and efficient navigation.
If we only had space on my smart phone for one app it would be this one. Not only does it contain the tidal heights for standard and secondary ports around the world, this app will work out the height of tide at any given time simply by choosing a port, a date and then moving the slider. One of its less well-known features is the built-in Tidal Atlas for the UK, Channel Islands, North Sea, and Biscay Coast. Choose a chart and a date and then scroll through the tidal hours. The app shows you the springs or neaps rates for any tidal hour – a far quicker alternative to a pesky tidal ladder!
The basic app is free but this only shows the current day’s tide table. Getting UK, Ireland, and German tide tables for any date in the future costs £5.99. The interactive tidal stream atlas costs £5.99 and is valid for any future date.
Solent Met
Ever wondered why the wind in Hamble Point Marina doesn’t bear any resemblance to the forecast? The SolentMet app relays live weather data from buoys on Bramble Bank, at the top of Southampton Water and at the entrance to Chichester harbour. The app gives you the speed and direction of wind and gusts. BrambleMet also provides visibility data and Chichester gives wave height. Well worth a quick check before setting sail or if you’re wondering whether to set a reef before leaving.
Features:
- Real-time Weather Data: Current wind speed, direction, temperature, and humidity.
- Detailed Forecasts: Hourly and daily weather predictions.
- Tide Information: Comprehensive tide tables and charts.
- Sea Conditions: Reports on wave heights and periods.
- Weather Alerts: Customizable notifications for significant weather changes.
- Interactive Maps: Visual displays of wind patterns and sea states.
Why you need it:
The Solent Met app is a comprehensive weather application specifically designed for sailors navigating the Solent waters. It provides accurate and real-time weather data, detailed forecasts, tide information, and sea conditions, all tailored for the Solent area.
Available on iOS and Android with free basic features and premium subscription options. Download Solent Met for a safer and more enjoyable sailing experience.
Navionics
Navionics is a must-have app for sailors, offering detailed nautical charts, advanced mapping, and powerful navigation tools.
Navionics now has a much simpler approach – a single app via which you purchase the chart areas that you need. The charts aren’t cheap but they are very detailed, kept up-to-date and useful for passage planning and monitoring. Navionics charts are used in many of the on-board chartplotters including Raymarine, B&G, Lowrance and Simrad so they are well maintained. Navionics is continuously adding new functionality to the app.
Features:
- High-resolution nautical charts
- Real-time GPS tracking
- Weather forecasts and tide information
- Route planning and automatic route generation
- Community edits and shared information from fellow sailors
Why You Need It: Navionics Boating provides comprehensive and up-to-date charts that are essential for safe navigation. The app’s community-driven updates ensure you have the latest information on routes, hazards, and points of interest.
Google Earth App for sailors: Exploring the World from the Sea
The Google Earth app is an invaluable tool for sailors looking to navigate and explore the world’s waters with precision and insight. Utilizing satellite imagery and mapping technology, it offers detailed views of coastlines, harbors, and navigational markers, aiding in route planning and real-time navigation. Sailors can use the app to discover new sailing destinations, study potential anchorages, and visualize their sailing routes before setting sail. With its intuitive interface and powerful features, Google Earth is an essential companion for sailors seeking to enhance their maritime adventures with accurate geographical information and breathtaking visual perspectives.
Perfect for sourcing an extra layer of information before arriving somewhere new or unfamiliar, Google Earth can share satellite images to the entrance of any marina or anchorage and can help you to visualise the location and enhance your pilotage plan.
Equipping yourself with sailing apps can significantly enhance your yacht charter experience providing valuable information at your fingertips. Whether you’re a seasoned sailor or a novice, these tools will help you make the most of your time on the water.
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WHAT CLIENTS SAY
As a family, including our 4 year old Labrador, we recently chartered a 'bareboat' yacht from Hamble Point Charters for 7 days to cruise the Solent. The company were fantastic from our first enquiry to handing back the boat. The yacht was clean and well presented. A great week and we will happily use them again!
We have just had another wonderful week on a yacht we chartered from Hamble Point Yacht Charters. We have sailed several of their boats, this time it was a lovely 35 foot Bavaria. Chartering from HPYC is always an easy choice for us: the boats are well maintained, support is excellent, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful. On top of that, Hamble Point is such an ideal starting location for sailing around the Solent.
This is truly a 5 * service. The team really looked after us both ashore on arrival and also while at sea. We were a relatively inexperienced crew but always felt the team ashore had our backs. Thoroughly recommended.
I just wanted to say Thank-you very much for the weekend charter. It was exactly what we were after (albeit cold!) plus Andy was an awesome teacher and great company. We’ll definitely be keen to book again soon!
We had a fabulous four days. Marina is ideally placed for the Solent, boat was in great condition, well equipped and a joy to sail. We were well briefed and the shore side team including the dog very friendly.
We charted one of the sailing yachts for a fantastic weekend cruise in the Solent. The boat was in superb condition and well equipped, the staff was very helpful explaining how things work on the yacht and there was also a video available with all the important information. 10/10 would recommend!
Had a fantastic week chartering Blue Otter, Alex was incredibly helpful and sent loads of information and date checking prior to booking. There was a handover video and both the handover and return were really smooth. The boat was lovely and well maintained and Lee was really helpful in recommending places to visit (and helping identify the steering issue as an autopilot takeover - doh!). Definitely will be back and would fully recommend!
Just back from a lovely week in the Solent. Great service from HPYC from first inquiry through to return handover. Very straightforward to deal with, and the yacht was in excellent condition. We've chartered from many companies in the UK and abroad and the attention to detail (and flawless inventory!) was second to none. Everything about the yacht and equipment had clearly been well looked after and was in immaculate condition. Great service, will use again.
Always very friendly service, and well-maintained yachts. Easy check-in and checkout. Will be back...
We had a great time and were very happy with everything. Your team were genuinely friendly and were very helpful when we needed it. Is a big contrast to many charter companies I have dealt with in the past.
Watching the sun go down with a glass of bubbly on the deck of a sparkling yacht was unbelievable. What a treat, and a much needed change of scenery in these troubled times. We will be back for sure
Fab service, nothing too much trouble, including my daft questions. I'll be a repeat customer for sure!
We had a great time sailing with Lee for a few days at the beginning of September. Hamble Point Yacht Charters supplied us an impeccable 45 ft Hanse yacht, which was handled with complete mastery by Captain Lee.It was a privilege to sail with Lee, who is clearly a highly skilled professional taking great pride in his work ... but who is also a fantastic character with a great sense of humour and plenty of fun stories to keep the whole family entertained. He balances the serious side of safety and learning about sailing with a whopping dose of amusement and good cheer. We sailed the Solent in some decent seas, visited Bucklers Hard on the banks of the Beaulieu River and learned lots about British nautical history. Our boys started somewhat of a fishing trend catching bass off the back of the boat in Portsmouth and we would love to sail with Lee again in the future.The man truly knows his stuff, maintained the boat impeccably and went to every effort to ensure that we had a great time. Many thanks to “Shippers” and Hamble Point Charters. We’ll be back.
Chartered bareboats with HPYC on numerous occasions most recently in Sept 2020. Always helpful and accommodating. Highly recommend.
We had a fantastic weekend sailing on Loxley B. Boat in super condition and spotlessly clean, Alex. and the team very thorough and always on hand to answer any questions. A great experience. We will be back. Thank you!