Perfect all-in-one sailing gadget, the iPhone - Part 2

So many ’Apps’ - but some are good for sailing Mark Cherrington

Sailmaster © SW

This App has been developed by Sydney-based sailor Harry Brigden as an economical alternative to dedicated stand-alone tactical sailing systems, which typically cost several hundred dollars.

Features include:
* Boat Speed, in knots or km/h.
* Waypoints/Course, using GPS co-ordinates of the rounding marks (and other obstacles).
* Digital Compass, measuring the direction the device is moving in rather than the direction it is pointed in.
* VMG (Velocity Made Good) and time to next marker or waypoint
* Tidal information, displaying direction, height and times of the tide in a user’s local area.

Three other features, more suitable for the racing sailor are:
** Countdown timer, configurable for 15, 10, 5 or 3 minute countdowns.
** Lift/Header, calculating a shift in direction from the average boat direction and displaying the variance as either a lift (+) or header (-).
** Angle of heel.

Otterbox © SW

SailMaster recommends using an Otterbox waterproof casing to protect the iPhone (see Part 3 next week for details on this, and other options for keeping your iPhone dry); Brigden has adapted these so they can be velcroed to the mast (of a dinghy) or other part of the cockpit.

Having GPS constantly on also sucks battery power at a great rate – with GPS turned on, the phone’s 'sleep' mode disabled and calls diverted, you’ll get about four hours battery life with the iPhone 3G (note that the just-released 3GS – outlined in a bit more detail in Part 3 – is promising significantly longer battery life).

As mentioned earlier, the current Otterbox doesn’t have provision for a power cable, but again, this is something that Brigden is working on.

He’s also working on incorporating the ability for the iPhone to connect to an external GPS unit, for faster, more accurate signals, using one of the low-cost USB-type GPS receivers.

One thing to be aware of when using Sail-Master (or any other GPS-tracking App): making or receiving a phone call will interrupt it, and any tracking or logging will at best be interrupted, at worst will cease and you’ll have to start again (this is a function of the way Apple has set up the iPhone’s operating system.)

For this reason, Brigden recommends diverting calls for the duration of the time you intend to use the iPhone in this way.

Through the Apps store in Australia, SailMaster costs $A14.99. For more information, go to http://sailmaster.structure6.com/sailmaster/Home.html.

Websites
This is a mix of websites, built-in functionality and iPhone Apps that I’ve used on my iPhone and found useful (or potentially useful) for sailing. While they’re in no particular order, I’m starting with the cheapest.

Websites:

BOM Radar © SW

Living in Sydney, I have three key websites saved as 'Favourites' (actually icons on my main screen). They are all weather-related, and are:

** www.seabreeze.com.au. This link goes straight to Seabreeze’s Sydney weather page, and lets me see at a glance the wind, wave and swell forecasts for the next 7 days. Scroll down a bit, and I also get the coming week’s tides, as well as live weather readings from the four or five Sydney weather stations.
** www.bom.gov.au. I have this link going to the BOMsite’s NSW forecasts page; from there I can get the Sydney metro forecast, then jump back and get the NSW Coastal Waters Forecasts for the next few days.

** BOMsite Sydney rain radar. Also off the NSW forecasts page, there’s a link to the Sydney rain radar loop, which is on a 10 minute cycle. If there’s thunder clouds appearing out west (a common occurrence during Sydney’s summers), it’s a fairly simple matter to click on this link, which will tell you how fast it’s moving, if it's tracking to hit you – and how long it’s likely to last.

Note that for all these sites (and any other websites you wish to visit) you will need phone reception – ideally 3G, but standard mobile phone reception will allow them to load, although somewhat slower.
All these links cost you nothing, and even a fairly low data contract shouldn’t push you over the limit when accessing these (but check with your provider).

iPhone knotguide © SW

Knots:
For those who are rope-challenged, there’s a whole bunch of knot-tying Apps available, including some very slick animated ones, ranging in price from $1.20 to $5.99.
They are useful to have; every now and then you need to use a knot you don’t tie that often, and a reminder in your phone comes in very handy.
I opted for 'Knots, Splices and Ropework' for a whole $1.20 (http://web.me.com/philbosh/lolsoftware/knots.html), which is 'the complete original 1917 classic treatise by A. Hyatt Verrill'. It includes scrollable text of descriptions and 154 diagrams of classic knots, splices and rope work – and has the look and feel of the original book (which no doubt is out of copyright).
It gave me the best tip I’ve ever seen for tying a rolling hitch, a knot I have always had trouble with.
Other knot Apps include 'Knot Time' ($A1.19, http://www.7zillion.com/iPhone/KnotTime), iKnots ($A3.99, http://www.diatche.com) and Sailor Knots ($A5.99, http://www.lbergelt.de/products/iphoneapps/sailorknots.php). All three of these include animations.

Marine Rules & Signals:
Another handy little App that gives you ready access to useful, even vital information. This is a reference guide to rules and signals at sea, and includes rules of the road, buoyage systems, lights and shapes, sound signals, flag signals and communications (including Mayday and PanPan).
So if you ever see a mysterious pattern of lights coming straight for you out of the darkness, you can just whip out your iPhone and figure out just what the hell it is. If it stops you attempting to cross between a couple of vessels towing/under tow, it will have paid for itself.
Through the Apps store in Australia, Marine Rules & Signals costs $A8.99. For more information, go to http://www.imray.com.

Windmeter © SW

Wind Meter:
This is a great example of some real lateral thinking. Wind Meter works by measuring the volume of the wind passing across your iPhone microphone (who would have thought you can even do that), and converting it to a wind-speed reading.
You simply point the microphone into the wind, click the 'Get Wind' button, then after a few seconds, press 'Got Wind', and you get an average reading.
It supports a range of measurements, including knots, mph, km/h, the Beaufort scale, m/sec and feet/sec.
As our masthead wind instrument is currently not working, I’ve not had the chance to test it properly, but other sources have reported it to be 'surprisingly accurate'.
However, until they figure out how to measure wind direction, and then link it to your SOG via GPS, it’s not going to give you true wind-speed, only apparent.
Through the Apps store in Australia, Wind Meter costs $A1.19. For more information, go to http://goingapps.com/default.aspx.

Next week:
In Part 3 of using your iPhone on the water, we’ll look at future developments, caring for your iPhone in a ma