Smartphone Apps for a Day on the Bay

by Christian Filter

Summer is here, and that means it’s time to go sailing. Whether you’re racing in a regatta or just cruising, it’s good to know what’s ahead, especially when it comes to weather and the elements. Today smartphones are becoming a part of nearly everyone’s lives, and there are more than 300,000 applications. Many of these “apps” can help prepare the sailor for a day on the Bay. Of course, standard weather apps such as The Weather Channel, AccuWeather, US Weather, Intellicast, and Weather Underground, can all be used together to get a general consensus of the forecast. I asked several successful sailors to share their top apps. The following is an overview of some of their favorites.

7762611-1355797446214Jeff Borland, skipper of the Etchells Make Mine A Double, recently won his class at the Sperry Top-Sider Annapolis NOOD Regatta. His favorite apps can be used for cruising the Chesapeake or racing around the buoys. He says that WindFinder generally gives an accurate forecast on the amount and direction of the breeze, but he’ll also use SmartBuoys to double check those results.

Borland also recommends TideGraph, as it has both current and tide information, making it possible to see when high tide is supposed to be. It includes information on maximum current and slack tides as well. Borland loves RadarScope most of all. “I use this to check on incoming storms. It gives very near real-time data from any weather radar in the country and is excellent for estimating thunderstorms and their chances of hitting where you are! It gives a 40 minute loop, so you can estimate the storm’s speed, track, etc.”

Moose McClintock, currently with the sailcloth producer Dimension-Polyant, has a long list of national and world championships titles to his name in J/22s and J/24s and in match racing. He uses a variety of sources, but believes PocketGrib is the best for racing. “I have a lot of apps that deal with wind,” says McClintock, “but the one I like the most is PocketGrib, which constantly updates grib files for specific areas.” Gribs are meteorological files that contain both historical and forecast data. As PocketGrib advertises, “Wind, precipitation, pressure, temperature, wave data, and more extracted from GRIB files are displayed through our simple interface making it perfect for sailors, windsurfers, and other weather enthusiasts.”

 Photo courtesy of RadarScope

When racing, the U.S. Sailing and ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing 2013-2016 apps are a must, says Augie Diaz from Miami, FL. A former U.S. Sailing Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Diaz has won the Snipe Nationals five times in the last seven years, while also doing extremely well in other classes. He has downloaded both rulebook applications and believes they are “very handy.”

Smartphones are great devices and downloading these helpful apps makes for a terrific advantage when it comes to sailing. The best part is that most of these apps are completely free or available for a nominal charge (the Racing Rules app costs 99 cents). Technology is amazing and available, and this is a tremendous way to use it. Now, let’s go sailing!

About the Author: Christian Filter will be a sophomore on the sailing team at the Key School in Annapolis.