Category : Navigation

Articles related to maritime navigation

Marée info : SHOM tides prediction on iPhone [Update]

Posted on10 comments

Thousands of users have known about the excellent website for several years tide.info which offers the tidal times and heights of the SHOM for all the coast stations of the Channel and the Atlantic. Boaters, professional fishermen, beach fishermen, kite surfers and other relevant users visit daily the information pages of this website.

Its author, Guillaume Bolo, set about creating an app for iPhone (iPad compatible) using the content of its website, but with the particularity of providing, for a low subscription (*), tides for a whole year. The data are tidal predictions from SHOM, reproduced with permission by contract. Their reliability therefore leaves no doubt, although SHOM does not control the content before editing. Read more …

Sail with an iPad on a large classic yacht

Posted on

Training week-end onboard the 6 and 7 July 2013 " Navigate with an iPad » aboard Owl, a classic ketch gaffer 21 meters high, built in 1909, departure from Agde.

The crew (Skipper + Sailor and hostess) takes care of the manoeuvre, food and cleaning. Cabin linen is provided.

I was on board to give the training on how to use the apps with iPad : iNavX, Weather4D PRO, AyeTides XL mainly. On the program : routes preparation, routing optimization, Optimized route tracking, Refreshing the routing, aso. A great moment to combine the latest technologies with yachting of great tradition. Read more …

MaxSea TimeZero on iPad

Posted on6 comments

Announced for three months, The first version of TimeZero has been available for iPad for a few days. Under the brand Nobeltec, bought by Signet S.A., MaxSea holding company (¹), this free application contains a simplified design suitable for the tablet technology that has made the reputation of the French publisher.

I was waiting with curiosity for a while the position taken by MaxSea about the iPad phenomenon. The least I can say is that I am not disappointed. Read more …

ENCs, Routing and sailing shaves stone

Posted on7 comments

The relationship of a recent experience of an iNavX user and Weather4D PRO routing function invites me to bring a warning to the attention of novices boaters in computer use.

A regatta course, departure from St Helier (Jersey) to arrival Granville, optimized with Weather4D PRO using fine grid GCWF model and MyOcean currents prediction, gave the following route in iNavX :

routage 1

The optimized route transferred to iNavX

Read more …

ADS-B transponders on future Iridium NEXT satellites

Posted onOne comment

I mentioned in two previous posts, on the one hand ADS-B equivalent to AIS for aeronautics, on the other hand, the future of satellite communications with the next constellation Iridium NEXT. Believe it or not, the NewScientist teaches us, In a recent article dated 14 December, that the Iridium NEXT satellites will carry ADS-B transmission devices. I give you below a freely adapted translation.

These two communication technologies combined will revolutionize air traffic in the next ten years. Read more …

BeiDou-2 Chinese GPS

Posted on

BD-2GChina launched its 16th satellite of its satellite positioning system BeiDou-2. Like all other Chinese satellites, it was put into orbit by their own rocket Long March 3.

It is the sixth satellite launched this year to complete the constellation of satellites that will make up the BeiDou-2 navigation network. Started in 2007, this network is the successor to the BeiDou-1 project launched in October 2000 and gradually made up of 4 Experimental satellites. Read more …

Ocean Atlas, the Pilot Charts revisited

Posted onOne comment

Atlas des OcéansThe Atlas of Oceans by Jimmy and Ivan Cornell is a gold mine in color A3 size of over one kilogram. This one won't fit in an iPad !

60 Pilot Charts Updates to the latest data, 69 transoceanic route charts, Tactical remarks and suggestions for the choice of the best crossing times provided by routers and meteorologists specializing in each area.

It had the passion and experience of the author of famous " World Cruising Routes ” (*) and those of his son to carry out such a work. Read more …

When AIS becomes Virtual Aid to Navigation

Posted on

The acronym " VAtoN " means in English Virtual Aid to Navigation. In French : Virtual assistance to navigation (¹).

This concept is an extension of the AIS system. It allows, by means of a spacific AIS transponder located onshore, managed by an administration software, reporting virtually unreported hazard. The position of these hazards is plotted by an AIS target as an appropriate icon. For example, a buoy indicating a flush rock may have been temporarily destroyed by a storm. The VAtoN compensates for the absence of this mark while the maritime services put it back in place. Another example, creating an exclusion area of prohibited anchorage has not yet been an update on ENC charts. Read more …

Testimony : Transquadra and Navigation Mac

Posted on2 comments

BluestairsAfter Jean Debèze, avid supporter of Navigation Mac, made me the pleasure of a detailed tutorial about installing a multiplexer aboard his sailboat, here's a ticket by Jacques Vermeulen, who testifies in a very didactic way to his experience during the recent Transquadra, on board "Bluestairs", with the owner and friend Marc Bolla.

—

Placed at the Transquadra 2011/2012, We met, during the first stage of the Mediterranean Barcelona-Porto Santo (Madeira), problems receiving and sending GRIB and data files via the Iridium network. Email was impossible to use with the Iridium Airtime cards we used. All we were left with was the possibility of calling with the Iridium.

Back after this first stage, I decided to deepen the subject and educate myself with Francis Fustier whom I had knowledge, Until now, than through his blog, really comprehensive. Read more …

Galileo, here we go !

Posted on3 comments

Barely published, the 20 October, my previous post about iPhone 4S new GPS chipset – allowing you to receive signals from the Russian GLONASS system – in which I inserted a skeptical comment about the future of Galileo, that I see myself caught up in the news.

Not only did the first two satellites of Galileo were launched the next day 21 October with success from Kourou, but also by the Russian Soyuz launcher ! I hope you enjoy the comic of the situation… Read more …