iSailor : Transas maps on iPhone and iPad

In France, mariners know little, or not at all, about Transas company of Russian origin. The Transas Group is nevertheless one of the world's leading professional of navigation software . Founded in 1990 in St Petersburgh, it opens its first office in England in Southampton (UK). Application developer for maritime and aeronautical training simulators, leading ECDIS certified designer, AIS network installer, the company has provided its electronic charting systems to prestigious customers, as the Russian space station MIR in 1996. There are countless marine simulator and flight simulators equipped with Transas technology in training centers worldwide. Several major commercial harbours are also equipped with VTS (*) and VTM (*) from Transas.
With 200 million turnover, the now international group, majority run by Russians, has its headquarters in Cork, Ireland.

All this to tell you that, when the very serious Transas company decides to launch a marine charting application on the iPhone and iPad, does not hesitate to rely on a communication, let’s say… particularly impactful. See instead…

Even the Italians of Navionics would not have dared to do so ! No doubt that with so... persuasive arguments, boaters will rush on their application ! But be careful, This can be misleading.

The offer

Transas chose to provide a free app, from which you can buy and download folios of their vector charts format TX-97, grouped by geographical areas. Some folios are offered free of charge for demonstration.

It is needed 3 chart folios 14 € to cover the East, South and South-West coasts of Ireland, and not less than 18 chart folios 14 € for cruising around the British Isles ! There, it becomes much less attractive.

And, at the risk of disappointing some of you, Phished by this ad, only the coasts of Ireland and the United Kingdom are available to date for Europe, and iSailor is only delivered in English.

Patience, therefore. In the meantime, you can yet test the application to see if it fulfills its promise .... For my own, I wasn't really convinced.