Boaters and water sports enthusiasts now have two applications to help them better understand and protect the increasingly fragile marine environment.. Nav&Co is an initiative 100% public composed of SHOM, of the OFB (French Office for Biodiversity), of the Secretary of State for the Sea and the DGAMPA, with co-financing from the European Union. DONIA (*) is a private initiative of the company Andromeda Oceanology which received support from the Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse Water Agency. If DONIA is dedicated mainly to the western Mediterranean basin, Nav&Co currently covers all metropolitan France, Corsica and Guadeloupe.
Nav&Co
Three state entities have joined forces to provide you with a fun and educational companion that allows you to follow your path on the charts of Shom, for assistance in reading maritime signs and signals, to know the regulations and to discover the marine biodiversity. Two modes of use Nav&Co are accessible : Navigation and Discover. "
This is how the application is presented Nav&Co (Pronounce "naveco" and not nav-and-co) on Apple Store up to Google Play, Available since February 2023.
Like DONIA, Nav&Co aims to raise awareness among boaters about the protection of the marine environment, providing detailed information on marine protected areas, wildlife, flora and the seabed, and also by displaying vigilance zones for moorings. The application offers two display modes on an exclusive background of SHOM nautical charts : The " Discover " and " Navigation ".
Discover
By selecting the tab Discover, You can choose from many data to display that are accessed by pictograms or by identified areas. A tap on each pictogram causes the opening of summary information and access to more detailed information :
Marine protected areas and mooring watch zones are identified by specific colours. A tap on one of these areas also opens contextual information :
Finally, you can also access all environmental regulations concerning nautical practices :
Navigation
By selecting the tab Navigation, The choice of data to display is limited to beacons, marine protected areas, environmental regulations and sensitive anchorage areas. Beacons are represented as realistic color thumbnails overlayed on the SHOM base chart. A tap on one of them opens a description window including a color photo of the beacon : buoy, tower, lighthouse or landmark.
The only navigation function available is the possibility to record a route from the GPS location of the boat by tapping on the "Start track" button.. Speed and distance traveled are displayed. The routes will be recorded in the page accessible by the third tab Notebook. This function is complemented by access to the SHOM tide directory and the link to the Météo-France coastal weather forecast page (Internet connection required).
The real surprise comes from SHOM raster charting, available free of charge for all areas covered, and can be downloaded at will – and updated – for offline use. Viewing at all scale levels is smooth and small preset area downloads are very fast.
When we know the pricing of the licences to be paid to SHOM by private actors wishing to use these charts for maritime navigation applications, and even if it is perfectly commendable that the public service offers free of charge to the water sports activities enthusiasts – with our taxes – Nav&Co in a pedagogical concern for the preservation of maritime space, why not also cartography in the interests of maritime safety ? DONIA must use a subscription to offer SHOM charts and amortize its license cost, there is a distortion of competition here which concerns me.
Summary
Nav&Co , as DONIA, perfectly fulfills its pedagogical function. The user interface is stripped, clear and pleasant to use. The graphics are neat, Information and iconography are rich and many links refer to relevant websites to deepen our knowledge (and also those of our children). The navigation functions are reduced to a minimum and this is quite sufficient in my opinion. We have at our disposal a sufficient choice of specialized navigation applications.
Two regrets however : it's a shame that neither of these two apps supports the "SplitView" feature on iPad, which would allow them to be both displayed in parallel with certain navigation applications such as Weather4D for example, and Nav&Co does not have an English version. Damned !
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(*) See :
For eco-responsible yachting : Part 1 – DONIA
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You are right Francis about the distortion of competition between these 2 Apps. But are they really equivalent in terms of services? ? I have not yet had the opportunity to test and compare them. But I will.
That being so, I already pay my annual subscription to SHOM maps through GeoGarage and I do it gladly because I appreciate the service they offer and their responsiveness (thanks Peio).
JJ
Hello Francis,
It's a superb explanation as stripped down as Nav's interface.&Co so easy to understand.
Free SHOM cards, it's understandable SHOM doesn't have to buy the licenses to use its own cards. Just like in the site https://data.shom.fr/
Nav&Co is a free visualization app and no navigation. The route layout allows the user (and developers) check where boats pass and where they anchor.
Please share this information, because there are very few users of these applications.
Note: there is a set of posters by Nav&Co that you just have to ask by email. But …Sailing captaincies and clubs are reluctant to display them. For example I had a refusal from the Crouesty.
Francis