ISailGPS : NOAA USA RNC Charts Customer Service

I have to give 4stars to put my review in as 1 star gets rejected!!! Don’t buy this app, if you can’t draw a straight line on a chart for way points then you may need this. This app suggests that I take my boat (using way points) through houses and hills. This is just an $8.00 novelty.

After investing a little time to understand this app, I found it to be extremely valuable and accurate. I was won over, when we used it to navigate across the Chesapeake Bay at night. The waypoint marker we were heading to was supposed to be a flashing light but the light was out and we were a little uncertain that we were on course. When we suspected we should be at our destination marker we turned on our spot light and found ourselves perched with the marker on our port quarter. Can’t believe this app is only $7.99.

I’ve been using this app for about a year and I’m extremely happy with it. I can set waypoints and routes right on the app just like I would on a chart. Then follow the route, and even reverse it on my iPad or iPhone. I can send a route from my iPad to my iPhone and it brings the waypoints with it. You can take a screenshot of the route and print it out, so you can check off each waypoint as you pass it. They even added the latitude and longitude of each waypoint to the route screen. They’re very responsive and I highly recommend this app.

Any of the negative reviews, and there are only a few, cleary just downloaded the app and didn’t bother to learn it. This app is amazing! I do wish I could figure out how to download additional waypoint icons though. Anchorage, bouy, ramp, hoist, pump out, etc. it may be possible but I can’t figure out. Still tho, great map. One tip, when creating waypoints, make sure to use in insets or zoom way in because, initially, when I was creating them, I learned that they were way off!

ISail is the perfect combination of gps tracking tech and time honored and trusted NOAA charts. Easy interface allows for quick waypoint and route creation, and accurate speed over ground, course over ground, and location tracking over time. Adding new charts and their upclose inserts from all over the US is quick and intuitive. Highly recommended for day sails and multi-waypoint long distance trips.

I just wanted an app that I could use for viewing NOAA raster charts. This does the job plus so much more. I like that you can download the charts right to your phone so they are always available whether you have cell phone service or not. The app itself doesn’t take up much space on your phone which is another plus. For under $10 you can’t go wrong with this app folks.

I use this all the time to track speed, location and get a solid feel for the area before going to new locations. I few suggestions First would be an apple watch app that maybe includes basic stats such as speed direction, ETA( if using waypoints) distance traveled. Second would be to offer the ability to set up float plan sending with way points Third ability to export to a computer version for sharing purposes. Lastly the option to set up borders on the chart that maybe vibrates/plays a tone on the device. This could be used to mark under water structures to stay away from or even stay on course with out watching the screen the whole time.

I have used many apps for marine navigation. I have settled on this beautiful app as my favorite. Did you know that it is one of the only apps in this genre that will work on the iPad1? Not only does it use NOAA charts by our gov't but it can also stitch them together. The documentation is just excellent. I feel that you can become a fan of this application.

I have used this app on my phone to navigate my sailboat at night from San Diego to Catalina and arrived at Avalon dead on the mark and within five minutes of the predicted ETA. While it’s less convenient than a dedicated chart plotter, it gets the job for a fraction of the price.

I downloaded iSailGPS Yesterday, aiming to use a Dual XGPS170 Bluetooth device (not typical). Initially some confusion, but email from Larry James cleared things up right away. Support is first-rate. Love the app, but will wait for real-world experience. However, the developer is as responsive as can be. Rarely see such excellent support. Thanks Larry James!

Have tried several programs - this program seems to be the most battery friendly and is a good backup program. Very stable. Main limitation seems to be the app only works w NOAA charts so no international use.

The noaa charts are great. It's intuitive, tracks very well. Since this is the 3rd gps program for sailing on my iphone, I know what I want from the App. I was able to set waypoints and plot a route pretty easily. When you turn on tracking it works really well. Like showing details of us circling to Anchor and later motoring on a dingy to shore and back. The only caveat is if you forget to turn off the tracking when you get home it will continue to track and delete your previous tracks when the memory becomes full. One of the interesting features is the ability to email a copy of the chart with your track and current location straight off the app to your friends or to post on Facebook. I haven't tried it yet but it's an interesting feature. The only thing that I had spent time figuring out was how to change the course heading and bearing from true to magnetic. If you click the "help" button, it's got a lot of details on how to use the app. And of course you know that because it relies on the GPS on your phone you don't need to be connected to your 4G or Wi-Fi. Just remember to download the charts before you leave home. I'm giving it a four star, but it should actually be 4.5. When I use the app again I will further update. All the other crew on the boat were also very impressed and said they are going to download the app.

I like how this app uses the straight NOAA raster charts. Also don’t have the login and in app purchase issues that I’ve had with competitors.

The charts are nicely integrated to the user interface making trip planning easy. The planned routes execute well while at sea. My go-to app for coastal navigation.

I couldn’t find the specific chart for the area , Friday Harbor, San Juan islands, Wa. I left a message and he called me back on Sunday afternoon and helped download the chart I needed. Thanks

Replaces a basic chart plotter. I run in the dark quite a bit, and this app has been very accurate for me. I’m always impressed - basic functions, but it performs very well.

Really a very useful app with lots of functionality though not totally intuitive - need to review the instructions. The charts alone make the app worth having. Use extensively while sea kayaking. Strongly recommended

I miss charts. This is by far my favorite app for sailing. No distractions, just clear accurate markings on a proper chart!

Great App! Had it about 6 years now and it’s awesome, nothing better available in its class!

Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, US San Juan islands to Blaine. iPhone is now a plotter in my pocket. iPad to iPhone chart downloads, waypoints, routes: do work on one and text to the other instant redundancy. Stitching charts keeps me from “ falling off the edge of the world”. Tip: download high resolution AND wide area charts as well as harbor charts. Ability to sort charts by number would be helpful. For $8.00 I’m impressed and satisfied.

I’ve been using this app for about a year and I am throughly impressed and happy with it.

Tracking and data viewing and export are excellent. NOAA chart integration is perfect. Highly recommended.

I have been using it for 8 years. Tracked to Bermuda BVI and Florida to Baltimore. Charts are free mine has no subscription

Works great. I prefer it to my chart plotter on the boat. It automatically loads the charts. Love it!

The photographed map images are obviously not as good as those generated directly from NOAA data, but are quite readable and will be pleasantly familiar to those who have worked with traditional charts. Waypoint management is simple and intuitive, but it's a shame that you cannot stack a set of waypoints as a single route. This is especially unfortunate since the waypoints use dead simple route planning, and no effort is made to keep your vessel afloat, The Track display is disappointing, since it ignores position-at-time, opting instead to display total distance travelled against instantaneous speed. Even with these complaints, I find this to be my favorite (current) marine navigation app in its price range.

I purchased both iSail and iHike apps this year and they are both TERRIFIC! They were easy to download and easy to used. I sailed both offshore and inside small harbors in New England and found the iSail app to be incredibly useful. I chartered a sailboat this year and the chartplotter mounted on the boat was old and lacked detail. I found the iSail app especially useful when going in and out of small harbors, which required knowing precisely where I was relative to the shallow areas, which I needed to stay away from. It was no problem holding my iphone while steering the boat. I still brought hard copy maps and used the boat's compass, but this app greatly enhanced my ability to safely navigate, especially in tight places. iHike performed just as well when I went horseback riding on 80 miles of unmarked trails in Colorado in a area that was "off the grid" (I gave a separate review on the iHike site). Thanks for making such great apps!

My wife and I have a 38' Hughes sloop and we put this app to the test this past weekend on Monterey Bay with flawless results. Get yourself a waterproof iPad case, download the charts for your area (make sure to get harbor detail charts), setup your routes in advance and you're good to go. I had just received new hard copies of local charts and those downloaded in iSail (free) were identical. While it wasn't a necessity, I tested route following from Monterey to Moss Landing via a few designated waypoints on Friday with perfect results. I then used the tracking feature to track my distance traveled under sail and average speeds during a leisurely sail on Sunday with equally perfect results. I've also shown this app to a few other sailors who have since downloaded and are equally impressed. Thank you iSail!

I have never written an app review before but now I feel compelled to do so! This app allows free downloading of official nautical charts rom the actual NOAA server so there are no issues with being up to date or inaccurate. It's a great balance between simplicity and functionality - the charts themselves, making waypoints and routes, tracking. That's about it. But when you are cruising that's really all you need. I have a vector-based competitor (iSailor) which is also very high tech and very cool and has more functions by far. I thought I would like it better. But in fact the vector information can be ever so slightly off so I never use it in tight quarters. In fact I've started to use this exclusively instead.

This is, hands down, my FAVORITE app. There are others that I use more often, but only because we're only out on the boat now and then, and only in the summer (this being Alaska, winter is NOT conducive to boating). I think that it is fantastic that I can track our progress from the passenger side (or anywhere else) and make sure my husband is aware of any possible obstacles that I see on the chart, that may, or may not, be showing up on the main GPS. The only improvement I would like is the tracking line. It's kind of hit-or-miss. Some times is shows, sometimes it doesn't. No biggie, but it would be nice if it were more consistent.

And very inexpensive. It's easy to learn, and, though I'm a died-in-the-wool plotter and dividers kinda sailor, I love the ease of making and recording routes. Paper charts still have their uses -- still the best way in MHO to get an overview, but at night in the wind, my i-pad with this app is a more practical backup to my chart plotter than paper. And one more thing -- when you read that a chart has been changed in the LNM, you'll be able to download it fairly soon and for free. An earlier rater found the program deficient because it does not have a course-up feature. That would be nice, but until then, I can turn the iPad.

I use this app in combination with a vector chart app. The NOAA charts are much better than vector charts at displaying names of places and features. I use iSail for planning and general navigation, then switch to the vector app when going into tight places where their extra detail and course-up feature is helpful. It is a bit hard to be sure you have downloaded all the charts you will need for a cruise. It would be very helpful if the "Coastline Locator" feature would show all the NOAA charts available in one color, then the chart you have already downloaded in another.

A real navigation program worth far more than its $8.00 cost. A bit tedious loading NOAA charts, but well worth the required effort. Used on recent yacht delivery on St Johns River Florida USA with perfect results. The up to date marked charts big help. Kept me and my crew on track through somewhat complex unfamiliar waters. Prevented two near groundings. Every boater with an I phone should have this program. Perfect for small boats with no other navigation equipment. Shows "course/up" and can be used by anyone with basic boating course qualifications. I hold a US Coast Guard 100 Ton Masters License.

As a novice to coastal navigation, i have found this app to be awesome. It Works just like a chart plotter but better cause you can save screen images of your routes. I know there's pricier nav apps out there, but for 8 bucks this one is an accurate way to chart your course and see exactly where you are, speed, ETA, waypoints, and easy to use. Just be sure to download your charts before you set sail so you can access them at sea. I'm still learning all it does, but so far it's perfect for my Ga. Coastal navigation .... S/V Glory Days

First, this isn't going to replace your chart plotter or other $500+ device, so if that's your purpose move on; however, for a reasonable cost ($8), this program does provide great tracking and waypoint information against free NOAA charts. I found it to be user friendly, instructions page is concise and well laid out, and it displays information well. Its a strong recommendation from my experience, for sailing and boating

Accessing the charts is quick and easy. Amateur sailors such as myself will find this to be the perfect app. While it has tracks and waypoints, its not bloated with extra bells and whistles that would only confuse me. For me, all those fancy do-dahs only hinder my experience. These charts are the real deal, just like the paper charts only on my iphone. The price is great too. Highly recommended.

My husband and I downloaded this app to use on a race. There was one aspect that we couldn't figure out and we had an answer to our question almost immediately via -mail. Locator works very well. The waypoints were accurate and easy to read. We loved the fact that you could add notes so we knew if we were to make a Port or Starboard turn. Deserves all 5 stars!! Gene and Nellie S/V Sun Chaser

From the first time we used this app, we were impressed with its ease of use and clear interface. We downloaded the charts we needed with no problems. Many guest crew members have used it successfully and found it easy to interpret. We used it to navigate from New Bern, NC to the Delaware River in NJ and currently on the Chesapeake with very few problems. A great app for the price!

Used to love this app. Excellent customer support, excellent updates. HOWEVER, since getting the Simrad/C-Map app, the technological behind the times issues in the iSail app have become unfortunately glaringly evident. The biggest issue is of course the ability (or lack there of) to auto route. You just hold your finger on a point in the Simrad/C-map app and it creates all the waypoints and the entire route automatically for you. No more having to mark waypoint after waypoint in order to create a route which is an incredibly slow and inefficient way of doing business now. The crazy way that iSailForces you to mark a spot in order to create a waypoint as opposed to just holding your finger down is like using MS-DOS compared to Windows 10. Finally, given the new dynamic mapping capabilities which is free technology, the Raster maps are really old school. This is quite evident if you use a chart plotter and compare your ability to shade, create safety zones, colorize and customize different depth levels compared to the limited, and inflexible raster maps. The Simrad/C-map app uses the dynamic chart which, while not as sophisticated as the chartplotter obviously, still allows for more flexibility than the Raster chart (for instance, when you zoom to a very small area, the raster chart loses resolution and becomes blurry. This does not happen with the dynamic chart). With all that said, I still keep this app as my backup in case for some reason my Simrad app crashes along with my chartplotter. It will get you there and back. It used to be the best but now, it needs a serious complete technological renovation in order to keep up with the competition.

The main problem for me is the inability to stitch together a see less chart and being able to get the best detail for the area automatically. I’ve been playing with app for awhile now and when I get to the chart boundary I can often get the next chart to show by double tapping the white area outside of it. And sometimes, I think, it seems to have successfully stitched together into a single, larger chart. But, it may not have the sufficient detail I need for a particular port. At that point I’m forced to go to my downloaded charts and find it. Not so simple as I now have a long list of charts. This can be impractical to do on the water unless you have a dedicated navigator. When approaching a busy area I don’t want to take my eyes off the water and be scrolling through a list of charts trying to find the appropriate detail. Maybe I’m missing something but for me other apps with paid subscriptions work a lot better. There’s just no chart management needed, and you can find them for as little as $5/year (at least for my area - eastern US coast).

This app does not allow you to zoom in far enough. I can understand if it was just a chart app but with GPS in your phone allowing zoom to several feet the chart should also be able to do it. Don’t waste your money.

I bought this to use on lakes that I boat on but to my dismay none of the lakes have charts that I could find so this app is totally worthless to me. I guess it’s only for boating on the ocean or coastal areas.

The maps are locked to north and can’t be rotated. So you have to remove your iPad from the mount, lock rotation and turn it to read the text on a chart. As this makes the app useless to me, it gets a 1 star. In the help, the author say he listens. I emailed, but got no response.

I think we should be able to get our money back when the app developer misleads customers. It states clearly that there are charts for lakes. NOT for the biggest lake in the country. Lake Texoma. I know their are charts, this app just can’t access them. Buyer be ware.

Nothing about this app is easy. If you just want to measure distances or plan a multi-day trip there is just too much chart confusion.

This app is not detailed at all. The layout is horrible and confusing. The charts are not detailed enough. I don’t recommend you get this app.

Updated app on iPad. No longer works on iPhone. Hangs up during update. Delete, reinstall, won’t reinstall. But fix caused new bugsz

Useless, doesn’t load charts , really a total waste

No inland water navigation markings- useless for inland bay waters

I like the detail of the charts. However, it crashed within the first minute of use multiple times. I couldn't get far enough into features to know if they worked or not. After giving up, I shutdown all apps and rebooted iPad. A lot more stable now. Apparently this app doesn't like sharing resources. I do have several other apps open now and so far no crashes. I love the ability to share Waypoints. It's been great prepping for an upcoming trip where I can send back and forth to our travel party our Waypoints for dive sites and moorings along the way. Still nervous about initial instability. will update post following trip where I'll give all the features a good test. Would love to see a bug fix update posted ASAP. On the surface this appears to be a nice utility for those of us bareboating in unfamiliar waters.

The designer of this software made some rather inexplicable decisions that make it much less intuitive to use. Some suggestions for improvement: 1. Let the user download chart KITS not individual charts. By requiring me to download individual charts I am almost guaranteed to find myself in a tiny, complicated harbor without the local chart and no cell signal. 2. Use the current map focal point to load the local chart rather than loading based on my current location. Sometimes I like to see the map of where I'm going BEFORE I get there (and I do not want to have to dig the chart up by name when I'm trying to steer a boat). 3. Add "use map" to the "add waypoints" screen. Does anyone really enter waypoints by manually entering lat/long coordinates??? Kind of impossible without a paper chart for reference! As it is right now this software is kind of useless for anything but simple day sailing where you will only traverse 2 or 3 charts in one day.

I Haven’t used it much but it just pleases me. High res Raster charts, to the point, fast, reminds me of GPSNavX that I still use today. Many thanks! Ok, problem with HDG and COG. Compass heading is terribly dangerous, we should be able to disable it. Course on ground should be always on and efficient. Down to three stars for me, sad!

Can only get very large scale maps for Canadian waters. Don't buy for Canada

We thought this would be a good app as we seen good reviews.....does not work for Canadian waters......did not even get to try.....waste of money for us