AngelNav with Tom Cunliffe
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Electronic marine navigation is here to stay, but leisure systems do fall short in certain departments. AngelNav is a new app developed by sailors to deal with these issues. It encourages the leisure navigator to use the full power of GPS and electronic charts without throwing away the skills and undoubted benefits of paper-chart navigation. It’s all done on an iPad and it’s called AngelNav. In this video Tom Cunliffe describes how it works and where to find it.
#TomCunliffe, #navigation, #chartwork
If you’re interested in sailing, things maritime and the salty road to freedom, you'll enjoy my channel, so pour yourself a glass of the finest and settle down with my personal mixture of yarns and useful instructional material.
When I’m away cruising, I never know when I'll get the opportunity to upload. If you can't wait, why not become a member of my website club? You'll find lots of members-only videos and articles, not available elsewhere, and have a chance to join in a regular online forum.
• Website: - www.tomcunliffe.com/
• Become a Member: - www.tomcunliffe.com/my-accoun...
WAYS TO MAKE CONTACT WITH ME and JOIN THE CREW
• Website: - www.tomcunliffe.com/
• Twitter: Join the conversation - / cunliffetom
• Facebook: Let's meet up here - / tomcunliffesailor
OTHER PRODUCTS
• Articles: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c...
• Books for sale: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c...
• Audio Books: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c...
FOLLOW ME ON UA-cam
Hit the SUBSCRIBE button. I'd appreciate it if you joined my channel 'Yachts and Yarns'.
Hit the LIKE button when you enjoy an episode - it's free and that way I'll know what sort of content you like.
Tap the BELL icon, to get a ringing bell. Then you'll always be notified when the next video blog appears.
Welcome aboard!
Tom
Copyright Tom Cunliffe 2020
I can't believe I've been sailing (usually solo) and navigating for a couple of decades, and not realised the light flashes on cardinal buoys coincide with their position related to a clock face. If this was on my Day Skipper course, it didn't go in! This is my something new learned today. Thanks Tom.
😱😅
Sounds great, can't beat a proper chart. Best of both worlds it would appear. One more vote for Android please! Great work Tom, looking forward to it. Thanks for your continued work to improve things for us sailors and remind us of our fantastic maritime traditions.
When I sailed the length of the uncharted Algerian coast, I relied on satellite images for all the ports of refuge as well as the major places. That was in 2006 and the images are better still now. Great piece of work Tom, if only I still had a yacht!
I love this! I'm an old paper chart fart, and this is more like how I learned how to do it. It doesn't try to do everything for me, but it calculates the fiddly bits quickly while I mind the ocean, which is what I came for. Very intuitive interface. Good show, Tom.
😅
It will all be fine
always good to see and hear you Tom. great stuff.
Brilliant! Thanks a million for introducing AngelNav.
This is a wonderful new application that seems to provide more than most and on top of that the user friendly GUI is well done indeed.
Please post when us Android users can get our hands on this!
Well done indeed!
Tom, this looks like a game-changer. I’m going to try this out.
Until recently, moving to 37ct Countess as f/t cruiser Brittany, with usual digi- plotter, I was delighted to have been using the venerable old Yeoman, a hybrid solution using traditional paper charts (actually, any kind of map, so long as it had Lat/Long), that was placed over a digitising mat, and 'calibrated/synched' against 2 or 3 points on chart, using a puck/ mouse, fed with GPS data. Then, child's play, literally, the puck, guided by whichever of 4 arrows were illuminated, could be moved until they were all unlit, and a little aperture with a pencil sized hole was exactly over the GPS derived actual position, 'fix', on the paper chart. My very young daughters delighted in doing this, and making the dot, circling, and writing the time.
However, should we lose GPS, or power, there was always the paper plot, track, and could supplement with taking bearings, depth contours, and EP, dead reckoning.
I think what Tom is presenting, also bridges this divide, paper/ chartwork skills, fallback, but in a much more convenient way, charts galore at fingertip, and autonomy of an iPad/ tablet, independent of yacht's integrated systems.
Having experienced my Garmin Plotter go offline, 2am, approaching Start Point for Dartmouth, solo, after over 20hr leg, trying to quickly revert to paper chartwork, losing night vision, I am very much into some fallback, contingency. Very interesting!
That is so cool Tom. Takes me back to 1980 when I studied coastal navigation in Sydney. Pre GPS so your approach makes a lot of sense to me.
What a wonderful service to the sailing community 🙏❤️😊⛵️
Arrived into Poole harbour last month on a warm Saturday afternoon - every type of craft there, from car ferries to yachts, dinghies, paddleboards and swimmers. Thousands of people having great fun, a truly magical place!
Very impressive lads.
Loving this app going to very useful thank you Tom
Super nice, I hope it's possible later on as well to have the satellite image as a semitransparent overlay on the charts. Also serves nicely as a demo / teaching tool about chart work..
This is brilliant, and reminds me of the navigation instruction I got from the U.S.Coast Guard Auxilliary power squadron course when I learned how to sail, with the calipers, parallel rules, and compass ruler I still have. Makes a lot of sense.
Hi there in the US. Back in the days you mention, I was honored to be asked by US Sailing to write a navigation textbook. Great crowd. I think we all learned from each other. Tom
This is absolutely Epic Tom!! I have heard that it is on the cards for the RYA to go all electric for all their courses/qualifications before too long! It is so nice to be able to integrate the new technology with the tangible skills!!
Looking forward to this coming to Android! Super stuff
This is great. I'm new to sailing and missed the boat (so to speak) for old school navigation. I can see me doing this just for a fun challenge.
Great development, Tom, all the best!
Thanks. Glad you like it. Tom
Good on you both for the project. This will be an excellent addition to the SeaClear raster charts stuck on a power hog laptop. It does integrate AIS, this so far I have not found alternative in freeware. Thanks
Brilliant!
Another innovation ⛵ TC does it again!
Thank you, I will try it and see how it goes.
Please do!
Shew Tom -thanks for this- will definitely go look and get i.. I also am an oldie - love my paper charts.
You could easily calculate the center of mass of the triangle formed by the three position lines in order to fix a position instead of eyeballing it as a separate action.
Downloaded think it’s great, anchor alarm great feature, find it a very useful tool along with Navionics for the upto date tide info.
Thanks Andrew. Perfectly sensible to run Navionics too. I hope our tide data will be available very soon and you'll be able to do it all in-house. Cheers Tom
wow, excellent!!!
Downloaded 👍🏾🙏🏽
This is a great navigation app 👍
Bravo Tom, this looks brilliant. And yes, Android please...
Love this Tom! I downloaded it recently as my thoughts were it would work well while I updated the electronics on my new (to me) She 36. Actually, i cant really see why i need anything else now. Looking forward to hearing about any tide feature and Imray Europe charts. Well done on a great product.
So pleased you are enjoying it Simon. Thanks for the input. Tom
From what I can see here a nice app. Definitely some good ideas in there!
The navigational aids in part one - love them!
For many areas currents are not so much of an interest but here in Germany at the North Sea - definitely a thing to consider. I also sailed from here to the Scillies and back - currents are a thing on that trip.
Regarding vector charts: The presentation of the data depends on the implementation of the manufacturer of the app or plotter. Can be improved if you use an open source app. ;-) I love that information is added once you zoom in, not cluttering the view in the oversight-mode. But you have to be aware of this fact and zoom into the relevant areas before you go there. But all that can be optimized in software.
And I like the option to be able to add personal information to the charts - not for the normal user, only if you can write your own code and add it to the app (which requires an open source app ;-) )
Years ago I tried OpenCPN. There was an option to take scans of raster charts, put some latitude and logitude information to them and then use them for navigation. Nice option if you already have paper charts.
Regarding "sattelite maps":
Apparently the source is google maps or something like that. So the picutures might be somewhat dated. An important information would be the date of the pictures - don't know if those can be scraped.
E.g. the sands at the German North Sea change so rapidly that you always should use your eyes to verify the information in the charts. At rocky coasts - not so much. As someone said: "Rocks don't move." ;-)
Are those maps geocoded? Would be a nice option for an overlay mode. ;-)
Just some thougths:
I also considered writing such an app but decided against it because of too much work for a single person. The better way to use my energy is to contribute to an open source app. Maybe I start next year as I am now retired. 8-)
My strategy would be to have a small data-logger in the nav-system from where the app can grab all the data to be displayed in the app (on a tablet, smarthone and/or whatever). Something with Signal-K and OpenCPN seems to be an interesting option.
Maybe a source for some inspiration for you? ;-)
We intend to add display of tidal streams in a future version
Tom, one word, Spiffing.
Great App BUT I live in Australia and use Android devices, yes my Navigation App Memory Map uses Raster Charts however you have a few perks they don't have.Good work 😊
Brilliant
Having a lot of fun playing with the app. Downloaded the East Coast and it's great, makes planning easy. I will get a lot of use out of it for sure. I have a question though. I'm not at all tech minded so apologies, but how do I get the data I need for the AIS add on to work? I understand there are two possible sources but it's another language to me 😂
Looking forward to the Android release. I'm a dev (not Android unfortunately), but I'd be up for helping with test when you get it to that stage. Good luck Tom and Bill 👍
Many thanks. We'll keep you on file. Fair winds to you.
Tom
Absolutely fantastic. Well done on such an innovative app combining traditions. I’ve downloaded my app already. Thanks so much Tom. Just hope more recognise the national treasure you really are. Thank you.
You're too kind Bob, but thanks for your kind words.
Tom
That’s great stuff Tom and well done because it’s not easy bringing anything new to market.
I’m looking forward to giving it a go. Many thanks.
Star man as always Tom, have a chocolate MBE mate!
Hi Tom.
I enjoyed our chat last week on Zoom and have now downloaded the app (had to get my old iPad iOS updated). This video popped up independently (UA-cam knows everything) and it makes it very clear how to use Angelnav and you should probably add a really obvious link when the app opens to something similar as my first impressions were not great (just a blank low res image of the UK), but as I know you know what you’re talking about I persisted, bought the South Coast and got it working and I’m confident it will be my go to now.
Really looking forward to tides. One thing I’d love is live ‘actual approximate depth’. Ie charted depth plus tide less draft. It’s a simple calculation for a computer (although not from a Raster chart that has no data). Would be great to have it for my boat or even better, for anywhere I click on the chart. Then be able to change the time and forecast actual approximate depth.
Stu.
Thanks Stu for your impressions - all taken on board. Hope you enjoy using AngelNav. Tom
A fine looking practical seamanlike app from the Channel pilot himself. Take my money!... As soon as you've got it rigged for Android Tom 😉 great idea great vid. Hope it works in offline mode unlike some mapping apps. Im sure it will.
Yes, it does not rely on an internet connection when in use for navigation, though the appropriate charts need to be downloaded or created prior to departure.
Very interesting
Very exciting. Android user here, waiting.
We're working on this as I write! Believe me, it's not so simple as it looks. We started with Mac because my colleague Bill is what might be described as Mac-compliant. We fully understand that we must produce an Android version. It's going to be expensive.......Watch this space. Tom
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns Google's Flutter (iOS, Android, Web and Desktop with a single* codebase) is possibly the answer here but development gains would be limited now that the iOS version's been completed. *that's the promise, the reality is often slightly different but it's still pretty good
This looks like a fantastic app. Have you considered having a feature to construct a tidal curve for primary and secondary ports?
I would like to sail with Tom, and I would say very little. I would simply listen and soak up the history and sailing knowledge.
Love-a-lee chub-a-lee. The way raster vs.vector is pitched here, makes me thirst for Edison vs Tesla world fair fun and horror.
When will it be available for Android and also windows please. Looks excellent and great system I just don’t use iPad
Brilliant. As you say - probably been thinking of this myself. I am an Android user, so will have to wait. A couple of comments for thought - regarding the satellite chart, it might be good to know the date that the photo was taken. As you know, sandbanks move all the time - particularly on the east coast, so it could be risk to reply on the image if it is a few months old.
Also, when you enter your compass bearing, does it convert to True for you, or are you converting before you enter the bearing?
Hi Stuart. Really good point about the date. I've been thinking that myself. We'll look into it. All bearings etc., are True at the moment. That's how I navigate. I'm sure it would be possible to add the option for magnetic. The app's in continuous development, often in light of the excellent comments we're receiving. We'll think on. Tom.
I wish it had charts for Australia.
So do I. We're very young as a tiny company and are expanding our coverage all the time but we haven't got to you yet. Thanks for taking an interest.
This app is brilliant thanks tom! it will be on android too?
Yes, we're working on it.
Dear Tom, I just thought you may know the boat I bought from an English guy. He has been living in Brittany until 2016 but earlier he had the boat in Poole harbour. The boat is an 50 sqm Seefahrtkreuzer, build at Abeking&Rasmussen in 1937. As most boats from the German navy, she was brought to England and served in the British Navy until 78 under several commands, one of them HMS Caledonia. Her english name is Seebrize or Sea Breeze. As you have made a video about the 100 sqm Overlord and you seem to know the area of Poole quite well, do you have any Photographs of her by coincidence or know someone who might have? I do have the book about the Windfallyachts and have been to the museum in Falmouth for research. The museum has all the documents the author of the book had. I'd be incredibly happy to receive any documentation about the boat. Maybe you also know someone? Best regards
Hurry on the android version! Pleeease.
Looks like a great app. I’m in the Pacific Northwest and tried to download NOAA raster chart 18400 Strait of Georgia but unsuccessful. Has anyone downloaded a NOAA chart to Angelnav?
The fact that a rasterised paper chart is more convenient on an iPad than a typical vector plotter map simply speaks to the failure of designing and implementing a good LOD (level of detail) algorithm in the latter.
Like this Tom, but currently set up on boat for android tablet and use Imray raster charts alongside paper charts. I do have an iPhone though so if I purchase charts for that would I need to purchase again when android version is available?
Good question. We're a fair-play operation, so I know we'll do our best to look after existing customers. I don't have an answer right now, but we're on your side. We're all in this together! Tom
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns good to hear Tom. Truth is I couldn't resist downloading charts and currently looking along the River Stour! Have to say that the clarity, even on my iPhone, is very good indeed, dare I say better than the Imray raster. Many thanks, David
@@DaveandGinny972 Delighted to learn it's working well on the East Coast, a place where you really need a proper chart. Thanks for letting me know. All the best Tom
I much prefer the amount of information on paper/raster charts; sailing over the mudflats and sandbanks of the east coast, anything that's dried out at L.A.T./chart datum doesn't have a depth shown on my Navionics vector charts making referring to paper charts whilst underway critical
Same with hiking. An OS 1:25k is a work of art. I use a Garmin unit too but it's just not the same.
Of course nowadays, those helpful chaps mark all the sandbanks with windmills...
With android having 70% market share you need to get that out asap. Probably should have started there. Great app!
If we could have started with Android, or even produced them both together we would have, but Bill the designer is a Mac Man. You can be sure we're working hard at getting AngelNav up on Android.
Hello Mr Cunliffe, my husband and I live in Uppsala and wonder if you would be interested in seeing a 1966 HR Kungskryssare on the hard as you seem to be in the area?
Thanks for your kind offer. We're a little distance from Uppsala with no plans for visiting. It would be great to see the boat, but I fear it may not happen this year. We'll get back to you if anything changes. All the very best Tom
This is great , I’ve just downloaded . Does anyone know how to plot course to steer for say 6 hours ie adding each hour tidal vector to the start ?
Many thanks for your question - currently the CTS can only handle one tidal vector, but we will certainly consider adding the ability to add multiple ones for long passages
@@BillAylward-zq1qh Thank you, it’s nice to have the charts and be able to see the tidal diamonds etc and at that price it’s amazing .
Does Angel Nav work in the USA? I downloaded the app, but the only charts to buy are from the UK.
NOAA Charts can be downloaded free. Go to the help files. It's #47
thankfully someone is thinking of redundancy , In the USA they are taking down lighthouse's and historic shoal markers , the shoals and rocks are still there , we just dont mark them and spend millions to un mark them
At 9:07 Tom says "Estimated position" yet the symbol is a triangle. And what of the EP? My practice is to never leave my DR for an EP.
Good morning. AngelNav emanates from Britain. The EP is designated by a triangle in all UK-based navigation; merchant, military and leisure. The purpose of an EP is to refine the DR. Having done this, in the absence of further information, the EP is probably the best departure point for the next phase of the passage. Classically, it is plotted before a fix is taken and thus one can be compared with the other in the soundest of navigational practices. Hope this helps. Thanks for your input. Tom
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns Interesting. Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware of the British standard. But a good argument could be made not to make one's start point an EP lest one compound the original error. After all, it's called an "estimated" position for a reason (unless upgraded with something more certain than just current). Thanks again and Happy 4th of July! (snickers)
Interested
Would it be possible to use your own charts? f.i. If you have your own scans of certain charts?
Yes as long as they are in one of two formats (GeoTIFF or KAP) files. As well as scanning the image you would need to 'geo-reference' them, so that the software can work out the lat and Lon of each pixel in the image.
What will the app use once NOAA sunsets its raster charts?
Good question. We are hoping that when that horrible day dawns, the people who put out vector charts will by then have recognised that they must at least include essential shore features without which the coastal navigator is totally reliant on a GPS fix. Tom
How about making this available on Android or Linux platform?
We're on this right now!
Napoleonviken!
Saw you there!
any chance of importing AIS data in future
If your boat has AIS and some type of wifi server, then AngelNav already has the ability to import and display AIS targets
I wish there will be android version in the future.
We're on it!
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns that is great news, I absolutely love the idea.
When you do a 3 point fix ,, as your bearing is to a point on land and not from, shouldn't the arrow be away from you ,
No David. The convention with all UK users including MN and RN is that the arrow points away from the object and is on the end of the line. A single arrow on a CTS is in the middle of the line and pointing the way you are going.
@tomcunliffe what about Canadian charts?
AngelNav will open NOAA charts, many of which cover parts of Canada, but I don't know whether the Canadian HO produces rasters?
@@BillAylward-zq1qh the Canadian Hydrographic Service does provide Raster charts. So I guess it’ll work right?
@@BillAylward-zq1qh hi bill. I downloaded the app and tried to open theNOAA chart for Strait of Georgia but was unsuccessful.
It should work as long as the charts are either in GeoTIFF or KAP format
@@BillAylward-zq1qh will this work?
…. »Most of the paper charts from the Canadian Hydrographic Service are available as both Raster Navigational Charts (RNC) in the BSBv3 format or as an Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) in the S-57 vector format. »
Wow this is a really cool app! This has so much potential! I and probably a lot of sailors have been looking for such a good app for so long. All these developers keep saying their software is made for sailors. But none of them suffice.
I have so many ideas!
Your own radar, AIS compatible, wind direction, forward scan compatible or your own forward scan, laylines, tide information, tide information per tide diamond if you hover over it and then can implement it in your EP or CTS. There is so much you can do with raster charts! No one sees the potential! Vector is so disadvantageous.I don't like working with it at all.
I have 1 suggestion that I ask a lot of manufacturers. I have already asked this to IMRAY. I got a negative answer. But you Tom, you are at the source . Maybe you also think this is something.
What if we sailors can print the charts ourselves. A3 or A4 size with the necessary scale and so on. That's going to take a lot of weight off IMRAY's shoulders I think, don't you think?
Thanks Tom
Christof
Hi Christof. That's an interesting thought. AngelNav is developing fast. Tides should be up soon and so on. Printing charts might be outside our remit, but I'll talk to my colleague about it. Thanks for your input. Tom
Sounds great, the only issue is, far more people use android than apple.......
Not the case on boats actually, but we're on the case for Android. Don't lose hope.
This looks like a really great app!!
Thank you.
But:
Would this work with Open CPN?
OpenCPN has similar functions to AngelNav and is available for Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux , but not for mobile devices.
@@BillAylward-zq1qh Agreed, but I think if the two could work together AngelNav appears to have some nice features.
i'm on android :(
I'll buy this when it comes on Android.......and if you want to capture a big chunk of the market then these features need adding.....Ais overlay, real time gps overlay, nmea input with true and apparent wind markers. NMEA output to autopilot.
Hi Ray AngelNav can hook up to the boat's wifi and thus access AIS etc. but only if your onboard system puts out wifi. My B&G does it well. We're working on the Android version. Thanks for your input. Tom
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns Thanks for the reply Tom.
I have a multiplexer that will take seatalk and NMEA and of course of the two NMEA is more flexible and not one manufacturer.
The market has been very canny at keeping the various chartplotter and hardware separation just enough to be totally frustrating.
So one might give AiS overlay but another not do Ais but do autopilot operation.
I have no doubt that as an example Navionics which is a good and very popular software that there's probably commercial arrangements with some of the big players in chartplotters to separate hardware and software enough to keep people buying multiple systems. (Hence the need for multiplexing). So you can see why it's commercially of mutual benefit if your plotter is using Navionics for Navionics to agree not to fill their tablet based software with hardware connection ports (even virtual ones).
It's also why app developers at various times have used open source charts.
What you have done with the admiralty charts is really good, similar has been done before but some software is frustrating because you have to get NOAHH charts (and as you know of no use if your sailing around blighty) or you have to get Admiralty or Imray scan yourself and calibrate the paper scan to the software. (And not many people have large scanners).
You'll recall the Yeoman plotters (I still have one) that was similar in that you physically have a paper chart and calibrate it.
Personally I think the days of chartplotters are numbered, your software is actually a component in that because there's no rhyme or reason to have a chartplotter when a 10-12" tablet probably has more processing power.
It's the separation of hardware and software that's keeping the plotters in business (for now). Time is coming when it will be a tablet and the appropriate interface that would be the preferred go to plotter. In fact I can think of several UA-cam sailors who rely a lot on Navionics and a tablet.
I have watched this market for years and mark my words there's probably some additions to your software that would be so alarming to some big players that they would try buying you and your partner out.
what do i do to have it work on some thing not iphone based? is there a version for android? or windows ?
Good seaman and navigators develop their "spacial awareness" from an early age. It is a graphic understanding of their immediate surroundings. Traditional chartwork and pilotage is based on this graphic mental interpretation. Until AngelNav, chart plotters have abbreviated chart information for a perceived efficiency at the cost of basic tuition. AngelNav restores and contributes to the seaman's "spacial awareness" in the 21st century.
Ahhhhhh....half the world (or more) uses Android....no Android version??
time will come when we need them once again.😌🤥soon i hope.because all the satellites will stop working or have been blown up by enemy fire..think it will be the end of the world.apologise for doom mongering .
What do we want "AngelNav!"
When do we want it? "Now!"
What do we want it on? "ANDROID!"
What possessed you Tom?
FGS Avoid proprietary!
Especially expensive proprietary.
The reason it's only on Mac right now is because Bill, the designer, is a Mac Man. We are working on an Android version, but this takes time and money. There's only the two of us and we don't have a sponsor for this., but if anyone is interested we're happy to talk. All the best Tom
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns @TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns I guessed the Mac man angle Tom. Just pulling your plonker.
I'm a Bill too.
I was an IT infrastructure person who never in 42 years had contact with Apple architecture....because that was lightly used in the majority of corporate systems and not did I ever cut code.
Some encouragement for the misguided Bill though, this is a stupendous idea that has legs. It doesn't compete with existing plotter applications and with layerless charts too.
I was excited and would have bought it immediately yesterday if it had been on Android.
How about a browser accessable version as an interim? That could be accessed by ANY device?
The server would be hired from the cloud and thus fairly resilient and reasonable. It would provide an augmented income stream while spreading the brand outside of the apple bubble.
@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarnsPS
Shouldn't it be called
ANGLENAV ?
@@ratusbagus Hi again Bill. This seems an exciting idea. Unfortunately, it's beyond my pay grade and the man who needs to deal with it is my pal Bill who is probably somewhere between the Azores and Madeira. He is highly motivated and switched on to such matters. I'll make sure he sees your comments as soon as he touches land. Thanks again. We'll be in touch. Tom
www.gov.uk/government/news/ukho-to-extend-timetable-for-paper-chart-withdrawal#:~:text=In%20July%20last%20year%2C%20we,2026%20to%20complete%20the%20process.