Idea for a sailing app

skipslog.com

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for sailors opinions on an idea I have for a sailing app. The idea is a logbook app that works in a browser/ios/android.

Users can write in the logbook, time and position is automatically saved. They can also record their course, speed, log etc and they can also make weather observations. This app will work offline and then when they connect to the internet all their data will be pushed to the cloud.

Users can also follow their friends logbooks and see their comments, course, speed and weather observations. This will be in realtime if the user writing to the logbook is connected to the internet while sailing.

Does this sound like something that sailors would want to use? Please tell me what you think...

Thanks for your help,

Jason

skipslog.com

Hi OSI, thanks for your reply. I think Strava is for running and cyclists. The idea of this is that it is more of a navigational logbook instead of tracking your performance.

Mick Tator

I see where you are coming from but I think your potential market is very limited. As a result I cannot see the idea getting traction very easily.

Your website badly needs to have an image page, or demo.

The first issue is the actual number of potential users and reaching them. For e.g there are a few thousand boats around Dublin, but very few go cruising/offshore. Same in most countries. What do the Marine Regs require of commercial vessels? Does your App have an encrypted date-stamp facility? You possibly are looking at hobby-sailors only, those people who cruise extensively. Most day-sailors/can-racing community don’t bother with a log. This is long into the era of NMEA, so why are inputs not done automatically?

On a passage a paper log sits on the chart table and is used by the watchkeeper. Yours is on a tablet/whatever, so not very ‘open’, and susceptible to damage from damp/falls. I do not like the fact that the entire record is on a device and backed up only when connected to the internet.

I don’t understand the desire to watch what ‘friends’ are doing, their speeds, courses, comments, etc. On an offshore race nobody would use that.

That’s just me, and although I have two Garmin plotters, sounder, fishfinder, etc I still carry paper charts!

Tabnabs

Be worth asking the question to the wider cruising community on a site like YBW.com and the forums they have. I haven't been on there in quite a long time, but they used to be very active.

Don't limit it to yachts, a lot of motorboats go cruising, especially in Britain. But the Shannon might be an option for the domestic market.