What does YASIA stand for? “Yet Another Sailing iPhone App”. You may be forgiven for thinking that of late we only write about iPhone apps on Harbour Exchange, and actually you may have a point. There will be other interesting articles coming shortly for people who want to spend their time sailing, out on the water, rather than fidling with an electronic swiss army knife, but for now here is a YASIA.

In response to a couple of the other articles we’ve posted on sailing iPhone Apps (including our own HarbourX) I was contacted by In Depth Navigation saying that I might like to write about their SailTimer App. This approach was lazy for a start. It’s like putting someone down as a referee for a job interview who you have never met before. My approach would always be to ensure that whoever acted as a referee, or was going to write a review at least knew something about me or the product. And why does this make me cross? Because in order to find out about the App first hand, I would need to part with £7.99 of my own money. If I’m going to be asked (or assumed, presumed, suggested) to review something, at least let me have a copy of what I’m going to write about. Does Ferrari ask Jeremy Clarkson to buy the latest car before he writes a review? No, they loan it to him.

This is why the approach from In Depth Navigation was lazy. As you already know, I think many iPhone Apps are just too expensive for what they are, and I’m not convinced I need this App yet which means I am definitely not going to part with £7.99.

So based on what I can read on their website and see from various YouTube videos, it looks quite clever. What is the best tacking angle to keep distance between current position and future, desired position as short as possible? Plug in the wind direction, speed and other variables like waterline length of your boat and the app will give you the desired angle. Overlaying this on a google map is nice and you keep track along the way with the built in GPS of the iPhone.

I can see the benefit in this App as a back up to real navigation skills and as a quick ready-reckoner while short course tacking, but there are a few things I just don’t get.

1. While this could be useful in short course tacking during a race where shaving the time off by sailing the shortest course may be desirable, no-one is ever going to use this (even in a waterproof pouch) during the hustle and bustle of a frenetic race
2. It doesn’t seem to take into account anything to do with the tidal flow, which has quite a significant impact on the course to steer and could dramatically determine how many tacks to put in and consequently whether the shortest course distance-wise is really all that relevant. In heavy tidal areas it is often faster to sail a longer course out of the main head-on tidal stream.
3. There is an assumption that the wind is a constant speed and angle and we all know this just isn’t the case. Good sailors will play the wind shifts to get extra lift and pointing ability in order to sail a course closer to the wind. We know that wind bends around headlands and that the wind angle is different depending on how close to the shore you are.

The App is a nice idea and I can see how it could be useful in certain circumstances. However I can’t see that it really solves a problem, and anything that is going to cost me eight quid really should justify its price by solving a real problem. If it were free then I wouldn’t mind that it is only partially specified or useful, and I’d definitely have it on my iPhone. I may even actually use it. The sad thing is that there used to be a ‘Lite’ version of this app for free, but In Depth Navigation decided to remove it saying that users preferred to have the full set of features. Really? And they are happy to pay £8 even though they don’t know what the App really does and can’t play on one before buying?

The thing that In Depth Navigation don’t seem to understand is that there are plently of people for whom this price is a significant barrier to usage. The logic of withdrawing a free de-featured version saying that most people want the fully featured version is idiotic. It is basic product promotion strategy to have a free taster to entice users to part with their cash for the all singing and dancing version (or in this case the all humming and limping version).

Related posts:

1. Top Sailing Applications for the iPhone
2. iPhone Sailing App – Aqualights
3. HarbourX – iPhone Application