# GoAstern Games — Navigation and Seamanship

> Navigation and Seamanship (iPhone/iPad app by Mark Olliver.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/goastern-games/id6770445930 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Mark Olliver](https://appshunter.io/developer/1896276887)
- Category: Education, Lifestyle
- Price: $0.99
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 15 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-05-21
- Data updated: 2026-09-13
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/goastern-games/id6770445930/reviews.md

## What is GoAstern Games?

Drill the seamanship skills every sailor is supposed to know — and most of us forget between certificates. Built for RYA Day Skipper and Yachtmaster candidates, Sea Cadets, and anyone who wants the basics back at their fingertips before the next passage.

WHAT'S INSIDE

Visual & audio signals
• Morse code — ITU letters and digits, audio playback at 5–20 WPM, screen-flash and Aldis-lamp torch mode, microphone-based live decode
• Semaphore — 8-position arm code, A–Z plus the J-prefix numerals
• ICS maritime flags — letter flags and numeric pennants, full operational meanings (Oscar = man overboard, NC = distress, AB = need a tug urgently)
• NATO phonetic — A–Z plus 0–9 with audio review and confusion drills

Watch-keeping
• Nav lights — fourteen vessel types × four aspects (head-on, stern, both beams), fog-signal audio playback, Rule 21 arcs-of-visibility diagram
• Day shapes — IRPCS Rules 24–30 black-silhouette signals
• IALA buoyage — cardinal, lateral, isolated-danger, safe-water, special, and emergency-wreck marks. Region A / B switch
• IRPCS — twenty animated give-way scenarios covering Rules 9–18

Navigation
• Chartwork — DR / EP / CTS, water and ground vectors, tidal triangles, fix and waypoint symbols
• Tides — heights diagram, rule of twelfths and sinusoidal calculators, secondary-port corrections, time-at-height with a live tidal curve
• Pilotage — transits, leading lines, danger bearings with a live NLT/NMT calculator, harbour-entry pre-flight, IPTS port traffic signals
• GPS literacy — datums, COG/SOG/CTS, DOP, eight failure modes and how to spot them

Safety
• Mayday + DSC — interactive script builder for the Channel 16 voice call
• Distress signals — IRPCS Annex IV non-flag signals (flares, EPIRB, SART, dye, arms-wave)
• MOB recovery — six animated manoeuvres (figure-eight, beam-reach return, Williamson, Anderson, Scharnow, quick-stop)
• Pre-departure check — 44-item interactive checklist with progress saved across sessions

Seamanship
• Knots — the eight RYA knots with step-by-step tying
• Anchoring — anchor types, holding ground, scope, kedge use cases, setting and weighing procedure
• Met Office weather — shipping-forecast terminology, forward and reverse drills

HOW YOU USE IT

Three areas: Games, Drills, and Reference.

Games — flashcards with spaced repetition, beat-the-clock timed rounds, a mixed-exam mode that draws from every module, and Soundings — a battleships × minesweeper hybrid where you hunt a hidden fleet using IALA cardinal-mark clues. Two-player Bluetooth Hangman and Soundings for paired phones in range.

Drills — procedural exercises with no scoring. Run through the MOB manoeuvres or work the pre-departure checklist before each passage.

Reference — single-page lookup for every catalogue in the app. Pull it up at the chart table when you need to remember what a flag means at a glance. An in-game reference drawer opens with one tap from any game so you can check without losing your place.

PRIVACY

Progress and entitlement data are stored locally on the device. Sign-in is optional and uses a passwordless magic-link, Apple, or Google. No tracking, no ads.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.5.0 — 2026-06-02

v1.5.0 — RYA syllabus expansion

Major content release covering Competent Crew through Yachtmaster
Ocean, plus the Dinghy and Powerboat schemes.

New modules
- Sailing — yacht / dinghy / powerboat anatomy (57 labelled parts
  across four views), manoeuvres, points of sail, advanced
  techniques.
- Safety — flares (inshore / coastal / offshore + safety drill),
  first-aid kit categories A-D matched to voyage scope, liferaft,
  EPIRB / PLB, lifejackets, capsize recovery.
- Engine — diesel pre-start / start / shutdown, troubleshooting
  tree, outboard maintenance, kill-cord drill.
- Powerboat handling — hull modes, trim, sea handling, stopping
  distances, turning.
- Passage planning — eight-stage workflow, tidal gates,
  contingency triggers.
- Tender handling — types, painters, towing, boarding, davits.
- Mnemonics drill — CADET, WOBBLE, Five Essentials, Rule of
  Twelfths, Buys Ballot's Law and more, with reference cards plus
  a quick-fire drill.

Expanded coverage
- Heavy weather + tropical revolving storm avoidance.
- VHF + SRC channel reference and MMSI decoder.
- Synoptic weather and shipping-forecast structure.
- Rope splices, three-point fix, IALA Regions A and B.
- IRPCS Rules 25, 32, 33, 36 and 37.
- Anchoring techniques, secondary-port calculator, provisioning
  calculator.
- Chart anatomy and a reading-the-diagrams legend.

### 1.4.0 — 2026-05-25

Astronavigation module — full Yachtmaster Ocean coverage pitched for ages 12+. New Reference panels: celestial-sphere primer, sextant anatomy with four-errors gallery, Almanac increments calculator, sight-reduction calculator with both modern and RYA tables (haversine + ABC), meridian-altitude and twilight calculators, today's Moon phase, today's planet visibility, equatorial and polar star charts, 58-star catalogue. Seven new games: sextant corrections, sight reduction, sextant scale reading, name the navigational star, spot the sextant error, Almanac increments drill, ABC azimuth drill. Printable RYA-style sight-reduction pro forma worksheet. Bug fix in the southern-hemisphere azimuth quadrant rule.

### 1.2.3 — 2026-05-22

Fix for knots (expanded view was hard to close on iPhones)

### 1.2.0 — 2026-05-21

What's new in 1.2.0

New Compass module
- Compass ⇄ True converter: apply variation and deviation in both
  directions, with the full CADET working shown on every answer.
- Quick-fire East/West sign drill to lock in "Error East, Compass Least."
- A CADET diagram and a compass-error calculator in the Reference tab.

More chartwork
- Course to Steer: work the tidal triangle for your heading and speed
  over the ground.
- Estimated Position: plot the water track and tide to find your EP,
  with an optional leeway (advanced) mode.
- Deviation-card lookup and a Distance / Speed / Time quick-fire.

Soundings, reworked
- Cardinal marks now show as proper IALA buoys; clearer rock and water
  symbols.
- Rocky enclaves with land on the larger charts — tap land to chart the
  shore; the rocks stay hidden.
- Ignore a cardinal and ground on the rock it marks: that's two lives.
- New two-player Bluetooth mode — set up your own fleet, then take turns
  bombing. Battleships, seamanship-style.
- Board sizes tuned for phones.

Sharper drilling
- More IRPCS collision-rules scenarios, and questions no longer repeat
  within a flash-card session.

Plus assorted fixes and polish. Fair winds!

### 1.0 — 2026-05-21

No release notes.

## More apps by Mark Olliver

- [GoAstern](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/goastern/id6766324562)

All apps by Mark Olliver: https://appshunter.io/developer/1896276887

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-13.*