Argo Navigation vs Helm Boating

Argo is a boat navigation app you can actually use for free. Not a trial. You get NOAA charts and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers depth surveys for US waters, 500,000+ marinas, anchorages and fuel docks, hazards reported by other boaters, and routes you plot yourself, with ETA and fuel use. On your first trip, open the map to see how deep it is and read what other boaters say about the anchorage before you drop the hook. A hundred trips in, you're checking how old the Army Corps survey is before you run a shoaling inlet, or laying out a few route options and picking one underway. Think of Argo as the boating buddy who knows every good dock bar and never asks for gas money. FREE FOR EVERY BOATER Navigate • Up-to-date NOAA charts plus Army Corps (USACE) surveys you can filter by survey date • Shoal areas, dredged channels, restricted areas and recommended tracks on the coast and inland rivers • See your GPS position and speed on the chart • Search buoys, beacons, lights, wrecks and mile markers • Record your track and use Return to follow it back • Depth shading presets, including two built for bright sun glare Plan • Search 500,000+ places, from boat ramps and moorings to non-ethanol fuel and dock bars • Read reviews from boaters who've been there • Plot your own route on the map and see distance, ETA and fuel use • A trip log of everywhere you've been Connect • See other Argo boaters on the water and share your live location with family ashore • Join your boat club, marina or rally group • Share routes, places and trips, and post photos and video • Report hazards and see the ones other boaters have reported • Keep fishing spots private or share them with your group One account works on every phone and tablet you own, free. ARGO PREMIUM, WHEN YOU WANT MORE Smarter routes • Autoroute plans around shallow water, hazards and restricted areas based on your boat's draft, height and safety buffer • Run inside or outside, or set Autoroute to stay in the marked channel • Save several routes to your chart, start a track, and choose between them underway • Have a sailboat and a powerboat? Save both, each with its own draft and height Marine weather and tides • 7-day marine forecast: weather, wind, wave height and period, tides and currents • Wind, rain and lightning overlays on your chart • 6,000+ tide and current stations on your chart, with predictions as far ahead as you want • Tide variance right next to your depth gauge On the water • Offline charts download automatically around your location and home port, for when you lose signal • Connect over NMEA (Wi-Fi gateway) for depth, speed and heading from your electronics, plus AIS targets • Custom depth shading and contours, so shallow water and fishing drop-offs stand out • Distance, time, bearing and course to your next turn, always in view Logbook and planning tools • Import and export GPX routes and tracks between Argo and your chartplotter • Download a PDF trip report to document sea time toward your captain's license Coverage: US coastal waters, the ICW, inland lakes and rivers, Canada and the Caribbean. WHO'S BEHIND ARGO Argo is family-owned. Our founder, Captain Jeff, grew up boating on the Chesapeake Bay. He built Argo so the local knowledge usually shared between friends at the dock is on the map for everyone. Many of our features started as boater requests. Send yours to support@argonav.io. Argo is a navigation aid. Always check official charts and conditions, and use your own judgment on the water. Plan. Navigate. Connect. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.argonav.io/privacy/

Helm is a US marine navigation app for boaters who run shallow, unfamiliar or poorly charted water and want to know what is under the hull before they get there. YOUR DRAFT IS PART OF THE CHART Enter your boat's draft once. Helm shades the water you cannot safely cross and plans routes around it, instead of drawing a straight line through a two-foot shoal. DEPTH AGAINST YOUR DRAFT Helm reads depth from NOAA electronic navigational charts on the coast and the Great Lakes, and from the US Army Corps of Engineers Inland ENC on the rivers. Where a NOAA tide station is close enough, it adds the predicted tide and tells you whether that leaves enough water under your keel. TIDES AND CURRENTS Tide predictions come from NOAA CO-OPS against the MLLW datum. Tidal current arrows rotate with the time you scrub to, so you can see whether you will be pushed or held back before you commit to a pass. WEATHER YOU CAN READ AT A GLANCE Animated wind, wave and current overlays on the chart. A multi-day strip with three-hour columns for wind, gusts, air temperature and rain, plus water temperature where data exists. Outside US waters the forecast falls back to a global model so the app still works. OFFLINE FIRST Coverage is packaged into downloadable chart packs. Take the ones you need and leave the rest. Once a pack is on the device, the chart, depth and the anchor alarm keep working with no cell service, and so does routing in the coastal and Great Lakes regions. That is the point on open water. WHILE YOU ARE UNDERWAY - Depth, speed over ground and course over ground on one strip - Anchor alarm that wakes you if you drag - Nearby vessels on AIS - Satellite and night chart styles - Trips you run recorded to a logbook you can replay QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK Does it work without cell signal? Yes. Download the chart packs for your area first and the app keeps working offline, including depth, the anchor alarm and routing in the coastal and Great Lakes regions. Is it only for the ocean? No. Coastal water, the intracoastal, the Great Lakes and the major commercial rivers are charted, and the lakes in every state are on the map by name and shoreline. What makes it different from other chart apps? Most of them render a chart and leave the depth judgement to you. Helm knows your draft, reads the charted depth against it with the predicted tide, and plans around water that is too thin for your boat. Does it work on iPad? Yes, natively — a real iPad layout rather than a stretched phone screen. Can I use it for fishing? Yes. Save spots, read the depth contours around them and return to the same place later from your recorded trips. Is it good for a small boat? That is the case it was built for. Small boats in shallow water are where a generic chart app is least useful and where knowing your draft matters most. Helm is built by Loop Mobile FZCO. Privacy Policy: https://loopmobile.io/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://loopmobile.io/tos.html