One Water App for Every Size of Boat: Phone, Tablet, Helm Screen

Why does this matter?

You'd be shocked how many people are riding around with the screen out. A new helm display is expensive, and plenty of people just don't have the money to replace one. Jet skis and small skiffs often never had a display at all.

Almost everyone has a phone, though. Put it in a waterproof case and it is a GPS. Put a tablet in one and it is a heads-up display.

Kayak, paddleboard, skiff or jet ski: your phone

On the smallest boats there is nowhere to mount a screen, so the phone is the screen. Open the water map, tap GPS speed, and Gillby shows your speed over ground in mph, your top speed for the session and where you are on the map.

Tides, wind and the radar sit on the same map, so you can check what is coming without switching apps.

An Apple Watch app with speed and conditions at a glance is coming. That one is for when even a phone is too much to look at.

Small and midsize boats: a tablet at the helm

This is the one I think about most. Any iPad or tablet in a waterproof case, mounted at the console, can be a speedometer, a GPS and a heads-up display for the whole day.

On a tablet you get the full map: your speed, the depth shading for your draft, the route you planned and the conditions for the hours ahead. Turn on grounding watch and Gillby checks the water ahead of your GPS position about every 10 seconds against your draft and the tide.

A dedicated helm view for tablets, with bigger instruments and voice commands, is in testing now.

Cabin boats and yachts: a laptop, monitor or TV

On a bigger boat you have room for a real screen. Gillby runs in any modern browser, so a laptop at the helm, or a monitor or TV in the salon, can show the same map, forecast and radar for everyone aboard.

Honest note: the map fills a big screen fine, but the buttons and text are sized for a laptop. A proper big-screen layout you can read from across the salon is on my list.

It does not connect to your chartplotter, autopilot or sounder. It sits next to them.

Where do I want this to go?

I see a world where the same app runs on whatever you have aboard. A watch on a paddleboard. A phone on a jet ski. A tablet on a center console. A big screen on a boat with cabins.

I think of it as an operating system for the water. It is not there yet, and I'm building it one piece at a time, but that is where I want it to go.

What should I know before I rely on it?

• Keep the screen on and Gillby open. In a web browser, GPS stops when the app is in the background.
• Heat kills phones and tablets. Mount it out of direct sun and give it some air.
• Plug it in. GPS and a bright screen drain a battery fast.
• Use a case rated for spray and a mount that will not shake loose in chop.
• A good signal helps. Maps and conditions need a connection.

Gillby is not a certified navigation instrument. Keep a lookout and keep using your charts and sounder.