FerryDodger – Sailing Planner

FerryDodger is the sailing planner that goes to sea with you: plan the route, check the weather along it, see where you'd cross a ferry lane, then sail LIVE with alerts — offline too.

PLAN THE ROUTE
Draw the route on the map: waypoints snap to water and the coastal path is computed automatically, keeping the boat off land and — with your draft set — out of the shallows. Set departure and average speed and every leg gets its passing time.

WEATHER ALONG THE ROUTE
Four forecast models (GFS, ECMWF, ICON, GEM) compared for wind, gusts, waves, swell and rain. A 2-hourly table for any point at sea, color-coded Quiet / Rock / War against YOUR thresholds; the route line itself is colored by the forecast at the time you'll pass. Weather mode lays wind, waves and point of sail over the route.

DEPARTURE ANALYSIS
The best windows to leave in the coming days, with the expected points of sail (close-hauled, reach, run), wave direction relative to the boat — all computed offline.

ROUTE SUMMARY
One glance: ferry crossings and when the first one comes, duration and arrival time, wind and waves expected for that departure, the points of sail you'll actually sail.

DEPTHS AND HAZARDS, WORLDWIDE
Download your region's data from the Maps page or with one tap from the route: coastline and harbours in vector detail, depth contours and shallow-water bands, rocks, wrecks and obstructions, and coastal place names, all offline. Europe uses EMODnet 2024 (~115 m grid), the rest of the world GEBCO 2024 (~460 m). This is open data, not an official nautical chart. Packs include the ferry lines and stay valid for 12 months from download, then you download them again for free. Optional: the offline base map.

FERRY LANE CROSSINGS
Every point where your route crosses a ferry lane mapped in OpenStreetMap, on the map and in a list with distance from departure and estimated crossing time. The app flags the crossing with the lane: it does not know where the ships actually are.

LIVE NAVIGATION
Follow your GPS position on the route: speed, miles run and remaining, next crossing with ETA, weather ahead, arrival time and daylight left. Get a notification + vibration before a crossing at the distance you choose, even with the screen off. Free navigation mode without a route, too. With an AIS receiver on the boat's Wi-Fi: nearby vessels, course vectors and collision alarms (CPA/TCPA), with the screen kept on.

ANCHOR ALARM
At anchor, set the anchor where you are or on the map and choose the radius: if the boat leaves the circle or GPS is lost, sound and notification. On iPhone with the screen off only the notification arrives.

OFFLINE
Ferry data, maps and the forecasts you've viewed stay on the phone.

PRIVACY
No account, NO ADS. Your data stays on the device: your GPS track is never uploaded, and the weather and map services receive only the coordinates needed to answer: in LIVE, your position goes to the weather service.

FREE
FerryDodger is free and ad-free: no subscription, no in-app purchases. Paid features may arrive in the future, always announced in advance and never as automatic charges: what you use today stays free.

SAFETY DISCLAIMER
FerryDodger is a planning-support and alert tool. Bathymetry and hazards are indicative open data (~115 m grid in Europe, ~460 m elsewhere) and do not replace official nautical charts, a certified AIS display, radar or a proper lookout. Responsibility always remains with the skipper. The anchor alarm does not replace an anchor watch.

Contact: info@boomlab.it · https://www.ferrydodger.com/support/

Privacy Policy: https://www.ferrydodger.com/privacy/
Terms of Use: https://www.ferrydodger.com/terms/

Recent changes:
Anchor alarm: in LIVE drop the anchor where you are or pick the spot on the map and set the radius; if the boat leaves the circle or GPS is lost you get a sound and a notification, with “Silence”. New Weather mode from the button on the map: wind, waves and point of sail along the route at the time you pass, with a time slider and a table of points, also in the route's Weather tab. The Tools menu gives way to dedicated panels, designed for tablets and large screens too.