Hi All,
I’m researching ways to share on-the-water activities with other boats. I am thinking a “social app for boats” would be handy while traveling to and from the Rendezvous in August.
One app that stands out in my research is NoForeignLand.
The features I like most are:
FREE.
App that runs on your tablet or phone or web browser on a computer.
Logs tracks using the GPS in any phone, so you don’t need AIS to share your location with friends.
Can organize your logs using chapters and stories .
Can imbed photos and videos in your stories.
Can create “groups” so you can quickly see where folks you know are. I’ve created a group named Nonsuch and everyone interested in test driving NoForeignLand is welcome to join the group.
AquaMap has similar services. It’s a phone/tablet chartplotting app that gives purchase discounts to INA members (found via MEMBERS SERVICES & DEALS on MEMBERS tab of the www.Nonsuch.org webpage).
Thanks Bob. I looked at AquaMap, and saw it as a strong contender for mapping and logging tracks but not as strong for socializing. Maybe I’m missing something ?
Could you take a peek at NoForeignLand and let me know what you see as the pros and cons of each?
NoForeignLand impressed me by how easy it makes it to communicate with other boats in the area. When I signed up I could see other boats using NoForeignLand near me.
To my surprise a sailing friend that hadn’t seen in 20 years happened to be at a club next door to our home club. Small world !
I tried to sign up using email choice and when I sign in to my account the webpage is taking me on a continuous loop of sign ins. Saying email is incorrect email or email already used. I will let it set for awhile and see if it catches up with itself. Sounds interesting though.
I get that message and others in the loop that just keeps going on. I will delete everything and try again when I get some time. I’m still commissioning my boat and am quite late this year.
Hi All,
Here’s an update on what I’ve learned so far about NoForeignLand.
It has a very handy mapping feature that provides excellent visualization of other boats sharing their location and points of interest like moorings, marinas, and anchorages. It is NOT a substitute for charts or chart plotter. It does allow you to capture your tracks whenever you sail. You and your crew can create “chapters” of your journey and to add photos and log entries. It nice to see these entries visually displayed on a map.
It’s a bit disorienting at first because it presents information from different perspectives than other social apps which are “people centric”.
NoForeignLand is “boat centric”. Meaning information is organized by boat. When you register, it actually asks more questions about your boat than your person.
Another useful feature is that you can register as “crew” for multiple boats. However, you can only register as a skipper of a single boat.
I’m going to focus on understanding the “group” feature next because it provides a way communities to self-identify and collaborate. I’ve created a community named Nonsuch which currently has 4 members from 3 boats. These are real boats and real people, not test data. I am hoping others will also join and let me know if they find this useful. The idea is to see where our paths have crossed and where they might cross in the future.
You can also think of a “boat” as a community. Boats all have a skipper. They also have crew and followers. Crew can post photos, make log entries, and be delegated administrative roles by the skipper.
I have observed enough value to continue to investigate. I’ll probably encourage other friends with boats to give it a try and possibly create a new group for the Cruising Fleet at our sailing club.
More NoForeignLands info. I’m hoping some of the folks coming to the rendezvous will document their trip. NoForeignLands is one of several FREE apps that do a good job. I’m also looking at SailTies. Happy to answer questions and help anyone interested with the setup.
Today I went for a short daysail and used my the NoForeignLands app to record my tracks.
HERE is a link to Soave’s boat page. I assume everyone can load it even without creating an account. If not please let me know.
On Soave’s boat page there is a “Show Journey” link in the upper left of the page.
It seems like the app considers a whole season of sailing to be “the journey” but you can break the journey into chapters. My plan is to create a chapter each time I depart from my home port. Even for daysails and races.
You will see today’s chapter named “1st Daysail of 2026”. It’s a 14 mile loop displayed in red. There is a circular icon on the route that represents a “story” that I added. The story contains some pictures. Below is a screen shot from my laptop showing the chapter from today and the story.
Hi Rob,
How user friendly was it for you to do all this on noforignland? Looks like a real good app. Looking forward to what you can do on the other one you mentioned.
Thanks for sharing . I will adapt to whatever you would like to present in the form of answering users questions in this little group we will have on the way to Greenport for the Rondezvous. It will be a great way to remember this gathering, probably my one and only.
Brian
How user friendly, is a tricky question. After learning the quirks of any app it gets easy… can be rough at first. When it comes to technology hard things can be easy and easy things can be hard.
To me, is seems like phone apps are designed for young folks with tiny nimble fingers and eagle-like eyesight. I “cheated” and created my account and registration info using the web interface with a browser ( I use Chrome). My kids call me “old” when they see how often I use my laptop for things they use their phones for.
Plus, to my eye, the maps are much more useful when viewed on a large screen.
Here is a summary of my NoForeignLands setup and usage :
Created my login and entered registration info using Chrome at https://www.noforeignland.com/ there is a button to “use web”.
Downloaded the app to my phone and used my newly created account credentials to log in.
When using the map and searching for other boats and viewing their journeys I use my laptop and Chrome ( any browser will work). I’m too clumsy using the phone.
Yesterday to record my daysail I … Brought my cell phone to the boat, clicked the start tracking button, and when I returned I clicked the stop tracking button.
While I was out on the water, I took some photos using my phone. I’m pretty sure you could save them directly to the app, but I just used the camera app and let them go to my Google drive.
When I got home, with my computer I viewed my journey and clicked the “new chapter” button to make the daysail it’s own chapter in my journey. This makes it easy for me to look at each daysail separately.
To create the story for the day I clicked on my route and it offered the option to add story, then I typed something profound and memorable. I also added a few of the photos I took earlier in the day. If you use google photos, they automatically load from your camera to your google drive, from my computer I download the ones I want to publish on NoForeignLands to my computer, then select them for upload to NoForeignLands.
I enjoy the mapping feature and find it MUCH easier than transferring tracks off my chartplotter or OpenCPN on my laptop.
Having to write this all out, I realize this isn’t going to be something that everyone will want to bother with. I enjoy tinkering and found this app easier than most.
