Free anchor apps for android?

What are the better free anchor apps for android? I have a friend that uses Drag Queen?
I saw a similar thread from 2011 and hope that they have improved. I would appreciate advice.

Pura Vida said:

What are the better free anchor apps for android? I have a friend that uses Drag Queen?
I saw a similar thread from 2011 and hope that they have improved. I would appreciate advice.

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I use "Drag Queen".

Thanks for your reply Moonstruck. Do you feel safe and is Drag Queen working well for you? Have you tried other anchor apps?

Pura Vida said:

Thanks for your reply Moonstruck. Do you feel safe and is Drag Queen working well for you? Have you tried other anchor apps?

Click to expand...

Active Captain published that one. So, I trusted it. So far so good. No problems. Haven't dragged.
.

I did not know that Drag Queen was associated with Active Captain, that is a strong reason to give it a try.

Now that I have been made aware of 'Drag Queen' I have my whole crew use it on their phones. We often leave a barge in an anchorage. And they (someone has to stay aboard) have no way of knowing (definitively) if they drag. This is a great app!

I'm a big fan of ActiveCaptain, but their DragQueen app wasn't a keeper when I first tried it. There were several others I liked better. My latest discovery (from the cruisers forum site) is SailSafe. So far I like it better than the rest I've tried.

Can I get some more details about this app?Does it alert you to dragging anchor or just give you near by places that are safe to anchor?

You can enter either your current location ( most likely standing on the now, immediately prior to dropping anchor) or inputting Lat Y Lon then you select anchor distance (circle) and click the "alarm" button. It whoop whoop whoops when you leave your circle with an adjustable setting for second(s) delay if you want it

As far as I can tell it's just an anchor alarm. But it seems easy to use and has some advanced features the others don't. It's free - install it and try it out.

cappy208 said:

You can enter either your current location ( most likely standing on the now, immediately prior to dropping anchor) or inputting Lat Y Lon then you select anchor distance (circle) and click the "alarm" button. It whoop whoop whoops when you leave your circle with an adjustable setting for second(s) delay if you want it

Click to expand...

That explains alot.Thanks.

CaptTom said:

As far as I can tell it's just an anchor alarm. But it seems easy to use and has some advanced features the others don't. It's free - install it and try it out.

Click to expand...

We are old school.Our phones barely text and take have way viable photos.We are looking into getting new smarty phones.

cappy208 said:

Now that I have been made aware of 'Drag Queen' I have my whole crew use it on their phones. We often leave a barge in an anchorage. And they (someone has to stay aboard) have no way of knowing (definitively) if they drag. This is a great app!

Click to expand...

DragQueen's goal for me was to figure out what was needed for the alarming part of the problem. I'm still surprised that most other alarms don't provide an alarm when the GPS accuracy becomes too poor to give good data - some devices keep reporting the same lat/lon but give a high HDOP showing that the data isn't good any longer - most alarms will miss that. High HDOP can happen if a storm comes up and if you're sleeping, you might not realize that the anchor alarm isn't really watching any longer which is the exact time you really need it watching. I also learned that an alarm delay is needed for all alarms to limit false positives.

Over the next year, all of that will be combined into the Companion and eBoatCards "Locations". The result will be DragKing (and still all free). DK provides a remote anchor alarm. There will be a lot of reasons to leave a PC, Mac, or phone/tablet onboard collecting your position for updating in eBoatCards - there's a special anchor mode - you'll see. Anyway, if that's being collected, a second Companion will allow you to view and alarm based on the remote location instead of the internal GPS. The result is that while at lunch onshore, you'll have a live anchor alarm showing the state of your boat in it's anchor circle. It'll alarm if you exceed the limits set.

Anchor swing collections (including depth - cool new wireless ways coming to collect and record that) will be part of anchorage markers. That'll allow you to see where others have anchored and what they experienced for depth across a full tide swing. It'll be sorted by friend/group members, etc. giving extra meaning if you know people who've anchored there before. So using the alarm will actually help others in the future who might want to anchor in the same place.

We call this whole new class of capabilities, "social navigation"...

Now, if I could only get a low power data / internet connection so I can monitor my bilge status while I'm gone at work for 2 weeks.....

It sounds like DragKing will provide the remote anchor alarm that I was looking for next. I will just leave a tablet on-board and can go explore, dine, visit etc... without all the worrying.