Be careful, this is not a navigation application... And yet Nav&Co looks like it. SHOM and OFB have just released a free application to download on Android. The SHOM, every sailor knows. It is the Hydrographic Service in France, the one that draws up nautical charts. The OFB, on the other hand, is probably less well known to yachtsmen. It is the French Biodiversity Office, people who work for the protection of the environment.
These two state agencies have decided to share a database. On the one hand SHOM provides the nautical charts. On the other hand, the OFB indicates the regulations of the different zones.
For the 2020 season, the free application covers the entire tip of Brittany, from Mont Saint-Michel to Croisic. It is possible to load the maps before departure, when you still have the connection and then consult them at sea. On the maps, in addition to the navigational indications, the OFB has implemented the regulations for yachting. Thus, it will be possible to discover the islets where disembarkation is prohibited or even find out about a protected marine area with information about the site, the fauna and flora.
If this application is not intended for navigation, it does not allow you to set a waypoint or follow a course. However, it does record your boat's track and has an augmented reality mode. You click on a beacon on the map and the photo of the bitter appears. No other application offers this mode!
The user will be able to filter the information on the map (point of interest). Through its Nav&Co application, OFB wants to make boaters aware of what is underwater. A kind of mirror to see the environment in which we are sailing. The application is constantly updated. Each manager of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) has the possibility to access the database and to give new information about the presence or absence of species. A real tool that it will be good to consult this summer if you are pointing your bow towards Brittany. A test phase for the moment, while waiting for the continuation in other regions?
Already a new version
Since Monday, August 10, 2020, version V1.1 is available in the Androide store (still free). More accomplished, many details have been improved: faster photo downloading, visualization of the track in discovery mode... This latest version includes especially, for compatible smartphones, access to the augmented reality feature helping the recognition of landmarks and markup. As this is a test phase, the various stakeholders (SHOM, OFB, developers...) are very interested in the users' opinions. They can, via the main menu (heading -> your opinion) fill in a small questionnaire which will help to evaluate the tool and make it evolve.
