# Helm Boating

> Helm Boating is a marine navigation app for iPhone and iPad (App Store name: "Helm Boating: GPS, Chart & Map") built for boating, sailing and fishing on US waters. It runs on official NOAA electronic navigational charts and merges four depth sources into one reading against your boat's draft, showing the date that measurement was surveyed. It plans routes around water your boat cannot cross, and adds NOAA tides and currents, weather on the chart, AIS vessel traffic, an anchor alarm and a trip logbook. Once a chart pack is downloaded, charts, routing, depth, tides and the anchor alarm keep working with no cell signal.

Helm Boating is built by Loop Mobile FZCO, a software company registered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The app was released on the App Store on 18 September 2026.

## Key facts

- Platforms: iPhone and iPad, iOS 18.0 or later. Native iPad layout, not a stretched phone screen. CarPlay interface included.
- App Store name: Helm Boating: GPS, Chart & Map. App Store ID: 6803616810. Category: Navigation.
- Charts: official NOAA electronic navigational charts (ENC), with satellite imagery and night chart styles.
- Depth: four sources merged into a single reading against your draft, with the survey date and the chart's own CATZOC confidence rating shown.
- Offline: 161 downloadable chart packs; download the water you actually run.
- Waters: coastal, offshore, intracoastal, rivers and inland lakes in the United States.
- Developer: Loop Mobile FZCO, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

## What it does

- Draft-aware route planning: enter your boat's draft once, and Helm plans around water that is too thin for you and shows the shallowest point on the leg before you commit.
- Departure planner: calm windows across the next day, so you can leave on the right tide.
- Offline chart packs: 161 downloadable packs — US coastal, Great Lakes, rivers and inland lakes, plus inland waterways in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Charts, routing, depth, tides and the anchor alarm keep working with no cell service.
- Underway display: depth, speed over ground and course over ground in one strip.
- AIS: nearby vessels on the same chart you navigate with — position, vessel type and movement status, refreshed about every ten seconds.
- Anchor alarm: set a radius and Helm wakes you if you drag, with or without signal.
- Logbook: every trip is recorded and replayable, so you can return to the same water later. Routes can be saved, reversed and shared, and GPX routes can be imported.
- Fishing: save spots, read depth contours and drop-offs, draw a depth profile along any line, and time the tide.
- Chart styles: standard nautical, satellite imagery and a dark night palette.
- CarPlay: the nautical chart on the vehicle's built-in screen on the tow to the ramp.

## Coverage and data sources

- NOAA electronic navigational charts (ENC) — the official chart baseline.
- USACE eHydro surveys — US Army Corps of Engineers dredging and survey soundings where they exist.
- State lake elevation data — inland lake depth comes from state elevation surveys rather than NOAA charts, so lakes and rivers are charted water.
- Live tide — the depth reading moves with the water rather than with the chart.
- CATZOC — the chart's own zone-of-confidence rating is shown, so an older sounding is presented differently from a fresh one.
- Tides and currents: NOAA CO-OPS predictions against the MLLW datum, with tidal current arrows that rotate as you scrub through the day.
- Weather: animated wind, wave and current overlays on the chart, a multi-day forecast strip and three-hour columns (wind, gusts, air temperature, precipitation), plus water temperature where the data exists. Weather is available wherever Helm charts water: US forecasts come from the US model and everywhere else is served by a global model.

## Pricing

- Free to download, with a free trial before any charge.
- Premium: $99.99 per year (about $8.33 per month). One plan, every feature included — all 161 chart packs, draft-aware routing, the four merged depth sources, tides and currents, weather, AIS, the anchor alarm, the logbook, CarPlay and the native iPad layout.
- No hardware to buy: no chart cartridge, no plotter, no subscription to a separate chart library. The NOAA charts Helm runs on are public data.
- The trial asks for no payment up front and sends a reminder before it ends.

## Download

- [iOS App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/helm-boating-gps-chart-map/id6803616810)

## Pages

- [Home](https://helmboating.app/): product overview — charts, depth, routes, offline packs, tides, weather, AIS and the logbook.
- [Depth data](https://helmboating.app/depth): how Helm merges NOAA charts, USACE eHydro surveys, state lake elevation data and the live tide into one depth reading against your draft, with survey date and CATZOC confidence.
- [Route planning](https://helmboating.app/routes): draft-aware routing, the shallowest point on a leg shown up front, the departure planner, route explanations, GPX import and cross-device sync.
- [Offline charts](https://helmboating.app/offline): the 161 downloadable chart packs and what keeps working with no cell signal.
- [Weather, tides and currents](https://helmboating.app/weather): NOAA CO-OPS tide predictions against MLLW, rotating tidal current arrows, animated wind and wave overlays, and the multi-day forecast strip.
- [Lakes and inland water](https://helmboating.app/lakes): lakes, rivers and the intracoastal, with lake depth from state elevation surveys shaded against your boat's draft.
- [NOAA charts](https://helmboating.app/noaa-charts): the official NOAA ENC baseline and the eHydro, state lake and live tide layers on top of it.
- [Fishing spots and depth contours](https://helmboating.app/fishing): saving spots, reading contours and drop-offs, drawing a depth profile along a line, timing the tide and replaying recorded trips.
- [AIS vessel traffic](https://helmboating.app/ais): live AIS traffic on the navigation chart — position, vessel type and movement status, plus the night chart style.
- [Helm on CarPlay](https://helmboating.app/carplay): the CarPlay interface that puts the nautical chart on the vehicle's built-in screen.
- [Helm on iPad](https://helmboating.app/ipad): the native iPad layout, with charts, routing, depth, tides and weather on a full screen.
- [FAQ](https://helmboating.app/faq): answers about charts, offline packs, depth sources, lakes, iPad, GPX import, the anchor alarm, AIS and availability.
- [Compare](https://helmboating.app/compare): what Helm does source by source — the four depth layers, draft-aware routing, the offline packs and the on-water tools — set out so it can be held against any other chart app.
- [Free NOAA charts](https://helmboating.app/free-noaa-charts): the official NOAA electronic navigational charts Helm runs on are public data, and what that means for cost, offline use and hardware.
- [Is Helm legit?](https://helmboating.app/trust): the company behind the app, where every chart and depth number comes from, what works with no signal, privacy, billing and support.

## Full text

The readable text of every page on the site in one file: https://helmboating.app/llms-full.txt

## Support

- Email: support@loopmobile.io
- Privacy policy: https://loopmobile.io/privacy.html
- Terms of service: https://loopmobile.io/tos.html