You have probably seen the headlines by now, that the Imray range of paper charts has been saved from extinction by a tie-up with an Austrian cartographer. The UK Hydrographic Office has also given its paper charts division a stay of execution. This is good news for cruising sailors, of course. But make no mistake: digital navigation is in the ascendence.

It’s not hard to see why. Elsewhere in our lives, digital services are edging out traditional analogue ones: high streets are ceding to Internet shopping, while we consume on-demand TV and chat to friends via Zoom. It’s all mediated by the smartphone in your pocket or the tablet in your bag. So, it makes sense that we are increasingly looking to bring this sort of integration on board boats as well.

You may have no desire to watch Netflix in the saloon or check your bank balance under way. But it is hard to deny the benefit of being able to plan a passage on the tablet from the comfort of an armchair at home, then simply carry it on board with you. There are many apps which offer to do this, including the companion apps for the big three instrument manufacturers. But few do it as seamlessly as Orca, a disruptive new marine navigation specialist.

Disrupting digital navigation

Orca is an app and is free to download. But it is also a subscription, a hardware bridge that integrates with your instruments and even a dedicated display if you want it. The thing that makes it stand out is the quality of the user interface, which has been developed from scratch by the Norwegian start-up, and the genuinely intuitive way it works. This feels like navigation designed by Steve Jobs.

Where the low-res screens of the traditional chartplotter can be slow to pan and zoom, fiddly to set-up and rely on a companion app for updates or routing planned at home, Orca IS the app. It runs on smartphones and tablets, as well as its own dedicated Display 2 (£899), streaming wireless data via an NMEA bridge called the Core 2 (£499) which is dropped into your instrument network. Even without the Core, the Orca app will plot your position and heading on beautifully crafted proprietary charts, pulling in Internet AIS where available.

Wireless instrument control

With the Core installed (it’s a plug and play on NMEA2000 networks), you can see instrument data and design the optimum display. You can control the autopilot and the radar, overlaying the output on the chart. And you can also switch on the digital logbook, noting track and actuals such as boat speed, wind speed and depth at every stage of your passage.

It at once breaks you out of the static wired environment that typifies boat electronics. Use the app on your phone as a wireless remote control for the autopilot, which it can sync with and control seamlessly (Garmin, Raymarine and B&G/Simrad/Lowrance units). Perhaps you want to alter your heading to run more downwind as you prepare to snuff the spinnaker on the foredeck. Or double check an AIS signature without rushing below.

Always to hand

As a navigation tool it is just as flexible. Instead of putting a dedicated chartplotter costing thousands at the helm, simply mount your device using any one of dozens of commercially available mounts. It can move with you if you have twin helms, or come to the cockpit where you can pan looking for the best anchorage on arrival. And in the evening, you can whisk it below to the chart table, saloon or cabin to plan the next day’s passage.

The charts update automatically, and Orca has developed one of the most powerful auto-routing systems available for cruisers. The free version gives standard routing under motor, but if you pay the annual £44.99 subscription to Orca Plus, you get a true sailing course, complete with tacks or gybes to optimise VMG. It will also pull in weather and tide data, enabling sensationally accurate routes and guidance on the best moment to leave over a five-day period.

Wireless navigation has never looked so good, or been so accessible, as it is with Orca. And the kicker? Well, whether you’re using Orca’s Display 2 or your own tablet, it is so much more than just a single app. You can use it to take photos, call home or, yes, even watch Netflix!