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Coastguard app


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Arrived back in NZ last week and joined the Coastguard this morning. The website recommends installing their app. Seems like a good idea, but can't find it in the google store. I checked the google store website and see this: "This app is incompatible with all of your devices" - specifically a fairly old Samsung S5 and a very recently purchased Moto G7. Huh?? What gives?

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Only thing I use is the nowcasting info. Only reason I got it. It keeps wanting to give me safety messages and trip logs. Annoying but overriden by my love of knowing what the wind is doing at this particular point im time. Direction and strength.

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It was a massive step backwards when they switched off the text options. That was a v useful backup to access essential info when coverage was too weak for full data but enough for a simple text to get through.

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I thought the old CG app was rubbish / didn't actually work. Is the new one worse? Does the new one actually work for what ever it is supposed to do?

(note, I don't normally do apps, and could be 2 or 3 apps out of date...)

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MattM, I have the new Coastguard app installed on my Moto G4.  Have you tried installing? It's better than nothing.  

 

But it is probably better to pay for PredictWind to activate their Observations.  In anticipation of the next America's Cup, they have just installed 10 of their own new wind stations, so you can get more readings than Nowcasting. Plus you can view history at each wind station, so you can see the trend over the last 12hr, 6hr, 15 mins.

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Coastguard are looking for sailors to contribute via a focus group.  Let me know if you are interested.

 

When the new app came out I made it quite clear why I felt it wasn't as good as the old app and they totally dismissed any criticism. It's rubbish.

 

I used to have all my important now casting stations in a list and now I have to select each one manually from a map. Not all my favourites are in the same area so this takes time. Even the weather and tides are harder to do and put together by someone more focused on graphics than providing text and tables.

 

I rarely file trip reports and I don't listen to coastguard stations for the very reason I'm sick of hearing boat after boat tell me they are leaving Westhaven for Izzy Bay (or the local equivalent) I'm a member of the local chapter because they do an amazing job but the rest of "member services" is better provided by any number of outlets. Incidentally Coastguard aren't alone. Metservice look to have the same team of kids running their IT department

 

Predictwind has really lifted their game

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Its impressive how they did such a horrendous job of updating a useful app into something that is completely useless.

 

Clearly not designed bu someone who had ever used the old app, or had any knowledge of how people used it or what they wanted to see.

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I know there is the separate discussion about Winddan. It was fantastic.

Did anyone find out if Coastguard shut him down or did Dan simply move onto other ventures?

Coastguard should be inviting Dan in as a consultant to the focus group.

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With the Predictwind Observations, these can be viewed in Map or Table form, giving you the best of both worlds. 

The Table just lists the stations shown on the current map, so you can make the Table list bigger or smaller by going to the Map first and zooming in or out to show the ones you want.

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I know there is the separate discussion about Winddan. It was fantastic.

Did anyone find out if Coastguard shut him down or did Dan simply move onto other ventures?

Coastguard should be inviting Dan in as a consultant to the focus group.

They should just buy winddan and call it the new coastguard app.

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The Coastguard app is one pretty amateur effort at best and I wonder weather they actually have heard the criticism.

The focus groups and consultation would have been straight out of Fawlty Towers that’s if they actually conducted any.

Somehow I doubt it.

The real shame is for a small effort they could have reached out to Dan or others for some very appt advice.

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The coastguard app isn't too bad- but you are quite right it doesn't do everything.

However, you have to remember that CG aren't trying to make a profit, and in fact

they are moving towards making the app free.

The main point of the app is for us to make our own trip reports and have them

checked if we are overdue. On a busy day, apparently the operations centre in

Mechanics Bay gets around 2000 calls, and the more of them done on the app, the

more CG can concentrate on those of us who need assistance.

Also, people may  not know it, but that ops centre is now responsible for everything from Taranaki to

North CApe

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