OpenWater is a chartplotter for cruising sailors who want something that works without a weekend of setup. It runs on inexpensive hardware, like a Raspberry Pi with a touchscreen and a USB GPS, and it’s designed to be approachable on day one without giving up serious capability.

Where it stands: early development. It runs on the bench and on a Raspberry Pi touchscreen, showing NOAA charts for US waters, your boat’s position, routes, and warnings about dangers ahead. It isn’t released yet.

The goal: reliable, affordable charts for waters outside the USA, and a few sailors willing to try early builds and tell me what’s confusing.

About me

I’m a software engineer with 36 years of experience, recently retired. Next year my wife and I start sailing the Mediterranean on our 46-foot sailboat, and OpenWater is the chartplotter I want aboard.

About the name and the source code

OpenWater is a hobby project, not a business. It’s free to use, and I intend for it to stay that way. The source code isn’t public yet. I plan to open it up once it’s stable and there are people who want to help carry it forward. Until then I’m not accepting outside contributions.

OpenWater is not a certified navigation system. Don’t rely on it as your sole means of navigation.