What the wind and the water are doing now, where you sail — measured minutes ago by the buoys, gauges and weather stations on the Sound, not estimated by a model. The tides, the currents and the forecast are there too, shown the way a sailor reads them.
For iPhone, iPad and Mac. In testing now, by invitation.
Pick a harbor, a buoy, or a channel such as The Race or Plum Gut. SailTools finds the nearest instrument measuring each thing you want to know, shows you its latest reading, and tells you where it came from. Most weather apps emphasize forecasts over live data; this shows what was measured.
Choose from 57 weather, tide and current stations, from Hell Gate to The Race, or tap one on the map. Set your own home station and the app opens there, or have it follow you: it shows the station nearest you and changes as you move.
The wind as an anemometer on the water just measured it: knots, gusts and direction on a compass, with the Beaufort force by name. Waves from the buoys, with their height, period, direction and sea state.
What the tide and the current are doing now, and every high, low, slack and peak flow for the next three days, side by side so you can time a passage.
These are measurements, so each one says how old it is: usually minutes. A buoy can go quiet for hours, and then its number turns orange, so you never mistake an old reading for a new one.
Wind, gusts, waves, temperature and chance of rain for the days ahead, with the National Weather Service marine forecast in its own words. Advisories appear within minutes of being issued.
Wind, waves, tide and current on your lock screen, home screen or Mac desktop, without opening the app.
The same app on iPhone, iPad and Mac. On a wide screen the cards sit side by side; on a phone they stack.
SailTools follows your device's light or dark appearance, map included, so a look at the wind from a dim cabin or on a night watch is far gentler on eyes used to the dark.
The readings say what the Sound is doing now; the forecast says what may come next, and it is kept apart so you always know which you are looking at. Forecasts disagree, and where they disagree is worth knowing, so SailTools draws each model as its own line.
The National Weather Service writes a forecast for each stretch of the Sound. SailTools shows them all, west to east, exactly as issued.
The SailTools widget puts your home station's latest measured wind and waves, and its tide and current, where you already look. Change your home station in the app and the widget follows — or set it to show whichever place the app last showed.
Wind with its Beaufort name, waves with their sea state, the tide and the current, on one card on your iPhone or iPad.
A rectangle with wind, waves and tide, or a small dial with the wind's speed, gust and direction. Readable at a glance without unlocking.
The same card on your desktop or in Notification Center, updated through the day.
Each reading shows its age, and a tap on ↻ fetches fresh numbers. Tap anywhere else to open SailTools.
SailTools measures nothing itself. It gathers what public and research sources publish, checks it, and credits it.
Not for navigation. SailTools is an aid to planning. Readings can be late or wrong and predictions are only predictions. Check official sources and use your own judgment before and while you are on the water.
SailTools is in testing through Apple's TestFlight, by invitation. It needs iOS or iPadOS 18, or macOS 15, or later.
Request an invitationAlready have one? The guide covers installing and signing in.