Boat owners are getting a new entertainment option as they bob on the water, as Crest Marine and Balise bring CarPlay to pontoons.
Apple CarPlay is intended as a way to interact with your iPhone safely through a vehicle's infotainment system. While that vehicle has been cars, vans, and trucks so far, it's about to go very off-road, and off-land too.
Announced during the annual dealer meeting of Crest Marine on Tuesday, CarPlay will be an option for the infotainment system for customers of both Crest and Balise Pontoons. The MasterCraft Boat Holdings brands have partnered with marine navigation app Savvy Navvy to adapt CarPlay for usage on the water.
Apple's satellite map sourcing is not suitable for water navigation. Nautical charts include depths, navigational channels, and so forth, where Apple Maps do not.
There's an app for that, though.
The Savvy Navvy mobile app provides access to nautical charts, smart routing, GPS tracking, weather forecasts, and tidal data, which are essential for sailing. The mobile app will sync with CarPlay on the pontoon, showing navigation on the same screen as other CarPlay-connected applications.
The announcement isn't just beneficial for iPhone users. The company is also doing the same for Android Auto.
Starting with the 2027 model year, Apple CarPlay with Savvy Navvy compatibility will be standard on all Balise and Crest Conquest and Caribbean models, which will launch in September. Customers also get access to Savvy Navvy Premium, which will unlock all the app's features.
In the U.S., Savvy Navvy is available as a free app with basic features and U.S. charts access. The company also has a $129 annual Premium plan when bought directly from the firm, adding a tidal heights graph, 14-day trip planing, an ECWMF Mixed weather model, anchor alarm, and other features.
A Premium+ option is also available for $169 per year, including global charts.
CarPlay's making waves
The inclusion of CarPlay support for pontoons is a big change for Apple's automotive infotainment platform, especially when it's best known for being used in cars. However, this isn't the first inkling of CarPlay moving to become more marine.
In February, jet ski producer Sea-Doo floated the idea of bringing CarPlay to its personal watercraft. While the company already has CarPlay support on a very similar infotainment system used by sister-brand Can-Am, it hadn't ported it over for the water-based version.
Sea-Doo already had support for mobile apps and supported media playback from connected smartphones, so CarPlay isn't that hard to imagine using in a similar way.
However, the stumbling block at the time was a lack of navigation, since Apple Maps is intended for use with roads, not waves. Incorporating apps like Savvy Navvy could solve the navigation problem and make CarPlay a possibility for Sea-Doo in the future.
