Skipper's Route Guard
A mobile route-planning app for cruising yachtsmen and small-craft skippers that overlays active military exclusion zones, naval exercises and high-tension waterways on top of normal nav charts.
cruising sailors and small-craft skippers planning Channel and Baltic passages
- Geo-fenced alerts for active live-fire zones and exclusion areas
- Channel and Baltic geopolitical-risk overlay on standard nav charts
- Composite weather, tide and danger score for any planned passage
- One-tap safer-route reroute with fuel and time impact
Recent Channel incident between a Russian frigate and a civilian yacht has yacht clubs actively asking for safer planning tools.
The 16 June 2026 Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich warning-shots incident with yacht Bright Future was covered by BBC, Wikipedia, Yacht.de and National Security Journal, with sailing press explicitly advising skippers on behavior — clear top-of-funnel safety concern.Russian warship fires warning shots near UK-registered yacht in Channel ↗2026 English Channel incident - Wikipedia ↗
No consumer-grade app found that overlays live naval exercises / exclusion zones on standard cruising charts; existing solutions are either professional warship systems (OSI ECPINS) or military mission-planning tools (map.army, github military-map), leaving the recreational skipper niche open.Leading Naval Navigation & Tactical Systems - OSI Maritime ↗GitHub - carkiki/military-map ↗
Marine nav apps already monetize via annual subscriptions: Savvy Navvy $99–169/yr and Navionics annual plans, demonstrating clear willingness to pay in the cruising-skipper segment.Savvy Navvy Cost and Pricing Guide ↗Savvy Navvy Pricing ↗
Active naval exercises and gray-zone warship activity in Channel and Baltic are driven by ongoing NATO–Russia tensions and are broadcast continuously via NAVAREA/UKHO notices, so the need will persist for years rather than spike-and-fade.2026 English Channel incident - Wikipedia ↗
Feasible but non-trivial: must ingest and geo-code NAVTEX / NAVAREA / UKHO navigational warning feeds and overlay on third-party chart tiles (Navionics/SailGrib), with no off-the-shelf API and a need for near-real-time refresh — moderate build cost.