Anchor Watch monitors drift from a saved anchor position. Access: Help → Safety at sea → Anchor watch.

Arming

  • Set alarm radius (slider 15–200 m; 30–80 m recommended, allowing for chain, wind and current)
  • Ensure GPS works — current position is shown
  • Press “Set anchor here and arm alarm”

When armed, a foreground service monitors GPS in the background — it keeps running when the app is minimised or the screen is locked.

Drift Guard (GPS track analysis): While armed, the app records your position track and shows:

  • Position chart relative to the anchor (alarm radius, swing circle, GPS track)
  • Yacht swing radius on the chain
  • Drift direction (bearing)
  • Drift-away speed from anchor (m/min)
  • Assessment: stable / swinging / possible drag / likely anchor drag

Drift Guard analyses the trend over the last minutes — early warning only, not a replacement for the radius alarm.

When the yacht drifts beyond the radius

  • Loud looping alarm sound (ALARM audio channel)
  • Continuous vibration
  • Screen wake and full-screen red alarm
  • System notification with full-screen intent
  • Red in-app banner and automatic navigation to the anchor watch screen

Disarming requires confirmation in a dialog (“Are you sure you want to disarm?”) — accidental disarm is harder.

System requirements

  • GPS location permission
  • Notification permission (Android 13+)
  • “Anchor watch — ALARM” notification channel enabled and loud
  • Android 14+: full-screen notification permission
  • Recommended: disable battery optimisation for the app (on some phone brands)

Alarm state is saved locally — monitoring may resume after a phone restart (Drift Guard track starts fresh).