Avoid crowded, noisy anchorages with sQuiddio's new Superyacht Dodger layer

Imagine booking an ocean-front room and discovering there is an 18 wheeler parked in front of it!

The number of superyachts, which are commonly defined as vessels over 30 meters (110 feet) long, has quadrupled in the last 30 years and there are almost 6,000 of them now at sea. You don't have to sail the French Riviera or the Florida Keys to spot one of these behemoths of the sea: they are now just about anywhere. If you are a billionaire, or are willing to shell out the $100K+ a week to charter one, or are just someone who enjoys that type of scene, have at it. After all, you have the same right to be there as the rest of us cruising mortals do.

But for most cruisers, the sight of one of these monsters approaching our anchorage to drop their anchor - often not far from where our boat is - is one of the most dreaded cruising experiences. And for good reasons: their huge silhouette can block out the beautiful scenery we had just begun to enjoy, their bright lights, often constantly on, can ruin that unique star-gazing experience we were looking forward to.  And what to say of the constant din of their generators? Or the loud parties with music blasting until the wee hours? Or the jet skis, the banana boats and the other noisy water toys which seem to be part of the standard carriage requirements for a these super stinkpots?

Finding superyacht-free anchorages

Sometimes I feel like finding an anchorage free of superyachts has become part of my standard route planning routine. And because helping with route-planning is sQuidd.io's mission, we have created the Superyacht Dodger layer: simply put, the layer will highlight all the Points of Interest (marinas, anchorages etc.) where a superyacht (or the occasional large cruise ship, another unwelcome companion of many an anchorage) is currently checked in. The presence of at least one of these types of vessels will show up in the map view as a small red icon overlaid to the POI.

Here's an example of what a section of the French Riviera around Cannes on a typical late July day appears when the layer is active. We have deliberately chosen arguably the busiest of cruising spots to show that, even in these circumstances, there is some hope of finding a reasonably quiet anchorage!.

 

As always, please let us know if you find this new feature helpful, what could be done to improve it and, in general, how you feel about this particular issue as a cruiser, by adding to the comments below.