I bought a boat and accidentally built an app.

Hello, fellow boat person—

I am a new boat owner, which means I have spent a perfectly reasonable amount of time looking at wind, waves, tides, weather, buoy readings, and advisories—and a slightly less reasonable amount of time switching between sites to do it.

The data was all there. The tricky part was turning those useful pieces into an answer to the question I actually had at the dock: does this look like a boat day for my boat?

So, naturally, I built an app.

Boat or Nope brings the useful conditions together, lets you set the wind and wave limits that feel right for your boat, and gives you one clear planning call: Go, Caution, No-Go, or Incomplete.

Fewer tabs, a clearer picture, and more time to enjoy the boat.

You can still see the evidence and sources behind the call, because marine weather deserves more than a reassuring green circle with no explanation. Wind, seas, tide, weather, observations, and advisories stay available for the people who quite reasonably want to look under the hood.

If an important piece is missing, the answer is Incomplete. I would rather have the app admit that than quietly invent confidence it has not earned.

This started as a side project for a hobby I am still learning. It sent me deep into NOAA data, tide stations, buoy observations, marine forecasts, and the strange joy of getting one little iPhone timeline to feel just right.

Apple just approved version 1 for the App Store, which feels both exciting and mildly improbable.

One important note: Boat or Nope is a pre-departure planning aid, not navigation and not a substitute for seamanship, official forecasts, current observations, local knowledge, or your own judgment. The captain is still you.

If you spend weekends thinking about wind, chop, tide tables—or whether today is a boat day—I would love for you to try it and tell me at ahoy@boatornope.com what would make it more useful.

Thanks for taking a look.
Fair winds,
Todd