Anker Alarm App Icon

Anchor Alarm App

This document was last updated on January 2nd, 2025

Head to the App Store!

Exclusively available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. If you want more information, please continue reading.

The term "swing circle" (or variations thereof) does not necessarily mean a perfectly circular area, but rather refers to the area within which you are allowed to stay while at anchor without triggering an alarm.

Introduction

What makes Anchor Alarm special?

Besides its clean design, it naturally includes all the important features necessary for perfect operation. Here's an overview of the key features that will make your stay in the anchorage easier.

01

Not Just Circles

The special feature of this app is that you can draw your allowed swing area yourself, whether oval, triangle, or L-shaped. If you don't like that, you can also set a circular swing area in the app.

02

Wake-up Guarantee

The alarm sound will get you out of your bunk even after too many sundowners, guaranteed!

Instructions

The Four Tabs

The basic principle after opening the app is to draw the swing area and then activate the alarm. There are additional options that allow you to, for example, draw and display the anchor on the map to better assess how to draw your allowed swing area.

Tab 1: Map

On the map you see a sketch of a small green ship, which is drawn to scale. The corresponding dimensions can be set in the settings. The small green ship always points its bow in the direction you're holding your iPhone. Therefore, it's important to hold the iPhone pointing towards the bow for correct display on the map!

An orange line shows the traveled path. This allows you to see exactly where the ship has swung after a few hours of operation. This helps you recognize wind changes during the night. You can reset this recorded track in the settings if needed.

The rings show the distance (The distance shown on the circle is the radius) from you.

With the Draw Swing Area button, you can draw the allowed swing area either freehand or as a circle on the map. Whether it's freehand or circle depends on what you've configured in the map handling settings.

With the Set Anchor Position button, you can mark the anchor on the map. You can only set the anchor as far from your position as possible given the water depth and chain length you entered in the settings. A sketch at the top shows you how taut the anchor chain must be at your chosen distance while positioning. This option is only available if you've activated anchor positioning in the map handling settings.

Apple Watch

If you use an Apple Watch, you must disable notification mirroring for the Anchor Alarm app, otherwise the iPhone won't play an alarm but the watch will only tap once on your wrist, which probably won't wake you up at night. You can find this setting in the Watch app on your iPhone here: Notifications ➡ Mirror iPhone Alerts from: ➡ Anchor Alarm must be disabled!

Border Color

When the app is on screen, a colored border can be displayed, each color has a specific meaning.

FAQ

The ship symbol orientation isn't working

Check the iOS compass settings under Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Compass Calibration and Settings > Compass.

Why was there a new version?

I had to update the app because it wasn't running reliably on some devices, probably because the code base was originally developed for iOS 6 and was based on many outdated architectural principles by today's standards. This led to users complaining about crashes. This obviously shouldn't happen with an app that should be as reliable as possible! That's why everything is now new for the current state of technology.

I miss the headset connection alarm from Version 1

Most current devices don't even offer the possibility to connect headphones or a headset without an appropriate adapter, so I didn't include this type of alarm in the new version.

I miss the low volume alarm from Version 1

In Version 1, the alarm played at the current system volume. In Version 2, a so-called "Critical Alert" is delivered by iOS. This is always at full volume, regardless of whether your iPhone is set to quiet or even silent. Note that you must have allowed the app to deliver "Critical Alerts".

Are the measurements of the rings on the map radius or diameter?

It's the radius, and you (or your iPhone) are in the center, so something on the 25m circle is 25m away from you.

Roadmap

Planned Features