u/jpcams

I have a small boat in the Netherlands and spend summer days wandering around the canals.
Over the past couple of years I was using a free app from the Connect store that served its purpose to track my speed since there are speed rated zones throughout the waterways. The downside was that the app only tracked speed. However, after a recent four hour trip I realized I had nothing to show for it. No route, no distance.

That's how the app came to be. It's called Deadreckon, free on the Connect IQ store.

What it does:

• Live boat speed, heading, distance, trip time, top and average speed
• Tap Start to record. Tap Start to stop the recording and choose to save the trip to Garmin Connect as a Boating activity with your route, distance, speed, and time, just like a run or ride
• Or just use it as a speedometer and save nothing
• Knots, km/h, and mph, adjustable gauge range
• Day & Dark modes

It runs on most watches across the Garmin line. But I've only hand verified a couple plus my own epix gen 2 on the water. If it renders weird on your watch, let me know the model and I'll try to fix it.

I built it for my own boating and I'm still actively developing it, so feature ideas are genuinely welcome.

Download for free on Connect IQ: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/c571d0e8-1b44-4dc6-8cd2-68db07d1c7a4

The idea came from canal cruising in the Netherlands, where speed limits are around 6 km/h (3.7 mph). I have a small boat with a small outboard motor and no speedometer, so I needed a way to check my speed at a glance when entering the narrower neighborhood canals. I built a small watch app to do exactly that, then added activity tracking so I could also log my routes and see where I've been.

The app works two ways:

Just open it and you get your current speed and heading.

Or start an activity and it tracks speed, max speed, average speed, distance traveled and time elapsed. When you finish your trip you can save it as a boating activity in Garmin Connect, including the route on a map.

In settings you can switch between knots, km/h and mph, and you can adjust the dial range to match the speed of your boat, so a slow canal cruiser gets a readable dial instead of a needle stuck at the bottom.

It's called Deadreckon, it's free, and it works on most recent Garmin watches. If this could be useful to you, feel free to install it and let me know what you think: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/c571d0e8-1b44-4dc6-8cd2-68db07d1c7a4

If this is the wrong place or if I did this wrong, let me know and I will gladly update or move it to the appropriate subreddit.

Deadreckon gives you a clean GPS speedometer with heading, distance, trip time, top speed, your moving average. Hit start and that saves your trip as a native Garmin Boating activity.

Right now it supports knots, kmh, and mph, plus adjustable speed scales to match your craft.

The app is free and I’d like your feedback if you spend time on the water:
https://apps.garmin.com/apps/c571d0e8-1b44-4dc6-8cd2-68db07d1c7a4