Digital charts meets the clarity of paper charts.
For centuries, nautical charts have helped mariners understand the waters around them and navigate from one destination to the next. While navigation technology has evolved dramatically over that time, the nautical chart remains the foundation for every journey on the water.
Because charts are at the heart of navigation, they are at the heart of Orca.
In Orca, every detail of the chart experience has been carefully designed to replicate the look and feel of traditional paper charts – from colours to symbols and navigation aids. The reason is simple: as a boater, you are likely already familiar with reading nautical charts.
The southwestern approach to Røst can be challenging to navigate. Easy-to-read charts make a big difference.
Orca Charts are designed with three core principles in mind:
Charts must emphasise features that are critical for safe navigation
Non-critical information must be visible where appropriate, yet draw as little attention as possible
Charts must be consistent and retain a predictable level of detail as you zoom in and out
Easy-to-read charts may sound like a nice-to-have, but we believe it is the most important feature of a navigation system. The infamous Vestas grounding in the Volvo Ocean Race was partially a result of electronic charts not abiding by these principles, where a reef was not visible at lower zoom levels on the vessel's navigation system.
The details that matter
Orca Charts are inspired by paper charts – but paper charts look slightly different from country to country. This is because countries around the world have very different coastlines, harbours, and navigation norms. To deliver a great experience for as many boaters as possible, Orca Charts have inherited unique elements from different countries.
A great example of this is Leading Light Sectors, which are found on Norwegian paper charts. Orca Charts highlight the visible distance of leading light sectors and their approach zone, making navigation via light sectors a lot easier.
Sector Leading Lights are represented with yellow cones. The dashed lines extend as far as the light is visible. This makes night approaches a lot easier.
While paper charts inspire Orca Charts, they still make great use of their digital powers. Important information, such as restriction zones, is easily visible across many zoom levels, and as you zoom in, more detailed labels appear for the restriction zone.
No-entry zones are clearly marked with a magenta shade and a no-entry symbol.
Another example is bridges. Orca shows bridge heights with traditional bridge height shields, but because Orca Charts are digital, they can show bridges that are lower than your safety height with red shields, and passable bridges in black – making it easier to spot passable bridges. Your safety height was set up when you first joined Orca, but you can adjust these via Main Menu > Settings > Chart if you want to.
For a sailboat with a 15m tall mast, these bridges are too low to pass and are marked in red.
Orca's charts also adjust for nighttime. By default, if you reduce the brightness of your phone or tablet below 20%, they will switch to night mode. Every single chart element, icon, and symbol adjusts for night mode – and important information for night sailing, such as light characteristics, is given more emphasis.
In night mode, Orca charts shift to a red hue. Light sectors become easier to spot, and their characteristics are shown more prominently.
A complete navigation system
A unique part of Orca is that Orca Charts run on your phone, tablet, laptop, and the Orca Display. No matter which device you use, you'll get responsive, crisp, and easy-to-read charts that look and feel like the classic paper charts.
Orca Display 2 makes planning and navigation fun and effortless.
If you are looking for a combination of a great chart experience and marine-grade robustness, you should have a look at the Orca Display. It handles sunshine effortlessly with its ultrabright screen, hot summers, and cold winters, and its touchscreen is designed for use in rain and sea spray. All Orca products are delivered with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee and free express shipping.
Free express shipping and 30-day satisfaction guarantee included.
Customer Reviews
Innovative System, But Crucial Gaps Keep Me Paying for Navionics
GreeceSailboatOver 55 feet (16.5 meters)Short cruising trips13 connected devicesAs a modern sailor managing a 17-meter yacht with a 3-meter draft, I am highly appreciative of Orca’s innovative approach, sleek interface, and modern features. It is a fantastic, forward-thinking system, and I gladly pay the €140 annual subscription just to support the development of such a promising product. However, despite having the full Orca setup on board, I am still forced to pay for and run a parallel Navionics subscription because Orca currently lacks a few critical navigational functionalities. There are two major areas where Orca falls short for my blue-water cruising needs: 1. Inaccurate Routing Around Fixed Obstacles (Bridges) The autorouting engine needs to become smarter regarding overhead clearance and openable structures. On a recent trip, Orca routed me straight through a bridge. While the bridge was visible on the map, the system completely ignored the fact that the bridge cannot be opened for a vessel of my mast height. I ended up stuck right in front of it, forced to backtrack and sail all the way around an island—adding an frustrating two hours of extra travel time to my journey. 2. Missing High-Resolution Depth Contours for Anchoring With a 3-meter draft, anchoring safely is a precise science. I always aim to anchor as shallow and close to the shore as possible to get maximum protection, while strictly avoiding running my keel aground. To do this safely, I absolutely depend on detailed, high-resolution depth contours. Right now, Orca’s depth data lacks the fidelity required for tight, shallow anchorages, forcing me to switch back to Navionics to cross-reference depths before dropping the hook. Conclusion Orca is an incredibly well-designed, innovative product that represents the future of marine navigation. I love the hardware and the overall ecosystem, which is why I remain a loyal subscriber. But until Orca implements reliable bridge clearance routing and high-resolution depth contours, it cannot be my sole primary system. I truly hope the development team addresses these gaps soon so I can finally drop my legacy subscriptions and rely 100% on Orca.
Show Full ReviewSweet product - many features in a box.
Baltic Sea +2 moreSailboat25-35 feet (7.5-10.5 meters)Short cruising trips10 connected devicesThe Core2 together with the app offers a lot of flexibility. Instead of or replacing a regular chart plotter, It discovered all of my mixed bunch of instruments on NMEA2K and is very easy to use. It will even talk to my autopilot.
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Orca Display
Germany +1 moreSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Long trips13 connected devicesHallo Orca Team, zwei Sachen, ich hatte mit eurem ki Assistenten korrespondiert und gefragt ob das Display eine Vesa Aufnahme hat. Dies wurde bejaht. Leider ist dem nicht so. Nach erneutem nachfragen sagte eurer ki Assistent dass eine Vesa Aufnahme nur mit einem Mount vorhanden ist. Da ich aber bereits einen Ram Mount habe, brauche ich die meisten Teile eures Mounts nicht. Ergo viel Geld für nichts. Zweitens, warum soll viele Google Apps? Ja, es ist ein Android System aber man kann den ganzen überflüssigen Google Mist, außer den Pay Store, nicht einmal entfernen. Denn was geht es Google an, wo ich segel, was ich nutze, was ich mache? Aber es gibt auch Lob. Euer Orca System ist gut. Ich nutze es als Redundanz zu OpenCPN auf einem Raspberry Pi 5 mit Bookworm. Danke und weiterhin viel Erfolg.
Show Full ReviewThe Tesla of chart plotters.
Denmark +3 moreSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Living aboard +2 more10 connected devicesMore stable than I expected and new features every year without buying new devices. Initially considered upgrading my old Raymarine plotter to Axiom, but got frustrated paying around 2000EUR for a product that was essentially 5 years old. Decided to try Orca after trying the free app for a few weeks, and the Core 2 did not cost more than I was willing to loose if It did not live up to expectations. on third season with Orca now, and have not looked back. Using it with iPad Pro (1000 nits = quite usable in sunlight) & Iphone, as the Display 2 is simply too old to justify its price.
Show Full ReviewOrca review
Baltic Sea +3 moreSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Long trips +1 more12 connected devicesSuperfornøyd med Orca
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