Short answer: yes — and here is everything you need to check it yourself instead of taking our word for it.
Helm Boating is published by Loop Mobile FZCO, a software company registered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is listed on the Apple App Store as Helm Boating: GPS, Chart & Map under that same company name, in the Navigation category, and it is free to download. The listing went live on 18 September 2026 and runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later.
Trusting a navigation app is a real decision — you are using it to decide where to put your boat. So the rest of this page is specific rather than reassuring: who we are, where every number in the app comes from, what happens when the signal drops, what we do with your data, and how to reach a person.
Helm is built and operated by Loop Mobile FZCO, registered at Unit 113, DMCC Business Centre, Level 1, Jewellery & Gemplex 3, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The same company name appears as the developer on the App Store listing and on loopmobile.io, so what you install matches who we say we are. The team that answers your email is the team that writes the app.
Check it yourself in two minutes. Open the App Store listing and tap the developer name — Loop Mobile FZCO, with the same company site and privacy policy linked from this page. Then look up any of the data sources below; all of them are published by US federal or state agencies, not by us.
Helm reads the depth from the chart itself, adds the NOAA predicted tide where a station is within 25 nautical miles, and reports the result against the draft you entered.
| Source | Published by | What it contributes |
|---|---|---|
| NOAA ENC | NOAA, Office of Coast Survey | Chart data and depth for the coast and the Great Lakes, reprocessed by Helm, so not an official NOAA product |
| USACE Inland ENC | US Army Corps of Engineers | Chart data and depth for the inland rivers |
| National Hydrography Dataset | US Geological Survey | Lake shorelines and names in the state lake packs |
| Lake bathymetry | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | Depth contour lines drawn on Minnesota lakes |
| Tide predictions | NOAA CO-OPS (MLLW datum) | The predicted tide from a station within 25 nautical miles, added to the charted depth |
As current as the chart it comes from. The depth card tells you what kind of figure you are reading: a charted sounding, a depth band from the chart, or water the chart has no soundings for, where it says so instead of printing a number. The full explanation is here.
You enter your boat's draft once. Where the chart carries depth, water you cannot cross is shaded. In the coastal and Great Lakes packs that carry routing data, routes plan around it and the measure tool reports the shallowest point along any line you draw rather than the average of it.
Coverage is packaged into 161 downloadable chart packs. You take the water you actually run and leave the rest. Once a pack is on the device, the app keeps doing its job with no cell service at all.
| On the water, with no signal | |
|---|---|
| NOAA charts | From the downloaded pack |
| Depth against your draft | Works offline where the chart carries depth |
| Route planning | Works offline in the coastal and Great Lakes packs that carry routing data |
| Tides | The last NOAA prediction Helm downloaded, kept on the device |
| Anchor alarm | Runs on GPS, no connection needed |
| Track recording and logbook | Works offline |
Downloads run in the background and resume if they are interrupted, and Helm checks there is disk space before it starts. More about offline packs.
Helm is covered by the Loop Mobile FZCO privacy policy, published at the company site and linked from the App Store listing and from the footer of every page here. In its own words: “We do not sell your location data to third parties.”
Location is used for what a navigation app is for — showing your boat on the chart, recording the trip you asked it to record, and waking you if the anchor drags. Once you sign in to the same Apple, Google or email account on each device, your routes, saved spots, recorded trips and chart drawings sync between them, so a passage planned on the iPad is on the phone at the dock. Privacy questions go to support@loopmobile.io, the address published in the policy.
Helm is free to download from the App Store. Anything you buy inside the app is an ordinary Apple purchase: it is billed by Apple, it appears in your Apple ID account, and you cancel it yourself in Settings → your name → Subscriptions in a couple of taps. There is no phone call to make, no form to fill in and nobody to talk you out of it.
For anything else — a chart pack question, a question about a chart or a depth reading, a feature you want — email support@loopmobile.io. It reaches the company that builds Helm, not an outsourced call center and not a chatbot.
Yes. It is published on the Apple App Store as Helm Boating: GPS, Chart & Map by Loop Mobile FZCO, a software company registered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the Navigation category, free to download, for iPhone and iPad on iOS 18 or later. The listing went live on 18 September 2026.
Loop Mobile FZCO, Unit 113, DMCC Business Centre, Dubai, UAE. The same company name is on the App Store listing, on loopmobile.io and on the privacy policy the app links to.
From public authorities: NOAA electronic navigational charts on the coast and the Great Lakes, US Army Corps of Engineers Inland ENC on the rivers, USGS lake shorelines, and NOAA CO-OPS tide predictions against the MLLW datum. Helm reprocesses the chart data and reports the depth against your draft, with the predicted tide added where a station is within 25 nautical miles.
The depth is as current as the chart it comes from: NOAA electronic navigational charts on the coast and the Great Lakes, US Army Corps of Engineers Inland ENC on the rivers. Where a NOAA tide station is within 25 nautical miles, Helm adds that station's published tide prediction, so the depth moves with the predicted tide rather than sitting at chart datum.
Yes. Download the chart packs for your area first — there are 161 of them — and charts, depth where the chart carries it, routing in the coastal and Great Lakes packs that carry it, tides, the anchor alarm and track recording all keep working with no service.
Use is covered by the published Loop Mobile FZCO privacy policy, which states that location data is not sold to third parties. Location powers the chart, the logbook and the anchor alarm. Questions go to support@loopmobile.io.
Anything bought inside the app is billed by Apple and cancelled from your own Apple ID subscription settings, in a couple of taps, at any time.
Email support@loopmobile.io. It goes to the company that builds the app.
Yes — coastal, intracoastal, rivers and inland lakes. The rivers come from US Army Corps of Engineers charts and carry depth. The state lake packs draw lake shorelines and names from USGS data, and in Minnesota state depth contour lines are drawn on the lakes too.
Helm Boating is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
Free to download. Charts, chart pack downloads and route planning are free to use. The subscription is $99.99 per year after a free trial.
Helm Boating