CarPlay is heading to the water, masterCraft Boat Holdings announced that its Crest and Balise Pontoon brands will offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard equipment on select 2027 model year boats, with the first compatible models arriving in September 2026.
The integration covers all new Balise models plus the Crest Conquest and Caribbean lines. MasterCraft made the announcement during Crest Marine’s annual dealer meeting, where dealers got on-water demonstrations of the system. This appears to be the first fully integrated CarPlay implementation in a recreational marine vessel, which is a meaningful step for the platform’s expansion well beyond the car, even as GM’s decision to remove CarPlay from future vehicles continues to draw scrutiny.
Apple Maps cannot route you around shallow water or calculate tides, so the integration relies on Savvy Navvy, an Amsterdam-based marine navigation app with over 2 million downloads, to fill that gap. The app is available for CarPlay worldwide as of today and works with any compatible CarPlay display, including aftermarket marine head units, meaning existing boat owners do not need to buy a new vessel to use it.
Savvy Navvy’s CarPlay feature set includes:
- Savvy Charts in day, night, and satellite view, with both 2D and 3D chart modes
- Smart routing with depth-aware calculations
- GPS tracking and AIS vessel tracking
- Live weather forecasts and tidal data
- Route planning on iPhone or Mac at home, with the route appearing automatically on the helm display when you arrive at the dock
A limited Savvy Navvy Premium subscription is included with the compatible Crest and Balise models.
“Boaters have been asking for a modern infotainment system for years. Plan your trip on the couch, step aboard, and it is already at the helm.”, Jelte Liebrand, Founder and CEO, Savvy Navvy
The sync-before-departure workflow Liebrand describes is the most practical selling point here. Planning a day on the water from an iPhone at home, then having that route waiting on the boat’s display when you step aboard, is the kind of smooth handoff that CarPlay does well in cars and translates directly to this context. It mirrors the CarPlay features in iOS 27 that Apple has been building toward as the platform matures.
The aftermarket angle is relevant for existing boat owners because Savvy Navvy’s CarPlay app works with any compatible marine head unit, the new navigation experience is not locked to buyers of new 2027 Crest or Balise boats. Anyone with a compatible display already installed can use it, without requiring new hardware. That puts some pressure on incumbent marine electronics makers like Garmin and Simrad in the recreational segment.
CarPlay’s expansion has been gradual and often quiet, but adding an entire product category in recreational boating, backed by a purpose-built navigation app, is a more substantive move than a firmware update.
via MacRumors
