32°N › Faq

FAQ

The questions I get most.

Grouped by topic. If you can't find what you're after, it's probably covered in about or open-source. Or just ask on GitHub.

Pricing

  • How much does 32°N cost?
    The software is free, forever. You pay for hardware — a Mac mini (~£550–900) and an off-the-shelf NMEA-2000 gateway (~£180–250). That's a one-off cost, no subscription. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
  • Will there ever be a paid tier?
    No. "Free forever" is a personal commitment, not a legal guarantee — 32°N is licensed under MIT, which permits monetisation. If you don't trust the personal commitment, the right move is to fork the code and run your own copy. MIT permits that explicitly. More on the licence trade-off →
  • What about costs for paid third-party services?
    A few apps optionally connect to paid providers (PredictWind, Stormglass, and similar) via bring-your-own-key. You supply your own API keys and pay those vendors directly — I never see your usage. Free providers (NOAA, ECMWF, Open-Meteo) are the default and cover most cases.

Hardware

  • What hardware do I need?
    Two pieces: a Mac mini (which sits below decks and runs the platform) and an off-the-shelf NMEA-2000 gateway — something like an Actisense NGT-1, iKonvert, or Yacht Devices YDWG-02. That's the whole install.
  • Why a Mac mini specifically?
    Fanless under normal load (silent below decks), roughly 6 watts typical draw (won't drain house batteries), available at any Apple store worldwide if it needs replacing, and Apple Silicon gives useful local AI inference. That said, 32°N isn't Apple-locked — it runs on Docker, so you can target a Raspberry Pi, NUC, or any server you like. The Mac mini is the reference, not the requirement.
  • Does my boat need NMEA-2000?
    Most boats built in the last twenty years do. 32°N reads from NMEA-2000 through the gateway. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices (Victron, B&G, certain battery monitors, weather stations) are also supported via their own adapters. If your boat has neither, you'd need to retrofit a gateway, or 32°N won't be much use for instrument data.
  • Can I run 32°N on something other than a Mac mini?
    Yes. The platform ships as a Docker image — runs on a Raspberry Pi, an Intel NUC, a home server, or any cloud host. The Mac mini is the reference because of the fanless, low-power, Apple Silicon combination, not because it's the only option.

Online vs offline

  • Does 32°N work offline?
    The safety-critical apps keep running on the hub when you're offshore or out of signal — chartplotter (with cached charts), anchor watch, navigation, electrical monitoring, the ship's log. The cloud-dependent things pause: frontier-AI questions, the latest weather refresh, off-boat backups. They catch up the next time you have signal.
  • Is 32°N offline-first?
    No. 32°N is cloud-and-AI first, with graceful degradation for safety surfaces when you lose signal. The cloud does the heavy lifting — AI inference, weather aggregation, backups, sync. The hub keeps the critical stuff running when there's no connectivity.
  • What if I never have internet on the boat?
    You'll get the always-available apps (chartplotter, anchor watch, navigation, electrical, logbook) but you'll miss the cloud features (frontier AI, weather aggregation, cross-device sync). Sailors with no cellular or satellite connection are a valid case, but not the optimised path — 32°N assumes you're online most of the time.

Data and privacy

  • Where does my data live?
    On the hub first. If you use my hosted instance it replicates to the cloud encrypted. If you self-host, nothing leaves the hub unless you point it somewhere yourself.
  • Is my data portable?
    Yes. The schema is open, the formats are documented, there is no "premium export." You can take your data with you any time.
  • Can I delete my data?
    Yes. From either the hub or the cloud. Permanently. No retention policies.
  • Does 32°N collect telemetry?
    Nothing I wouldn't be comfortable having explained back to me. Crash reports and opt-in error telemetry, both off by default. No usage tracking, no analytics, no "anonymous" data sold to anyone.

Integration with existing boat tech

  • Will 32°N replace my Garmin / Raymarine / B&G chartplotter?
    Not entirely, and not yet for every use case. 32°N reads from your existing chartplotter's NMEA-2000 outputs and gives you a software-native chartplotter, weather view, and AIS display that runs on any browser. You can keep your existing hardware for what it does well; 32°N gives you the cross-device, cross-vendor view alongside it.
  • Does 32°N support SignalK?
    No. 32°N reads NMEA-2000 directly into its own native bus. SignalK is a separate ecosystem and 32°N isn't part of it — that's an architectural decision, not a slight against it.
  • Will it work with my Victron solar and battery setup?
    Yes — Victron via Bluetooth (VE.Direct) and VictronConnect is supported through the bus adapter for Bluetooth devices.

Open-source

  • What does open-source mean for me as a non-engineer?
    The code is public on GitHub. If I disappear, someone else can pick the project up. You can run your own copy without my involvement. Anyone with the right skills can audit the security and privacy claims. It's a structural guarantee, not a marketing posture. More on open-source →
  • Why MIT and not a stricter licence like AGPL?
    I considered AGPL — it would legally prevent monetisation via its SaaS clause. I picked MIT because AGPL conflicts with Apple App Store distribution terms, which matters for reaching most boat owners. The trade was "structural guarantee against monetisation" vs "App Store reach." I picked reach. The escape hatch (fork the code) is still permanent. More on this →
  • Can I fork 32°N and run my own version?
    Yes. Fork the repo, modify what you want, deploy it. That's the licence working as intended.

Future

  • What's on the roadmap?
    Worldwide chart coverage, deeper AI agent capability, more hardware adapters, AI vision (a camera-based lookout, similar to SeaAI). The list of things I'm not building is equally long: racing tools, charter fleet management, crew matching, subscription tiers, walled gardens. More on direction →
  • When can I install 32°N on my boat?
    v1 ships when it's ready. Sign up for updates to know when the first install candidate is ready.
  • Is there a community?
    Not in any organised sense yet. I'm sharing what I build. If a community happens around it, great — but building a community isn't the goal.

Who's behind this

  • Who builds 32°N?
    I do. Mark Curphey. One person. Background in software engineering, with some security history (OWASP, SourceClear, Crash Override). New catamaran owner. Building 32 degrees North for my own boat first.
  • Is 32°N a company?
    No. It's a personal project. Open-source, MIT-licensed, on my GitHub.
  • What if you get hit by a bus?
    The code is public on GitHub. Anyone with the skills can pick it up, fork it, run their own copy. MIT permits all of that explicitly. The project's continuity is the possibility of someone picking it up, not the guarantee — open-source ensures the option, it doesn't guarantee someone will exercise it. More on this →

Still have questions?

Ask, or try the demo.

If something isn't answered here, the best place to ask is GitHub Discussions — it's where I track questions and where answers are visible to everyone.

Ask on GitHub

Questions, feedback, feature requests — all live in GitHub Discussions. It's also where I post progress updates before they hit the newsletter.