Best Navigation Software

[JerryF]

Hi Folks,

As I said in an earlier post I paid $17 for a DVD with SeaClear II PLUS a couple thousand current NOAA charts that include the East, Gulf, and West coasts plus the Great Lakes and the Caribbean.

I did learn how to download the charts from NOAA but to save my time the $17 was worth it to get all these charts ready to go on a DVD.

SeaClear worked fine for me except for the fact that I could not go to a chart by it's chart number and I noticed that in many cruising guides they say see chart number xxxxx.

I then took Caribsailors advice and tried Rose Point's Coastal Explorer. If you're into loading the free charts from NOAA once you download the ZIP file of NOAA charts Coastal Explorer automatically grabs them, unzips 'em, and loads them into Coastal Explorer for you. I liked that.

Also, Coastal Explorer searched my PC and found the couple of thousand charts that the $17 SeaClear DVD loaded and included them into Coastal Explorer. So far I do like Coastal Explorer the best.

BTW, as you probably already now, it costs $400 but you can download a FREE trial version to try yourself. This is what I did.

Just GOOGLE Rose Point or Coastal Explorer.

[Tempest245]

Yikes.....I've piecemealed a ragtag system over the years.

I have Mapsource, which is a garmin product. It allows me to plan at home on the laptop, then upload routes and waypoints to my garmin handheld. I like the marina information it has. I can pull up phone numbers and see what services marinas on my route have. Mapsource is proprietary so you have to pay garmin for unlock codes to charts. It doesn't allow the import of Noaa charts . I purchased my usual crusing waters awhile ago.

I also have an older version of Nobeltec. Nobeltec allows me to download and import the free noaa bsb charts and has many features that I like. It overlays current arrows and tide bars for example. I can plan and print my trip plan and keep it in paper format. If I lose all Electronics, I still have my plan. ( waypoints, course, distance etc.)

I have a garmin 545 plotter at the helm, as well. I like the redundancy of having my laptop and handheld programmed with my entire trip. I then plot the dailly trip on the 545 each night before departure. I also manually plot fixes on my paper charts should I lose all electronics.

I've stored quite a few BSB Noaa charts on large capacity USB memory sticks. The download time on highspeed was no problem.

I want to add radar and AIS this season, so It's time to re-think everything I currently do.

I would look at Nobeltec again.

Both Nobeltec and Garmin are now in the radar business, but I wonder how proven they are. Does Nobelec only interface with laptops, or are they compatible with any of the plotters out there?

If I go with a Raymarine, I then need a new plotter and antenna. gasp.


Lost in electronics.

Tempest

[jaak ennuste]

I would say that it's SailCruiser Pro from NavSim. Intuitive, really fast and easy to use and runs on Vista and even upcoming Windows 7. Tried.

[HorizonMarine]

NAV-PAK PRO By GLOBENAV.....I ended up purchasing this little known charting program for less than $300 that has been very stable and does what the big $$ programs do, but without all that cost. I have a USB gps hooked into it (<$50) and will hook in my AIS this fall. I have seen the AIS in use on another unit and it works well. The program uses CMap and can also use ENC, Map Tech, BSB, Chart Kit, NOS etc.

Check it out at www.Globenav.com

Has all the hookups available like radar, video, autopilot, instruments etc. Only thing missing is GRIB files. I think the $1200 programs are a little cooler, a little fancier, but I liked the price and it does what I need. I'll spend the money saved on a nice Kyocera 135 solar panel and controller!

[Rayallyn]

I tried to take Pblais's advice and down from the NOAA site but the down load was going to take 10hrs. My unlimited high speed internet with Verizon has been tapped and slowed down to about 28K modem. Verizon say's I exceeded the 5Gig monthly limit. I am photojournalist and 300 dpi images use it up fast. Everything in this world is a sales sham and cost a fortune. Well I ordered the charts for 17 dollars on ebay. I was going to keep the verizon wireless when cruising but for 69.00/month I think I will can it.

[jaak ennuste]

I have quite complete list of PC navigation software with prices and links to producers homepages. Hope, it helps to choose...

Complete list of PC navigation software — almost complete « Sailing Gadgets

[TikiCat]

Coastal Explorer by Rose Point, hands down. I run it on a Windows 98 notebook (primary), an XP notebook (wife's-backup) and a Vista notebook (mine-backup), and it runs fine on all. I use a hockey puck GPS or a Garmin GPS-72 (backup) plugged into the notebook. Works fine. There are so many good features about the program I don't know where to begin... Only thing it doesn't have is a "log" function, which became a fundamental nav tool for me in the 70's - back in the days of the trailing spinning mechanical Walker log (you've probably never seen one of these). The Garmin has a log function, so I'll use that as a companion while Rose Point ponders whether they want to implement a log (which I believe adds complications to the track function).

[jaak ennuste]

How does ETA works in Rosepoint Coastal. Does it calculate real tacking time, based on real wind direction or direct A-to-B time?

Jaak

[TikiCat]

Coastal Explorer has two modes: Planning, and Cruise. In the Planning mode, you assign the speed for all legs that you want for the calculations. The assumption is that you make full progress on course at this speed, and that's what the planning ETA is based on. In Cruise mode, the program uses VMG to calculate ETA. It does not know if the variance (between VMG and planned speed) is due to tacking, current, or any other factor - it just knows that you are progressing toward destination at VMG. So the ETA constantly updates.