Navionics Annoyance

[danielgoldberg]

Not sure what genius devised this idea. Navionics used to have their charts cover from the US east coast to Bermuda, including Bermuda. They had a couple of different ones, but they had them. Now, the chart covers from the US east coast right up to Bermuda, but then stops some miles short. The actual Bermuda chart, that one is included with their Carribbean chip, which doesn't cover the distance between Bermuda and the Carribbean mind you. Nope, it covers the Carribbean, and then Bermuda too, but not all that water in between.

Seems to me pretty blatant that they set this up so that you are required to buy two chips if you want to go to Bermuda. Not very consumer friendly, and if I were buying a chartplotter today that definitely would be a consideration for me (anyone from Raymarine or Northstar reading?). I'm sure this will make a lot of Bermuda racers quite happy too (dripping with sarcasm in case that's not evident).

With that, does anyone have a Navionics Gold+16XG (NOT the 16XG-2), or the Platinum 905P, that they'd be willing to part with for a fair price? They would need to be produced in 2008 or earlier. If I can't find one from an alternative source, then I'm stuck spending $500 for two chips. I'm checking E-Bay, for so far no joy, so I figured I'd check here.

Thanks all.

[MC01]

This is similar to my frustration with my new Garmin handheld covering only half of Lake Ontario. I have to be careful not to sail beyond half way across and off the edge of the map, lest there be boot eating dragons, ey!

[hellosailor]

daniel, have you asked them directly? If I were playing devil's advocate, I might suggest that US charts can be freely copied by third party vendors, while Bermuda might fall into Crown Copyright restrictions, making it impossible for that same vendor to include Bermuda in a "US" product without paying steep extra license fees.

Or, they could just be greedy barsteeds, that's common enough these days.

[Lost Horizons]

I think the Navionics product development executives are - how should I put it - very business savvy people. Their individual charts have a huge coverage (compared to Garmin), but in reality, somene who lives in Florida, for example, and sailing up the East coast, to the Gulf of Mexico, and to the Caribbean - all trips within a few hundred miles from home - will need to buy three separate chart chips. This is brilliant!

[danielgoldberg]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

daniel, have you asked them directly? If I were playing devil's advocate, I might suggest that US charts can be freely copied by third party vendors, while Bermuda might fall into Crown Copyright restrictions, making it impossible for that same vendor to include Bermuda in a "US" product without paying steep extra license fees.

Or, they could just be greedy barsteeds, that's common enough these days.

I have asked directly, and I get the, "Hmm. Gee, that's interesting. Wow, look at that."

I think Lost Horizons has it exactly right.

[hellosailor]

Dan, I love it when a vendor says something like that. It beats all hell out of the usual "Wow, no one on this planet has ever ever told us that before! Really!"

Hmmm, Gee....My universal translator says that's an acronym for "time to find another vendor". Which sometimes feels like a full-time game these days....

[Randyonr3]

And thats the way business works.. I, myself, often bid on a job based on what the project will justify and not what it cost to do the job..
Sounds kinda funny but as I write this, the wife is telling me the Bay Bridge into SF will be raising their rates durring peak hours from 4 to 6 dollars durring the week and 5 dollars on the weekend.. so tell me why it cost more to opperate and the price per car would go up durring those hours.. Its all business..

[David M]

I cant wait for open source charts and chart software to become more commonplace. Lets start using open source more often and put these people out of business who get away with charging for information that the taxpayers have already paid for. Avoid paying for proprietary charts whenever you have that choice.