Australians: Maxsea Time Zero and Furuno Hardware - Save money and Buy from the USA!

[TrevC]

It is all about risks and for Oz pricing about volume.

So, what do you make of the Mapmedia chart unlock codes that were double the price? (and delivered/downloaded via a completely third party). That was enough proof for me that it's simply about price-gouging and greed. Their dodgy way of business has worked for them in the past, and these businesses think it will continue to work.

Usually the risk of having to internationally ship a defective unit would be a worthy reason to buy local, but not when thousands of dollars were initially saved. You could use the fastest Fedex shipping as many times as needed, and then still be way ahead in terms of cost-savings.

2. Radios - a lot of US radios (especially HF) are not type certified for use in Oz. Yep, you can import it legally but not legally be able to use it unless it is fitted to a foreign registered vessel and is legal in the country of registration.

For many cruisers here, I think this would easily fall in to the

DILLIGAF

basket. Never mind the fact that there's nobody who would be ripping out your gear to check where a (very familiar) model of SSB came from.

[svtaipan]

What you say is true.
But beware of the charts. Furuno claim that you can use CMap, Navionics, Noaa etc charts in the Navnet 3D and I assume that includes Maxsea.
This is untrue! You can only use Map Media Charts. It is a Furuno owned charting company which buys the license to reproduce the above charts then re digitized them to suit their hardware and sells to you at 3 to 4 times the original price. There are not charts even available for parts of the globe.

[stillbuilding]

Notably, no Navionics charts for Japan area! From Furuno!

[svtaipan]

Well there are two charts available but the middle area is not available at all. To purchase the two charts that are out there you will need to outlay 1800UD$s !!!

[Albro359]

I have stoppe using MaxSea for exactly all these reasons.
I wanted the routing module ..A$350..!!!!
I can buy routing from predict wind for $30 for 3 months !!
I bought Mapmedia South Pacific Charts some years ago only to discover that Fiji and New Caledonia were not included..they're on my CD...just I have to pay for the unlock codes at $300 a go...
I bought C-Map MAX charts for ALL the Pacific Islands for a little more than that and have it in my cockpit plotter...Ok I prefer mapmedia charts cos they look like the real thing but I'm getting used to the C-Map
BIG advantage for me not using Maxsea is now with the plotter in the cockpit i don't have to dive down to the nav station to look at the computer.
Its a much better solution.
BTW you CAN use C-Map charts with MaxSea, but you need a special decoding module that came with V12...don't know about Navnet...but I DO know that theres'a lot of cruisers oiut ther using MaxSea V10 that they never paid for...so they're complaints don't bear argument...

[svtaipan]

Maxsea "under the radar" is in common use in the cruising community. It is however quite unstable and wont run with a 64bit processor. The CMap charts "under the radar" are very good.
I just infuriates me to think that in "doing the right thing" and purchasing genuine charts for our chart plotter at great expense, our navigation system is unusable in many of the charted areas.
The most popular cruising ground in Asia would be Phang Nga Bay East of Phuket. You could not go into that area using Navnet 3 D Navionics charts.
Another concern with the Navnet system is chart ownership. The charts are unlocked into a dedicated system. They cannot be transferred. If the system fails you loose all your charts with it.
We have decided to cut our losses and buy another Plotter with cards which are interchangeable and which can be sold and exchanged with other cruisers.

It will just become an expensive radar!!

[Albro359]

Yup...we're back to paper charts and GPS and plotting the positions...as well as using the C-Map plotter
You can generally see where you are..even if the plotter is out..which it is here (Western Fiji) ..as long as you travel when the sun is high, the reefsa are quite evident..the paper charts show where they are..as does the plotter ... the only issue is that the plotter puts us in a slightly dfferent place n the chart...bt that's OK...we have the Mark 1 eyball nav system which when the sun is high is 100% reliable !!