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Arclight · 05-01-2011, 15:38

I am planning to cruise the Bahamas this winter and my boat is equipped with a Furuno MFD8. Furuno currently offers two chart sets for this system. One uses Navionics Datacore charts and covers southern Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The other uses C-Map by Jeppesen charts and covers the east coast of the United States and the Bahamas. As I already have charts for the east coast, and I may extend my cruising into the Caribbean the Navionics charts appear to be the logical choice, however I wonder if the Jeppesen charts have any advantage over the Navionics. Any insight into this matter would be most welcomed.

Thank you,

Arclight

JJB · 05-01-2011, 17:26

Personally, I have a preference for Navionics charts, a long time back Jeppesen charts were missing an atoll, in the south pacific, I can't say the same for Navionics charts.
I know every product has its faults but that's my two cents anyhow.

ActiveCaptain · 05-01-2011, 18:26

We're one of the largest MaxSea Time Zero dealers in the US. We sell the exact same charts for MaxSea Time Zero although we can't sell them for Furuno hardware (licensing issues for us).

Without any question, get the Jeppesen/C-Map charts for the Bahamas. C-Map licenses the well-known Explorer chart data for the Bahamas. It's the best there is.

Arclight · 06-01-2011, 06:50

Thank you JJB and Jeffery for your input. My understanding is that the Jeppesen charts used by Furuno are a hybrid version. In terms of accuracy and completeness it would be nice to hear from cruisers who are or have used either of these charts sets in the Bahamas.

TIA,

Arclight

ActiveCaptain · 06-01-2011, 07:29

I'm trying to get some sample screen shots to show the differences. There are some license issues and I hope I can get around them by getting permission. It's something that I'm asked all the time and it would be great to post some samples about how they look today. Why wouldn't cruisersforum be the perfect place for these kinds of comparisions...

ActiveCaptain · 11-01-2011, 13:50

I received permission to show some different C-Map digital screen shots of the Bahamas from MaxSea. I also received some screen shots taken with a camera from a user of the Navionics data. It'll make a good comparison.

Note that the digital screen shots will be clearer just because they are digital. You should really look to the content to compare against because the camera shots will be a little more blurry because of the method used.

The C-Map ones are obviously better. I also included a high resolution satellite overlay available from MaxSea for the Bahamas over the Staniel Cay C-Map display. It makes for a really nice navigation tool that way.

Arclight · 11-01-2011, 16:49

Thanks for your input Jeff.

BahamaBound · 31-01-2011, 07:05

I have the Navionics software for my Android phone and compared the same locations to the screenshots posted by ActiveCaptain. Looks like Navionics have updated their charts. They look much better than what's shown above. I can't attest to their accuracy as I haven't been back to the Bahamas with it yet, but it does look better, and at about $15 for the software on my phone, it's a great price!
If I can get a good picture of my phone, I will upload it for more comparisons.