Navionics - Expensive!

[Peter Murray]

I have just been quoted 50% of the full chart price just to update my charts for a year. Navionics don't need to send me anything, just allow me to update over the internet. 50% is enormous, 10% would be more like a reasonable fee.

[Dockhead]

I agree, but it's standard market practice -- 50% a year for updates.

One way to reduce that cost is to use the updates every other year. So you update once at the beginning of the update subscription (called "Freshest Data" on Navionics), then continuously through the year if you like, then for sure once at the very end of the subscription. Then you wait a year before you start the subscription again. That way, your cost is reduced to 25% per year, and your charts are never as much as a year out of date, and you can simply watch the Notices to Mariners in the meantime. This is especially useful if you sail mostly in one season -- start your subscription just before the start of the season, then for the next season they will start out freshly updated too.

That is generally what I do. Although it's not quite like that since I have multiple cartography sources on board and usually at least one source is right up to date.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Peter Murray

I have just been quoted 50% of the full chart price just to update my charts for a year. Navionics don't need to send me anything, just allow me to update over the internet. 50% is enormous, 10% would be more like a reasonable fee.

Welcome to the forums, Peter.

When I was a child, we boated around several midsize inland lakes that were major local destinations. There weren't any charts. The closest thing was maybe a drawing of the outline of the lake, that you could add points of interest to with a pencil.

Nobody had sonar either. You had to learn the lake. Local marinas did a brisk business in prop replacements and lower unit repairs. There would come a year when the water was 4" lower than usual, and everybody would learn a few more things about the lake and the marina would have a waiting list for lower unit work. I remember one of our friends got a new bigger boat with another 6" draft and he got to re-learn the lake then too.

Gradually charts started coming out, and people got those motorized sonar units with the flashing neon bulb that showed you the depth. Charts were paper. You updated them by throwing them away and buying new ones. They did not buy back your old charts for 50%. Updates were not available every year for the inland lakes.

Navionics is, at current pricing, an absolute bargain, compared to where we've been. I can sail with confidence in places I have never been before. I can find shelfs and underwater features that attract fish or are suitable for diving or anchorage. The software and the maps are not perfect but they work hard at Navionics and I don't begrudge them their fees. It's what, $100 or something for all of the United States and Canada? Do you have any idea how much paper charts would cost for all of the United States and Canada?

Wishing you fair winds.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Welcome to the forums, Peter.

When I was a child, we boated around several midsize inland lakes that were major local destinations. There weren't any charts. The closest thing was maybe a drawing of the outline of the lake, that you could add points of interest to with a pencil.

Nobody had sonar either. You had to learn the lake. Local marinas did a brisk business in prop replacements and lower unit repairs. There would come a year when the water was 4" lower than usual, and everybody would learn a few more things about the lake and the marina would have a waiting list for lower unit work. I remember one of our friends got a new bigger boat with another 6" draft and he got to re-learn the lake then too.

Gradually charts started coming out, and people got those motorized sonar units with the flashing neon bulb that showed you the depth. Charts were paper. You updated them by throwing them away and buying new ones. They did not buy back your old charts for 50%. Updates were not available every year for the inland lakes.

Navionics is, at current pricing, an absolute bargain, compared to where we've been. I can sail with confidence in places I have never been before. I can find shelfs and underwater features that attract fish or are suitable for diving or anchorage. The software and the maps are not perfect but they work hard at Navionics and I don't begrudge them their fees. It's what, $100 or something for all of the United States and Canada? Do you have any idea how much paper charts would cost for all of the United States and Canada?

Wishing you fair winds.

That's a good perspective!

Having up to date cartography on board can be a major expense, and you're absolutely right that paper is vastly more expensive. Not only that, but you have to update it by hand if you want it to be up to date, which is extremely laborious. Paying Navionics for Freshest Data is an absolute bargain compared to that. I love and use paper charts, but having and keeping up to date paper charts for a large cruising area is simply not feasible on a small boat, in my opinion.

There are cheaper ways to have up to date charts, though. For the U.S. you can have absolutely free raster and vector charts from NOAA -- use in OpenCPN or whatever plotter program you prefer. You can use out of date charts in your plotter as long as you check every route against some other up to date chart.

For the UK and European Atlantic coasts we have the absolutely fantastic raster charts from VisitMyHarbour, which cost only 80 pounds or something with updates for half that. These contain the complete set of all of the official "for navigation" Admiralty charts for the entire area. What a luxury!

I would be considered by most to be quite anal about passage planning, so I keep BOTH up to date Navionics charts on my plotters AND up to date Admiralty charts on my nav station computer. You could get by on less.

But Navionics Freshest Data allows you to update charts as often as you want -- not just once a year like with VMH -- so that even saves you from reading Notices to Mariners. I do it before every passage provided I have Internet access.

[Peter Murray]

Where I am there are wind farms being built around the coast all the time. - apart from other updates. It would be interesting for Navionics to say how frequently existing users update their charts annually or bi-annually. I suspect there is a low take up rate, so it may well be advantageous for them to reduce the price significantly and get a much bigger take-up. After all they do not supply 50% new data every year, so a 50% price is not justifiable.
Referring to paper charts I have tried to keep them up-to-date, it was a nightmare. A buoy would move, I'd update the chart, then it would be replaced and it would need updating again. The whole thing became a complete mess. Updates, by the way, were free.

[Peter Murray]

Lucky you in the US. Here in the UK it is £200 (Us dollars 280) just for the UK and the same again if I want to go more than 50 miles South down the French coast. Those are full prices for the charts, Navionics then want 50% a year each to update them. That's why it is expensive to me.