Worldwide electronic charts?

[mostrander]

We are planning to start cruising outside the USA in a couple years and are wondering what people use for electronic charts.. I'm use to navionics but was wondering is their is something better.

Thanks!

[s/v Moondancer]

We use Navionics backed up by Open CPN with satellite overlays.

However, Navionics and Open CPN are often inaccurate in remote places and some places not so remote. Going into Curacao Navionics showed me in the swimming pool of the Hyatt hotel.

Once you leave Key West it is best to supplement the Chartplotter with the #1 eyeball. There has been a spate of cruising boats on Pacific reefs in the last year or so.

At night I do not get within 5 miles of remote islands and atolls.

[hpeer]

I’m far from an expert but have done a wee bit of research.

More and more I’m using INavX on a iPhone/IPad as my main plotter. With INavX you buy charts through Fugawi or their subsidiary which I’m blocking on. In any case they have a wide varity of charts available for most of the world from numerous suppliers. You can also use them to source charts compatiBle with OpenCPN.

I was looking for Carribean charts and bought a Navionics set for CarribeN/South America. Covers a huge range and are cheap but are pretty dismal. NV charts for the Carribean appear reasonable but are costly. The Dominican Republic set were not worth the money.

I don’t think you will find a single publisher to fit your complete needs. The first goal, IMHO, is to have a hardware/software platform that will read the various publishers data.

I might suggest you talk to Pilothouse Books in Philadelphia. They have been helpful to me in getting charts and deal with commercial shipping. Small personal operation.

[AmericanVagrant]

OpenCPN with CM93 charts will provide everything you need

[Swedsail]

I have used Open CPN some years on my windows pc. I like it much and I have seacards from Sweden in KAP format and it work fine. But when I installed Open CPN on my Android Galaxy Tab, then it didn´t work to load in this seacards in KAP. I tryed to load home OpenSea Baltic seacards and the has KAP and BSB files for same seacard. That works fine to load up in my Android Tab.

But can someone tell why I can´t load up my KAP seacards in my Android Tab with Open CPN 4.8.0? Can I use some program to convert this files so they work better in Android Open CPN?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by AmericanVagrant

OpenCPN with CM93 charts will provide everything you need

CM93 charts are by now 10 or 15 years out of date. Great for passage planning but don't use them for primary navigation.

For primary navigation, we use Navionics kept up to date with Freshest Data on the main nav system, with up to date and official raster charts on OpenCPN from Visitmyharbour. CM93 on OpenCPN strictly for passage planning in regions where we don't have the official raster charts, and with careful checking of the plan using one or another up to date charts afterwards.

[mikedefieslife]

I find cm93 a bit of a pain as you end up with tiles that have completely different zoom levels. So your screen looks like this below:

[Paul L]

We use up to date CMap charts. They have been.very good in the Bahamas, Carib and S Pacific. Places like Fiji have been good, even when others were complaining about the poor quality of their charts.

[boatman61]

I use CM93 with the Nimble Navigator program.. works great for me.. Mike runs updates every so often.. last were for the Caribe about 3yrs ago.

[hpeer]

Is there a legal source rfenfor CM93?

Are they updated regularly?

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

CM93 charts are by now 10 or 15 years out of date. Great for passage planning but don't use them for primary navigation.

For primary navigation, we use Navionics kept up to date with Freshest Data on the main nav system, with up to date and official raster charts on OpenCPN from Visitmyharbour. CM93 on OpenCPN strictly for passage planning in regions where we don't have the official raster charts, and with careful checking of the plan using one or another up to date charts afterwards.

Navionics are great for most places in the world but terrible in others even if they were updated yesterday. A good example is the San Blas Islands, updated Navionics are almost guaranteed to put you on a reef, the charts are terrible. Even the standard charts on Open CPN can't be used there with any confidence. I found similar issues in the Marshall Islands years ago so there are places you better be good at using old fashion eye balls.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Navionics are great for most places in the world but terrible in others even if they were updated yesterday. A good example is the San Blas Islands, updated Navionics are almost guaranteed to put you on a reef, the charts are terrible. Even the standard charts on Open CPN can't be used there with any confidence. I found similar issues in the Marshall Islands years ago so there are places you better be good at using old fashion eye balls.

Yep. Navionics charts off by 80 meters or something in the Ijsselmeer.

Charts are charts -- they aren't perfect and you always need to cross check any critical assumption with some other data source. Radar, which is very accurate for range, is one great way to cross check chart data.

Sometimes it's not the charts, but the survey data which is wrong. I hit a rock in the Baltic on the exact spot where the symbol for 30 meters of depth (or whatever it was) was placed.

But that's still no reason not to have the best charts you can get. Right up to date, and best of all a couple of different ones you can check against each other.

[bdbcat]

mikedefieslife...

Try pushing F9 to enter quilting mode.

Dave