Nobelte Odyssey/Rosepoint Coastal Navigator

[hmarkhoff]

Anyone have any experience with these programs

[rw58ph]

Nobeltec was bought by Furuno and is going to replace the Furuno. At the 2013 Seattle boat show I bought the newer Windows 7 Odyssey which included a free Portable GPS and Windows 8 patch/up grade.

I have run Nobeltec for 15+ years with a portable Garmin GPS. I had to buy a newer version as my old Sony note book computer on the boat died with office windows 98. So had to buy a new computer and software. I highly recommend Nobeltec. Being the Eagle a ugly old slow trawler with a 6 ft draft I like the tide and current animations when planning cruises.

[colemj]

I have much experience with Nobeltec Visual Navigator (the precursor to Odyssey) and Coastal Explorer.

I prefer Coastal Explorer, and it works with more charts and is easier to configure and interface.

Nobeltec has the best tide and current animations by far.

On the other hand, I find myself going to OpenCPN more and more - and I have Nobeltec, Coastal Explorer, MaxSea and a chartplotter to choose from.

Mark

[Kenomac]

Nobeltec is basically the same program as Maxsea. Excellent program, but is very computer specific. Make sure you have the right computer, graphics card and processor... Otherwise it won't run.

[bobconnie]

Connies been real happy with her Capt set up, lots of charts and easy to use! Heck even I can use it some !!! LOL

[SailFastTri]

Mark, I use CE (after switching from Nobeltec) so your comment makes me curious: What makes you lean toward OpenCPN?

[colemj]

It is free and runs on Mac. I like some of the plugins that are not available in CE (or cost money). I like the ability to have both raster and vector charts available in one screen without going into menus to switch. But most of all I like the availability in OCPN of worldwide CM93 charts (don't lecture me here).

CE overall is more polished and integration with instrumentation is easier and better, but OCPN keeps getting better every month and I find myself gravitating more toward it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like CE, but I am not going to be putting anymore money into it or charts for it and am currently using a two year old version.

Mark

[twistedtree]

Just a slight correction - MaxSea bought Nobletek, not Furuno. But Furuno has a financial interest in MaxSea and the NN3D and TZ Furuno chart plotters all run the MaxSea software. The old Nobletek software that many people love dearly is quickly morphing into MaxSea. With each rev they look more and more alike. If you are considering switching to Nobletek or MaxSea, don't ask Nobletek owners what they think, ask MaxSea owners since that's what you will end up with.

I've been using MaxSea for a couple of years now as a companion to my Furuno NN3D system. They integrate together extremely well - better than any other products I've seen, but that's about the only good thing I can say about them. MaxSea can do a lot, but I think its a very poorly thought out program. The French are awesome for wine, food, women, and culture, but not so much for software.

I've now switched to Coastal Explorer and greatly prefer it. No, I can't overlay the Furuno radar, but in all other aspects I prefer it.