Does your Chart Plotter still work with your preferred Chart supplier?

[jssailem]

As the various Chart Plotter manufactures buy up the providers of custom chart systems (i.e Navionics, LightHouse, and C-Map etc...) and the NOAA original charts are being modified, the world of navigation is becoming a battlefield.

Reading about the "Chart Wars" on Panbo ( Chart wars? Post acquisitions, what's the status of charts? ) identifies the challenge for current and future owner/buyers of chart plotters. It is not just about matching the system to your desires, the availability of charts to run your system is now becoming a major concern.

Preferring the charts that are closest to the original source, I have opted to use OpenCPN and download NOAA ENC charts and Raster Charts while they still are available. Since paper charts are disappearing, it is nice to be able to print out a route on a chart to have as backup on the NAV station.

What has been your solution to this issue?

 

[dlochner]

The charting companies are using the same primary data from NOAA. The difference is whether there is crowd based data and what features are added.

I use C-Maps on the B&G chart plotter at the helm and Aquamaps for planning. The big advantage to Aquamaps is the data is updated as it becomes available. The program goes online and retires any chart updates, USACE soundings updates, and updates from Waterway Guide and Active Captain (or at least dated data from AC). It runs on my iPad and M1 Mac Laptop.

I do not bother putting a route on the chart plotter as it is a PITA. With Aquamaps, I plan a rough route of the next day's adventure and set off. The rough route is to get an idea of the distance and any issues along the way. Often the route takes shortcuts across islands and shoals, however since I'm not precisely following the route and I can see these obstacles on the chart plotter I don't fret and adjust my course along the way.

On long passages I will sometimes set a waypoint on the CP so I have an idea of time and distance left to the waypoint. When I tell my wife we are XX miles from our destination as the crow flies, she reminds me we're not crows. Looking at the chart I can make an educated guess about the accuracy of the initial plot, by midway the predictions are getting pretty accurate.

Regardless of planning conditions often change between the planning time and on the water. I saw this most clearly on the way back from the Abacos. Shortly after starting out, it was clear that my initial planned route was going to take much longer, so I revised the plan and sailed a much shorter and faster route. I wrote about this in an article on my website.

We use the autopilot a lot, but we never set it to follow a route. I rely on my observations of the conditions and our actual position to make decisions about the next leg our course.

And sometimes I plot courses on paper, especially long courses like our trip back from the Bahamas.

 

[Head Sail]

I'm using Navionics charts with Raymarine chartplotter. I am in a well charted area so I haven't updated charts in 3 or 4 years. All seems to work fine.

 

[BarryL]

HI,

I have B&G gear on my boat (and on my previous boat). I have CMAP and Navioncs charts. both came with the plotter. On my phone, Ipad, and Android tablet I also have the Navionics app (I pay for the mobile app and can use it on phone, ipad and table for one price). I also play around with the B&G app on my phone, and Predict Wind routes too. To be honest, I don't see much difference between any of the charting or applications. IMHO they are all excellent.

Since the navionics app on my devices syncs perfectly and easily with my Zeus plotter, that is what I use 99% of the time. Every time I start the plotter and connect my phone to the plotter wifi, the two devices will sync routes and waypoints. A route on my phone instantly appears on the plotter, waypoints are shared, etc. I think I can share tracks too but I have never tried.

So put me firmly in the 'not worried' camp.

Some additional information in case anyone cares:
I am not much of a cruiser. Each season I go for a few weekend trips and a week long (or longer) trip. I have been sailing the same area (Long Island Sound from NY City to Montauk Point) for years and am quite familiar with the waters. I am a gadget geek so I plan a detailed route at home by studying paper charts, then autorouting the trip with my IPAD or computer, then editing it, and then sending it to my plotter. When I'm on the boat and running the route I mostly have the autopilot run the route. This leaves me free to focus more on weather, marine traffic, sail trim, etc and less on the mundane task of steering. I also like knowing the time and distance to the next waypoint and destination.
This year I'm planning a two week trip to maine. So I'm doing my homework, I have bought some new chartbooks for the area. I'm planning a direct, offshore trip from home to Portland, then a week in casco bay, and then a week cruise home. The first part will be planned way ahead of time, and, WEATHER PERMITTING, will be followed in great detail. The week in Casco bay will have a few destinations in mind but the weather will dictate where we go. Lastly for the trip home I'm leaving things way more open. The goal here is to SAIL to fun places. So the destination will depend entirely on the wind and weather. So quick plotting will be very important.

Barry

 

[dLj]

The charting companies are using the same primary data from NOAA. The difference is whether there is crowd based data and what features are added.

This is only for North America where NOAA makes the charts. this becomes a lot more difficult as you move outside of the US.

I am currently running both Navionics and OpenCPN. I'm moving towards going almost exclusively to OpenCPN for a number of reasons.

There's a very interesting discussion going on at the moment on Cruisers and Sailing: How does OpenCPN compare to B&G, Raymarine and Garmin ? New boat install ? - Cruisers & Sailing Forums

dj

 

[dLj]

I found this particular post on the above link, page 8 by PNWSalmon very interesting:

"We’ve been cruising full time for a year, currently in Mexico. I have been in the school of thought that our Raymarine is our primary plotter, navionics on the phone or tablet are used often and secondary, paper charts are the backup and OpenCPN was loaded on a laptop just in case, but I never used it because, frankly, I didn’t like messing with it. Setup is easy but using it was annoying.

Then, three things happened, a cruiser we met held a seminar on using OpenCPN. It turns out, I didn’t know how to use OpenCPN properly. That was lightbulb moment number one. Then, the second thing is he showed us how to use mbtiles to overlay Google and bing images on top of charts. That was amazing and highly useful. The third thing was that we started getting into zones where the Raymarine charts lack detail, are inaccurate, and there’s no other option that will work on the Raymarine.

On the OpenCPN I have “Shawn and Heather’s” excellent guide charts, navionics charts, and satellite imagery, and while switching between them is now much easier, the OpenCPN UI is still a but of a mystery to me in some places, but it’s absolutely a game changer for us.

Now, OpenCPN on an android tablet is our primary navigation tool, the Raymarine provides a backup, has the data about our voyage and is our radar screen. The charts are vaguely helpful, but the tablet is our go-to.

For OpenCPN I had to learn about chart groups, that was the main key. MBTiles have made it possible for us to anchor in some amazing places, it’s pure magic as far as I’m concerned. If you are going to remote places, you absolutely must have this system.

Go to the chartlocker website, spend the time to watch s/v Migration’s video, load the MBTiles, setup your chart groups properly, and boom, OpenCPN becomes awesome.

Now that I’m reading about brighter, waterproof screens widely available, I will be looking into upgrading when we are back in a place where we can do some upgrades. Screens just weren’t available when we built our system six years ago. I won’t get rid of the Raymarine, but I’d like to have the OpenCPN on a screen instead of a tablet, which can and does overheat. Especially here in tropics , a few minutes accidentally in the sun and it will shut down.

I’ll just add this, OpenCPN is awesome, designed for serious navigators. I think the User Interface and User Experience is confusing in parts. I give much respect to the hard working developers on the project, but I’ve talked to many people now that also had the ah-ha moment about the Chart Groups. Over time it has become easier to use, and will become easier."

dj

 

[dLj]

Reading about the "Chart Wars" on Panbo ( Chart wars? Post acquisitions, what's the status of charts? ) identifies the challenge for current and future owner/buyers of chart plotters. It is not just about matching the system to your desires, the availability of charts to run your system is now becoming a major concern.

This is very much a concern - I really think we need to support OpenCPN in order to keep them both independent, building good software, and obtaining low cost methods of accessing charts. With OpenCPN you can download and keep up-to-date all the US charts through NOAA free. But for sailors outside the US, or US sailors heading out of the US, access to world charts, at what I consider a reasonable price, is really critical.

Just my 2 cents worth.

dj

 

[dlochner]

The CP and chart format decisions in part rely on where you sail. If you are an international cruisers then the maximum flexibility is important and OpenCP may well be the best choice.

For those who stick close to home, the decision maybe more related to the preferred electronics vendor rather than the particular chart provider. Really, how much difference is there between C-Map, Navionics, and Lighthouse?

There has been a lot of consolidation in the marine electronics industry. Garmin has been buying up smaller companies to get their technology, they have bought DeLorme, Navionics, Active Captain and most recently Vesper. Based on how they have not supported AC, I'm not confident in their products.

Navico bought C-Map which purchased Jeppsen, a company known for their aviation charts. Last year Novice was purchased by Brunswick, formerly of bowling ball fame and ventures into sailing with the Sunfish and with power boating.

I'm not certain all this consolidation is a good thing.

One of the reasons we stayed with C-Map was its incorporation of Explorer Chart data for cruising in the Bahamas. Explorer charts have long been regarded as the best charts for the Bahamas. C-Map also includes data from Waterway Guide which seems to be more accurate and current than data from Active Captain.

 

[dLj]

I'm not certain all this consolidation is a good thing.

It doesn't seem to be....

dj