Navionics price increasing

[dLj]

After this last flurry of posts, I thought I'd give OpenCPN a try. I really wanted it to work... but after several hours of preliminary poking around, I just can't see it taking the place of any of my current tools. I have a Navionics App subscription that I will be renewing early, my B&G Zues2 chart plotter on board for 'driving', and a copy of iNavX on my iPad that I have been using for years, and in which I have about a million waypoints and routes built. I use the iNavX and Navionics for planning route segments, iNavX for local stuff that I've been building for years, and Navionics to extend my reach into Canada.

I recently came across a batch of planning docs from our trip to the Gulf Islands a couple of years ago, and it reminded me of what I really enjoy about planning our longer cruises, spending the time and effort to research and document all of the details of the route, the currents, and available options and alternate routes. I'm working on a plan for next summer already, and I'm putting together a document to combine a "passage" worksheet that I saw in this years Waggoner's with a screenshot or a PDF of each days route to use for notes and as a quick reference while en route.

I tried using the newly downloaded OpenCPN to create the route our first leg, but it had problems properly integrating the multiple charts which cover the area between us and our first anchorage.

I took me a fair amount of time to get my fingers around the program, certainly more than a few hours. But hey, if you've got a system that works for you, stick with it. Once I got through my initial "learning curve" I've not had any of the problems you've described.

dj

 

[jssailem]

Dave,
Like many software programs there is a learning curve to understand the tools programed.

I found getting the charts to function the way I desire took a bit of time. Part of the issue is the transition we all are faced with - the discard of raster charts for ENC charts. OpenCPN is adapting and over the past year the download and knitting of the charts has improved.

Certainly the cost of Canadian Hydrological Charts is more favorable to my beer/wine budget.

 

[stephen_i_w]

In my experience in the Great Lakes, OpenCPN worked great in US waters. However, the Canadian O-Charts I purchased, not so much, when I cruised the North Channel of Lake Huron. There were big open gaps that made it difficult to plan my trip. On the other hand, my Navionics charts worked flawlessly in the same places. I am thinking the fault is more with the O-Charts than OpenCPN.

Anyway, I do not believe at the new higher price, of $50 or so, for dependable charts of the US and Canada, this is a huge cost. Especially when I get to use the Navionics app on all of my devices with no additional cost. OpenCPN is a great project and to my knowledge there is no reasonable alternative to it on a PC. But, on a tablet computer or smart phone, it is hard to beat Navionics.

 

[dLj]

In my experience in the Great Lakes, OpenCPN worked great in US waters. However, the Canadian O-Charts I purchased, not so much, when I cruised the North Channel of Lake Huron. There were big open gaps that made it difficult to plan my trip. On the other hand, my Navionics charts worked flawlessly in the same places. I am thinking the fault is more with the O-Charts than OpenCPN.

Anyway, I do not believe at the new higher price, of $50 or so, for dependable charts of the US and Canada, this is a huge cost. Especially when I get to use the Navionics app on all of my devices with no additional cost. OpenCPN is a great project and to my knowledge there is no reasonable alternative to it on a PC. But, on a tablet computer or smart phone, it is hard to beat Navionics.

Interesting. I've actually just had that same problem in Southern Portugal where my O-charts were missing serious sections of data where my Navionics software and Garmin software were both fine - different, but at least with data. I'm sailing with a guy running some European software (sorry don't recall the name) and we were comparing them all. All were different, well had different levels of info, but the O-charts were unusable ..

I'd have to agree that it's a problem with O-charts, not OpenCPN.

Question: how do you get to use Navionics on all your devices? I bought it for my cell phone and can't use it on anything else without purchasing it again. Perhaps if I'd bought it for my computer or chart plotter it would be different? I called Navionics about this and they told me I couldn't use it across platforms....

dj

 

[stephen_i_w]

Question: how do you get to use Navionics on all your devices? I bought it for my cell phone and can't use it on anything else without purchasing it again. Perhaps if I'd bought it for my computer or chart plotter it would be different? I called Navionics about this and they told me I couldn't use it across platforms....

dj
[/QUOTE]

I just login and it works. I have an Android phone and tablet, it also works on my iPad and when I run Android on my Chrome OS laptop. I do also buy Navionics for my chart plotter, so maybe that's it.

 

[Davidasailor26]

I think the Navionics subscription goes across iOS and Android devices through account login, but not to chartplotters since those are card based. There is no Navionics for PC or Mac as far as I know.

 

[dLj]

I just login and it works. I have an Android phone and tablet, it also works on my iPad and when I run Android on my Chrome OS laptop. I do also buy Navionics for my chart plotter, so maybe that's it.

I think that's right..I seem to recall somewhere that if you get Navionics for your chart plotter it works across different platforms.

dj