Believe me when I say I have been using a computer with nav software
and charts since 1991 in cruising all of the U.S. east coast,
Chesepeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico and bayous of Lousiana, almost all of
Bahamas, northern coast of Cuba and around Providencialis in Turks and
Caicos, yet the more I search for the kind of nav software and charts
I want and need, the more frustrated and puzzled I become. Every
company claims it has the best and the newest.

The problem, for me, are the complexity of the software and the
quality of the charts. Most software can do far more than I need or
want -- too many function buttons to go through and symbols, I find,
are often misleading. In any system's charts, in one area may be good,
but in another they are poor.

I pity the novice or near novice navigator -- and even the
"experienced" navigator. What's one to do? I would welcome any and all
reasonable, sane and simple counseling.

anchorlt wrote:
Believe me when I say I have been using a computer with nav software
and charts since 1991 in cruising all of the U.S. east coast,
Chesepeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico and bayous of Lousiana, almost all of
Bahamas, northern coast of Cuba and around Providencialis in Turks
and Caicos, yet the more I search for the kind of nav software and
charts I want and need, the more frustrated and puzzled I become.
Every company claims it has the best and the newest.

The problem, for me, are the complexity of the software and the
quality of the charts. Most software can do far more than I need or
want -- too many function buttons to go through and symbols, I find,
are often misleading. In any system's charts, in one area may be
good, but in another they are poor.

I pity the novice or near novice navigator -- and even the
"experienced" navigator. What's one to do? I would welcome any and
all reasonable, sane and simple counseling.

My situation and experience (and for that matter cruising areas) are quite
close to yours. I have basically chosen to stick with what I have and not
worry too very much about the "brand new latest." Right now everything
talks well enough to everybody else, including radar, autopilots, loran,
GPS, etc.

I got started with The Capn and BSB, and I cannot see updating (with the
expenditure of probably well over $2K) right now. Yes, bathymetric charts
with aerial views are nice, but ... c'mon. We are not running a 150 foot
sloop with a crew of 12.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/

Well I started with 'The Capn's First Mate' 4 years ago. A trimmed
down version of The Capn. It does everything I need to the point that
I don't see myself changing. I downloaded and tried dozens of
software. I always go back to First Mate.
Most of the time, I don't even turn on the computer anyway. Last thing
I want to do when I cruise is being stuck in front of the computer. I
find that plotting my GPS position on the paper chart every 30 minutes
or so is all I ever need.
If I could go back 4 years, I would probably just get the free
software "Seaclear".
For charts I use the Mini Regions. I looked at the Vector charts but I
can't seem to enjoy them.

Jeannette B32

On 18 Jun 2004 09:33:31 -0700, (anchorlt)
wrote:

Believe me when I say I have been using a computer with nav software
and charts since 1991 in cruising all of the U.S. east coast,
Chesepeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico and bayous of Lousiana, almost all of
Bahamas, northern coast of Cuba and around Providencialis in Turks and
Caicos, yet the more I search for the kind of nav software and charts
I want and need, the more frustrated and puzzled I become. Every
company claims it has the best and the newest.

The problem, for me, are the complexity of the software and the
quality of the charts. Most software can do far more than I need or
want -- too many function buttons to go through and symbols, I find,
are often misleading. In any system's charts, in one area may be good,
but in another they are poor.

I pity the novice or near novice navigator -- and even the
"experienced" navigator. What's one to do? I would welcome any and all
reasonable, sane and simple counseling.

Jeannette
aa6jh
Bristol 32, San Francisco
http://www.eblw.com/contepartiro/contepartiro.html

On 18 Jun 2004 09:33:31 -0700, (anchorlt)
wrote:

The problem, for me, are the complexity of the software and the
quality of the charts. Most software can do far more than I need or
want -- too many function buttons to go through and symbols, I find,
are often misleading. In any system's charts, in one area may be good,
but in another they are poor.

I pity the novice or near novice navigator -- and even the
"experienced" navigator. What's one to do? I would welcome any and all
reasonable, sane and simple counseling.


I use Ozi Explorer - it is not a specifically-marine program, but it
does what I want. Ozi will handle the same BSB-format charts as the
more popular marine-oriented programs, and will also handle scanned
graphics in several formats. If you can't get a digital chart for
your area, you can get a paper chart (or topo map) scanned, then
calibrate that graphic file for use as a chart.



--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

I'm just getting back to boating after being away for (a long) while. Do
you folks use raster charts
or the vector charts. From what I can see it looks like the raster charts
are closer
to the "paper" charts I am used to.

Any advice or comments?

Thanks --- Tony





---
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I'm from one of those companies that claims to have "the best and
newest"... But in our case it's really true! :-)

Our product, Coastal Explorer, is about to be released commercially
after more than six months in beta testing with over 500 users. It is
the easiest to use and most reliable navigation software ever designed
specifically for recreational boaters.

Coastal Explorer will cost $300 and works with BSB and Softchart
raster charts as well as the S-57 ENC (vector) charts that you can get
free from NOAA and the USACE.

More information can be found at http://rosepointnav.com/

NG RULES - you have to put BULL**** SALESMAN in front of all your
posts

It's not really true - you don't do the free cm-93 cmap vector charts.


On 18 Jun 2004 19:40:09 -0700, wrote:

I'm from one of those companies that claims to have "the best and
newest"... But in our case it's really true! :-)

Our product, Coastal Explorer, is about to be released commercially
after more than six months in beta testing with over 500 users. It is
the easiest to use and most reliable navigation software ever designed
specifically for recreational boaters.

Coastal Explorer will cost $300 and works with BSB and Softchart
raster charts as well as the S-57 ENC (vector) charts that you can get
free from NOAA and the USACE.

More information can be found at http://rosepointnav.com/

Sir,
You need to learn to read. Brad said nothing about Coastal Explorer
being compatible with c-map vector charts. As well as the fact that he
did state that he is from a company that produces a charting software
program.

I am one of those 500 beta testers, and I love the product. Their
program is the only one that I have found that not only can display
both charting formats, but quilts them together. As well as display
all of the information that can be transmitted from instrument server.
Wind speed and direction, boat speed, depth,etc.

Set back and learn to comprehend what you are reading.

flyer


On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:10:35 -0700, Ace-high
wrote:

NG RULES - you have to put BULL**** SALESMAN in front of all your
posts

It's not really true - you don't do the free cm-93 cmap vector charts.


On 18 Jun 2004 19:40:09 -0700, wrote:

I'm from one of those companies that claims to have "the best and
newest"... But in our case it's really true! :-)

Our product, Coastal Explorer, is about to be released commercially
after more than six months in beta testing with over 500 users. It is
the easiest to use and most reliable navigation software ever designed
specifically for recreational boaters.

Coastal Explorer will cost $300 and works with BSB and Softchart
raster charts as well as the S-57 ENC (vector) charts that you can get
free from NOAA and the USACE.

More information can be found at http://rosepointnav.com/