Best PC based charting software and charts

[mocruising]

We have decided to take the plunge and try out some electronic charts. We are Med. based at the moment but hope eventually to venture "Accross the Pond" and further still.

We use a laptop on board daily and have decided this will better suit us rather than purchasing a fixed chart plotter. At the moment we use a data dongle but we hope at some stage to connect the lap top to the satelite phone for communications and weather routing information. We are not very good with computers were OK as long as they work and that's about it. To start with we will purchase a Med folio if there is such a thing available and later worldwide. I still like the idea of having paper charts onboard this is in addition to paper charts. We will also purchase some kind of bluetooth GPS as well.

Where to start, we have a sizeable budget. Can anyone recommend a user friendly "Package" that we could purchase, and perhaps add to in the future as and when we move out of the Med.

 

[FullCircle]

We have decided to take the plunge and try out some electronic charts. We are Med. based at the moment but hope eventually to venture "Accross the Pond" and further still.

We use a laptop on board daily and have decided this will better suit us rather than purchasing a fixed chart plotter. At the moment we use a data dongle but we hope at some stage to connect the lap top to the satelite phone for communications and weather routing information. We are not very good with computers were OK as long as they work and that's about it. To start with we will purchase a Med folio if there is such a thing available and later worldwide. I still like the idea of having paper charts onboard this is in addition to paper charts. We will also purchase some kind of bluetooth GPS as well.

Where to start, we have a sizeable budget. Can anyone recommend a user friendly "Package" that we could purchase, and perhaps add to in the future as and when we move out of the Med.

If you have a budget, and don't want it for 'free', then I can recommend DigiBoat from Australia. It uses the C-Map max charts, and you will need to purchase the C-Map card reader. You will get a C-Map PC Planner /Chart Folio Selector CD with it, and you can obtain the charts direct.
It is available on a trial, and if you can borrow a reader and a chart, you can play with it for a month.

 

[Robin]

OpenCPN is the favourite free one and every bit as good as the commercial stuff for what you want. It does AIS too and can handle Raster (paper chart style) charts or Vector (C-Map style) charts, you can even scan your own charts in. You can find 2010 dated CM93/2 C-Map charts on the internet for free, but the later CM93/3 ones will not run yet, until someone breaks the encryption codes for those too... All electronic charts for the USA are totally free in Raster or Vector format, so updating is easy just download new charts.

I would avoid a bluetooth dongle GPS personally because it needs to be charged periodically and when I tried on it would often cut off unexpectedly. I use a Globalsat BU-653 USB one, comes with a reasonable length of cable and anyway works well indoors.

 

[Richard10002]

With a sizeable budget, get a dedicated waterproof chart plotter that you can mount by the wheel, such that it swivels through 360 degrees. Your laptop will need to stay down below when it's wet, and the screen will probably be hard to see in bright sunlight.... Thus making it pretty useless for pilotage - the exact time when you will value it the most.

I bought a fairly cheap Lowrance in 2006. About £300 IIRC - a no Brainer, as they say.

I had digiboat with c-map charts on a laptop, but this spent it's days secured tobthe saloon table - visible from the wheel, but couldn't manipulate it single handed during pilotage.

Up to you, but take it from someone who's "been there and done it"

 

[charles_reed]

We have decided to take the plunge and try out some electronic charts. We are Med. based at the moment but hope eventually to venture "Accross the Pond" and further still.

We use a laptop on board daily and have decided this will better suit us rather than purchasing a fixed chart plotter. At the moment we use a data dongle but we hope at some stage to connect the lap top to the satelite phone for communications and weather routing information. We are not very good with computers were OK as long as they work and that's about it. To start with we will purchase a Med folio if there is such a thing available and later worldwide. I still like the idea of having paper charts onboard this is in addition to paper charts. We will also purchase some kind of bluetooth GPS as well.

Where to start, we have a sizeable budget. Can anyone recommend a user friendly "Package" that we could purchase, and perhaps add to in the future as and when we move out of the Med.

Having used both extensively I have to argue strongly against your decision.

Whilst the benefits of the larger screen and added bells and whistles, that a laptop PC offer. There are two very important considerations that you have not taken into account.

1. Is the immeasurably greater power-consumption of the laptop - using a CULV powered mini laptop, power-draw with Win7 is x6 that of the Lowrance plotter and x4 using Linux. If you have a powerboat and will be voyaging with motors running this will be no disadvantage (you'd not have the endurance to cross the Atlantic in a normal powerboat so I'd guess you intend to sail). I have 300w of PV panel and 360 ah of battery and have found using the laptop to be not feasible on extended passages under sail.

2. Under arduous conditions the laptop is totally unreliable - Win7 is especially prone to lose drivers and, under any but calm conditions, operating the laptop is problematic.

I would recommend you prove my contentions by downloading OpenCPN and the Jepperson charts (it will operate under both Linux and MS OS) and save your money for the primary, dedicated chartplotter you will find essential.

PS I do use a laptop - mainly for keeping the log - continuously when on the boat.

 

[maby]

before you take the decision to rely on a laptop, look carefully at the technology and your expected sailing pattern. Computers are rather delicate things with high power consumption and disks that are likely to crash when bounced around in a heavy sea. Look at the supply voltage of your laptop - many want 12 volts or more which will require you to run an invertor in the boat and push up current drain on your batteries. And you have to pay a significant price premium for a waterproof laptop, so you really cannot have it out in the cockpit most of the time. Personally, I don't think you can rely on a PC for your navigation unless you stick to short passages close to shore - I think they are just too delicate and too demanding on power for blue water sailing.

If all of the above is acceptable, then I would echo the recommendation for OpenCPN - very nice package and free, but there are few, if any, free charts (legally) available for Europe. My personal preference is for a Garmin chart plotter mounted in the cockpit where I can refer to it easily and it can display all sorts of other useful information such as echosounder, AIS, radar, engine instrumentation etc. etc. If you want to do your passage planning from the chart table, the Garmin HomePort PC package is quite cheap and will use the compatible charts that go into the plotter as well.

 

[pW2]

- I think they are just too delicate and too demanding on power for blue water sailing.

Who needs anything more than a GPS and AIS for blue water sailing?

 

[maby]

- I think they are just too delicate and too demanding on power for blue water sailing.

Who needs anything more than a GPS and AIS for blue water sailing?

Quite true, but my interpretation of the original post was that the writer was proposing to use the laptop as a replacement for the GPS and AIS - that seems unwise...

 

[V1701]

If you really want to use a laptop (and will be able to supply it with enough power, though doesn't have to be on all the time) you could try a Panasonic Toughbook, or a netbook with a solid state drive (smaller screen, much lower power consumption than a standard laptop but no built-in cd/dvd drive). But if you have the budget I'd have a chartplotter with a decent sized screen, they're not difficult to use and has advantages over PC based. Though, as you probably know, there are plenty of people who go RTW with a laptop and CM93 charts, using Open CPN (free) or MaxSea (not free)...

 

[maby]

I'm not sure you actually save very much (if at all) by going for a laptop. If you go for one of the Toughbook type devices, you are looking at around £400 at least for a refurb, but you will need a decent quality GPS module and software plus charts. OK - if you are not too worried about legalities, there are places on the net where you can download pirate copies of the charts, but they are typically quite out of date.

You can get a perfectly adequate Garmin chartplotter for under £500 that will survive the worst that the weather can throw at it in the cockpit and comes with a full set of current maps for your chosen cruising area. It will be tough and low power consumption. Adding AIS to either the PC or chartplotter is a very similar exercise and will cost pretty much the same either way.

 

[Conachair]

-

Who needs anything more than a GPS and AIS for blue water sailing?

+1

And as ever cruiser will have a laptop onboard and in every anchorage a fair percentage of boats will have cm93 charts on their hard drive to copy it costs the price of a serial - usb adaptor to get a laptop chartplotter set up. It's not a dedicated chart plotter but has anyone met a cruiser who can afford all those charts anyway? Then it sits on hibernate drawing no power until you need to boot it up coming into the next anchorage. With google earth running as well, worth the effort on it's own.

 

[fishermantwo]

I have used seaclear2 for a number of years, probably ten. First on my commercial fishing vessel with a 240v home PC and large screen then on two yachts with laptops bolted to the chart table. The latest one is a wide bright screen that is easy to read from my normal steering position[tiller]. Battery is removed and runs from ships supply with a set up dc to dc converter. Compare the power consumption of a large screen chart plotter of equal size screen to a large screen laptop with the battery removed and there is very little difference.
Laptop can hibernate when not in use as well.