Boating in The Netherlands

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Jonrob

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Hi All, Help!
I am looking to move my boat to The Netherlands for a couple of years, and I am looking
at a system called pc-navigo.com for information rather than buying a whole raft of charts
for the various areas. Does anybody have any experience of this system, what it entails,etc.
Is it a card to buy that fits in the chartplotter? I have no idea!
Ta.
PHP:
 
sailorman said:
Open cpn will run all the charts you req. ( free download)
the Dutch charts are available on a free download

http://www.amslshop.com/Binnenkarten/digital/Holland-Gewaesserkarten.php
Click to expand...

What a great link for charts, thanks for posting it...it led me on to this one http://www.vaarweginformatie.nl/fdd/main/infra/enc which in turn has links to free charts (mostly inland, but still I'm still investigating) in Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, The Czech Republic, Rumania, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Switzerland, USA
 
Tender_aft said:
What a great link for charts, thanks for posting it...it led me on to this one http://www.vaarweginformatie.nl/fdd/main/infra/enc which in turn has links to free charts (mostly inland, but still I'm still investigating) in Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, The Czech Republic, Rumania, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Switzerland, USA
Click to expand...
Yes its a good deal especially as it runs on opencpn
 
Jonrob said:
Hi All, Help!
I am looking to move my boat to The Netherlands for a couple of years, and I am looking
at a system called pc-navigo.com for information rather than buying a whole raft of charts
for the various areas. Does anybody have any experience of this system, what it entails,etc.
Is it a card to buy that fits in the chartplotter? I have no idea!
Ta.
PHP:
Click to expand...

Don't forget, you have to know your CEVNI rules verbatum, in Dutch! :p;)
 
It looks like I may have to buy the charts anyway as it would appear I should
not use ENC to navigate, or am I reading incorrectly? I don't yet see an answer
to my original question - anyone familiar with pc-navigo.com
 
JonRob,

If I remember correctly there was something about this system in a Dutch magazine and/or TV show.
It was about a motorboat and a sailboat using pc-navigo and another system, both where very pleased about the results, but there was a mentioning of each system being optimized for a certain usage.

I will have a look if I can find the information.
 
JonRob,

The article was in Motorboot juli 2012 about traveling from the Netherlands to the Baltic.
Denmark was not on PC-Navigo so they used WaypointsGPS for that region.
The neat trick of PC-Navigo is that once you enter your boats vital (LxWxHxD) it will function similar to a car navigation system.
They recommend using 2 computers so you can have a detail chart and a general birds eye view.
From what I gather these people extensively used (10 years) the software in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Here are some links to the articles (in Dutch so I hope Google does a reasonable translation for you).

French trip
http://www.motorboot.com/index.php/lezersbijdragen/toervaart/405950-dwars-door-frankrijk-met-pc-navigo

German trip
http://www.harlingerwatersportvereniging.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17:reisverhaal-2&catid=10:reisverhalen&Itemid=34

Baltic trip
http://www.harlingerwatersportvereniging.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136:met-een-notebook-naar-de-oostzee&catid=10:reisverhalen&Itemid=34

The following link and the first part of the Baltic trip give the most info on what the program does
http://www.harlingerwatersportvereniging.nl/images/stories/downloads/reisverslagen/Deel%201%20definitief.pdf

To answer your original question :
PC-Navigo is a piece of software that runs on a Windows computer and uses a dongle. The dongle allows you to use the software on 2 different computers simultaneously.
The software turns your PC into a water based car navigation system for Europe's inland waterways.
 
Last edited:
newWave said:
JonRob,

The article was in Motorboot juli 2012 about traveling from the Netherlands to the Baltic.
Denmark was not on PC-Navigo so they used WaypointsGPS for that region.
The neat trick of PC-Navigo is that once you enter your boats vital (LxWxHxD) it will function similar to a car navigation system.
They recommend using 2 computers so you can have a detail chart and a general birds eye view.
From what I gather these people extensively used the software in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Here are some links to the articles (in Dutch so I hope Google does a reasonable translation for you).

French trip
http://www.motorboot.com/index.php/...art/405950-dwars-door-frankrijk-met-pc-navigo

German trip
http://www.harlingerwatersportveren...reisverhaal-2&catid=10:reisverhalen&Itemid=34

Baltic trip
http://www.harlingerwatersportveren...ar-de-oostzee&catid=10:reisverhalen&Itemid=34


To answer your original question :
PC-Navigo is a piece of software that runs on a Windows computer and uses a dongle. The dongle allows you to use the software on 2 different computers simultaneously.
The software turns your PC into a water based car navigation system for Europe's inland waterways.
Click to expand...
open cpn is a free download, buy a gps dongle for £25 & your in business
 
Been using pc-navigo in the Netherlands for the past two weeks - excellent!

But:
- suggest you have it attached to a GPS of one or another description so that actual position is shown on the chart at all times. I purchased the USB version advertised on their website and it works very well indeed, even inside a steel cruiser.
- as far as I have been able to ascertain, it does not give the bridge/lock numbers as per the ANWB Almanak Vol II which would be nice as a cross reference. But they might be there somewhere. :confused:
- you need good screen resolution if it is to be used in sunlight.

SWAMBO prefers the ANWB charts for some reason but when it gets tight, the zoom in/out facility and 'one click' point of route info facility is brilliant. Also, for daily trip planning, it beats the charts hands down especially as there are daily 'stoppage' downloads.

Recommended.

(Humble apologies for re-opening an old thread...)
 
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