C-Map, Navtronics, Bluechart etc...

[Nick2]

Looking to upgrade to a colour plotter but am a bit confused as to the plusses and minuses of each software system which may influence my choice of plotter.

Please explain to me in simple terms.

Thanks

Nick

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[floyd]

I am sure you'll get lots of replies, but when we selected a colour plotter my thoughts, after looking at lots of plotters were that the choice of cartography cartography was a less important issue than how you find the operation of the plotter and the clarity of the display. Personally I would tend to favour the C-MAP and Navionics over Garmin's Bluechart since Bluechart is entirely proprietary to Garmin plotters.

We went for the Raymarine 530 (uses C-MAP) since I liked its method of operation and particularly the clarity and high resolution of the display. Preferred it to the Simrad which seemed to have a coarser display.

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[SteveE]

Nick,

Next time we meet you can have a play with my Raymarine C-Map, being new to charts and plotters it is so easy to use and has all the details you would want from a plotter, the other good thing, if you get the Laptop version you can program you C-map card at home with your intended course and plug it in when you get to the boat...

Hope you and Joanne and the girls are well..

Steve

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[Nick2]

Good idea thanks Steve.

Which model do you have?

Nick

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[byron]

There's only one firm to go for Nick and that's the one who seem to understand what customer care us. GARMIN and with all the money you must be making, go for the big one, I think it's the 2010.

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[studgies]

I just bought a garmin colour plotter (186c I think, but could be wrong!), realy pleased so far, easy to use and if you shop around there are good prices to be had!

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[jfm]

Nick, imho do not get navionics. They are scans of paper charts hence massive files and the info is not layered so you cannot turn off lights buoys etc at will.

So get blue chart or CMap. These are both vectorised. Both are fab (I use both all the time, very little real difference, both excellent)

Cheapest set up is a PC and massive TFT screen. See Dell catalog, cost say 1000. I can tell you where to get the CMap charts for PC. Downside is you cannot really hava flybridge repeater. If you want colour big screen downstairs and on flybr then you need marine kit and 5k alas

cant type anymore, non qwerty kb driving me nuts

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[Guest]

Agree, C-Map charts are nice. If you go with a plotter that takes C-Map cartridges, you can also use the cartridges with a pc and a software program --
MaxSea http://www.maxsea.com/
NavPak Pro http://www.globenav.com/
Raytech http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/
Would need a C-Map card reader for the pc though.



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[Talbot]

Vakue for money is the Navman 5500 or 5600 dependant on how far away from the wheel you need to site the display. they take C map NT+ . You can also add fuel flow information if you have petrol engines.

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