Disappointed with Admiralty RYA Chart Plotter

[oceanfroggie]

Recently purchased the Admiralty RYA Chart Plotter but as an IT professional I have to say I was dissapointed with the rather awkward user interface. The charts are great, but there is no automatic chart switching when one is in route planning mode. I would have expected the charts to seemlessly quilt together or auto chage when one panned the mouse off the edge of the currenly displayed chart in route drawing mode.

The Garmin GPS interface is good for "real time" plotting, but I didn't buy this product for real-time use, but rather for route and passage planning in conjunction with on board plotters. There seems no way to exchange waypoints, routes and tracklogs between Garmin or any plotters for that matter rendering this product seemingly useless as a route planning tool. There seems no way to export/import waypoint data to popular plotter formats such as Raymarine, Garmin, C-Map, etc.

Am I being unfair? I can see the value for real time plotting on a laptop, but not as a planning tool for use with proper plotters as there seems no way to get planned routes onto the on board plotters (eg Raymarine or Garmin). Anyway laptops and the marine environment on small craft don't mix well unlike dedicated marine chart plotters.

Can anyone recommend an alternative that does interface well with popular brand plotters?

 

[mjf]

For years now I have used the c-map pc plotter for planning.

Just bring the extra wide chart home off the boat and spare card for routes / waypoints etc and its just like using the boats gear.

Return to the boat and upload the new data.

Works visa versa too so you can review what you have done / been too in the comfort of home/office etc


Also have Maptech ONL software with Admirality charts as back up system at home and on board (have seperate gps input for laptop on the boat case needed). This system is excellent for real time tidal flow data.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Yes have done the same with MapSource for years. Perhaps I was expecting too much from an independant chart vendor. Mapsource no longer works with the new Garmin gear (ie cant display SD card charts on pc using card reader) so I'll have to use some PC solution for planning, but one that can export routes either in Garmin format or some popular exchange file format (eg Ozi, TrackMaker, etc).

 

[Chris_d]

I use the RYA plotter for real time on a laptop with an old flat 17'' PC screen as a repeater next the helm, I mainly bought it because it was a quick cheaper option than replacing the elderly Cetrek plotter on my helm and gave me a backup as well.
I would agree though as a planning tool its very clunky and its completely uninterfaceable with any other system, however for £50 I got the whole south coast on proper admiralty charts displayed on a large screen, routes are easily added and I ended up steering by it all the time.

Its nothing fancy but it does the job, i.e shows you where you are on a proper chart.

 

[paultallett]

You took the words right out of my mouth!! I completely agree that it leaves alot to be desired, but I run it on my laptop, secured away inside, so if everything running by boat power was to go down, I have a back up if all else fails!! I think for 50 quid it's value for money, but compared to the more expensive systems it's weak. I do find its great once I'm back home to go in to the log section and run through....filling my proper boats log book in.


Regards,

Paul.

 

[Chris_d]

This is my screen display from when crossing the channel last year, nice to have the admiralty chart next to the helm on a big screen, screens not pretty either like the software /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[oceanfroggie]

The software UI is so 1990s. The inability to import/export or save waypoints to disk is an appauling omission. Unfortunately this was a total waste of money for me, so it will be going in the bin, or at least I'll use the CD as a coffee cup coaster.