French Inland Waterways - Electronic Charts

Hello, just joined this forum. We put Wight Mistress into the French waterways in 2011 and came out again in the spring of 2013. What an amazing experience. URL of our blog site is at the bottom if you fancy a butchers. We used the paper fluviacartes and they were easy and very informative. For a while, just for fun we had our Euronav Seapro 3000 on (we use it alongside paper charts at sea) just to see the red line squiggle across France. As it had an AIS input from our Standard Horizon 3000 (?) radio we often tracked large barges we couldn't see, and just knowing they were around the next corner or two was quite useful. Out of curiosity I am interested in what PC based charts are available. By the way I noted the comments about inverters to provide mains to the laptop power pack. I have bought a couple of power units from a French truck stop. They take 12 volt input (I think some take 24 volts as well) and produced a variety of DC outputs. I have an ancient Dell for navigation and that runs on 19 volts. The power pack works very well and MUST be more efficient than having one box getting warm, making 12 volt into mains, followed by another one getting warm and turning mains into 19 volt. If anyone is interested in the power pack I will look onboard (Wight Mistress in Island Harbour IOW at the moment and I am in London working at the boatshow) when we get home and report back.
We have used Euronav Seapro 3000, a dongle security protected package, for about 6 years. The first package came as an instructor deal through the RYA and we were so pleased we updated to the Standard Version. Seapro, a USB GPS Dongle (and a blue tooth one as back up) and AIS input makes for a very effective navigation compliment to our paper charts. We are also considering integrating radar to it and an AIS transponder.

www.wightmistress.com
 
i started this thread nearly 3 years ago - so to respond to my own question!
Been up/down the canals a number of times now and would only use the fluviacartes in the future. Forget the chartplotter, although I can see how AIS could be useful! Loved every minute of the canals ' and may even go back in this summer!...
 
I have been using the EurEauWeb system - http://www.euromapping.com/en/item/51 - on my laptop, with a GPS dongle, for the past few years and am very happy with it. I like the real time positioning and advance warning of what's round the next bend, without having to keep checking the fluviacarte - although I have those to hand as well, just in case. I also find the information on shops, restaurants etc much more complete and up to date than fluviacarte. Although it does not pretend to be a complete navigation guide, I found it much easier to keep to a good track crossing the Etang de Thau, for example, than with a paper chart. The guide covers France and Belgium, where we went last year, but not Germany or Holland, where we may go next summer. Does anyone know of a good electronic system for Germany?

Nick
 
I am really astonished nobody uses Google Earth.
In Greece I use it next to Open CPN.
Having internet, one “flies “ over the canal or river next to come, and stores it in the cache. Then, while motoring along the river, open Google Earth in Offline and using a Gps dongle One can see the boat moving over the excellent Google earth aerial pictures.
I even used it in a rental car to find my way around the Peleponesos. Road signs are useless in Greece because the Greeks use some stone age alphabet. One can not even read the signs.
There are help programs ( Free ) to “Fly” and store a trajectory. I like to do the storing by hand, that way I know the nexst to visit region already.
Just have a look at Fourques on the petite Rhone. Watch that resolution, one can see people on their bikes. Is that current on the river ? Glad I was not there moored next to the bridge with that water flowing down.
Beauty off Google earth is one has information about what is around the canal or river and behind the riverbank.
My Dell big screen laptop fed by a good 12 to 19 volt charger uses 2,5 A/h. Even when sailing no problem.
 
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