Imray are putting their Pilot Guides online and have a Kickstarter offer

[tudorsailor]

I got this a couple of days ago. £25 for access to all pilot guides seems a bargain. Yes I have my books onboard but it will be nice to look at places that are not in the book or when I am home without the books. I have no connection with Imray.

This World Oceans Day we are excited to be getting ready to launch our new product, Explore with Imray This new platform will be a digital library of cruising information plus a social space to tell your amazing stories from the seas and share them with the world. We have been working hard to begin digitising our library of pilot books and we are now at a stage where we can launch a beta version of the platform. Scroll the map to discover locations Open pins to view and interact with our cruising guide content via collapsible sections, enlarge images and plans. Filter locations Use our filters to view locations that have the facilities that you need. Bookmark locations Add locations to your bookmarks for quick access. We commission information from verified data sources, world renowned authors, cruising clubs, and directly from customers to bring together the leading pilot books for leisure sailors. This new way to see the data online makes it even easier to access this valuable information, and will also bring the Imray community even closer together. Crowdfunding now! Alongside a fantastic wealth of pilot book, almanac and cruising guide information Explore with Imray will be a social space where you can connect with other sailors, tell your own stories and learn and be inspired by those of others. Today we are launching a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to accelerate the development of Explore with Imray and bring more benefits to you. By backing this campaign you'll become part of the evolution of pilot books and cruising guides which Imray has led for centuries. There are also a series of rewards on offer: £25 per year annual subscription rate every year you maintain the subscription, normal price will be £49.99 so you get a 50% discount if you come on board at this stage! This price will be exclusive to the Kickstarter campaign. named as a supporter, becoming part of the story of cruising guide and pilot book development join a group so that we can hear your ideas and you get an input into the shaping of the platform have a day at Imray HQ exploring our archives and printing your own chart, plus seeing the production of your favourite products in action. Lunch is on us! lifetime access to the platform As a subscribed member you will have access to all of the digitised data that we have, giving you free rein to Explore with Imray! Find out more​

 

[lustyd]

If they want to make this a subscription then they're going to need to make more of an effort to keep the information up to date to justify it. We had two copies of the Scillies pilot on board last year, my 10 year old copy and the current edition. Both of them contained the same incorrect information regarding restaurants. The actual sailing information has not and likely will not change over time to a large enough extent to justify a subscription so all of the value is in the extra info.

 

[Poignard]

Will it also offer advice on attaching jib sheets?


Seriously though, I like Imray charts and other products so I might give it a go.

 

[wully1]

It will be a ‘nice to have’ but I won’t be going farther than the Loch without paper charts and books onboard.

 

[ctva]

I'm confused, £25 annual subscription... then at the bottom "lifetime access to the platform"????

What do you get, all the current pilot books for life and only the updates if you subscribe? Also is it available off line?

The site is not clear.

 

[lustyd]

You will permanently have access to the platform to pay them a subscription fee for access to content on the platform, I'd imagine. I'd like to see answers to those questions too, although remember that paying for access to any updates they make does not in any way suggest they will make updates, just that if they ever did you'd get access.

 

[stranded]

I’ve not delved but it reads to me like the £25 subscription is a concession to crowdfunders so might have to stump up more than that.

 

[lustyd]

yes it says £50 afterwards

 

[neilf39]

Problem is it looks like you are paying for a very large area and access to a lot of info you are never going to want. I think it would be better to have say a £5 or £10 subscription for a reduced area a bit like each pilot guide area coverage. I would not pay £50 per year.

 

[wully1]

£25 for the day visit to their place - with lunch- sounds like a good deal on its own.

 

[Kelpie]

For those of us hoping to sail further afield, it sounds pretty good.

 

[Sandy]

Sounds very like the Savvy Navvy offering, a solution in search of a problem.

 

[Kelpie]

Having read the link a bit more thoroughly, there is a bit more to it that I thought.
I assumed it was just a way of putting pilot books online as e-books, making them available at a very low cost. Hence my interest.
But it seems to be much more ambitious than that, creating a social media space for cruisers to share information and to interact. It could work, but it's very hard to break in to that market when there are already forums like this, and facebook groups for cruising sailors. There just aren't enough of us out there to make a strong business model, and not everybody really wants to share details of their favourite hidden anchorage with the world.
I'll chip in anyway- we're about to set off bluewater and if we wanted to buy every pilot book we are likely to need along the way it would add up to a lot more than the £25 they're asking for. Obviously having them in e-format will be annoying and limiting, but it's better than not having the pilot at all. And I might find that it helps me to decide which physical books to buy.

 

[glynd]

Would be ideal if there was an option to print off a chartlet of an anchorage / approach - trying to get a bearing with a breton plotter off an ipad is not my idea of fun.

Taking pilot books when travelling on charter seems to be a mugs game

 

[Bristolfashion]

I've done it. The guides are good, British company, having a go & all that.

I liked their "pitch" video - very professional.

£25 - and I get to find out what this "Kickstarter" is all about.

 

[Seven Spades]

This is very much like the CA Captains Mate app and Savvy Navvy, it will be kept uptodate by commubity edits I expect. You can also add content to Navionics on an iPad but few do in English. I like the Idea of the £250 once off price with no further subscriptions, but there is so much data available now I wonder if it is needed. I will probably do it.

 

[Sandy]

But it seems to be much more ambitious than that, creating a social media space for cruisers to share information and to interact. It could work, but it's very hard to break in to that market when there are already forums like this, and facebook groups for cruising sailors.

A bit like Navily, which is free.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

They had an iPad app version a few years ago that they just dropped after a year. I won’t be subscribing to this and I avoid anything that includes “community edits” as the are frequently inaccurate in my experience.

 

[Arcady]

I'm confused, £25 annual subscription... then at the bottom "lifetime access to the platform"????

What do you get, all the current pilot books for life and only the updates if you subscribe? Also is it available off line?

The site is not clear.

I don’t think it is available offline, at least initially. There is mention of making it available offline in one of the ‘stretch’ goals, i.e. if they get more money than the initial target. Not being able to download stuff would make this a non-starter for me.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

I don’t think it is available offline, at least initially. There is mention of making it available offline in one of the ‘stretch’ goals, i.e. if they get more money than the initial target. Not being able to download stuff would make this a non-starter for me.

? If you need to be online to use it you also have access to a million other sources of the same information.