Laptop plotter.

[Graham_Wright]

What do I need to turn my Macbook Pro into a plotter?

We are chartering in a couple of weeks time and the on-board plotter is Garmin which I am not familiar with.

It would be nice to have a back up.

(Before anybody comments, we are taking paper charts.)

 

[SteveGorst]

I have OpenCPN on my windows laptop and I believe they do a version for macs as well. You may also need a dongle to receive the gps signals but a clever mac might already have that facility.

 

[lpdsn]

Apple Mac OS X is listed as a supported operating system on the OpenCPN website (www.opencpn.org).

No practical experience of running it on a Mac myself as I use OpenCPN on a Windows tablet for Nav, but OpenCPN is a pretty good chart plotter and I can really recommend it. Main weakness of using tablets, laptops etc is sunlight readability, or rather the lack of it.

In terms of charts there are the infamous CM93 charts that fell off the back of a memory stick. For official charts when it comes to the Mac I'm not sure about UK & I charts (I got Admiralty charts from www.visitmyharbour.com) but again you'd have to check their website if Mac is supported - bit disorganised so you have to browse around. There are free charts for other parts of the world, esp US - see list on OpenCPN website, if you're chartering outside the UK.

I'm assuming you can't link to the boat's systems either by wire or WiFi, but worth asking charter company as they may have fitted WiFi. In that case probably best you can do at short notice is get a cheap GPS dongle.

I'm sure other posters who use Apple Macs will be able to give you more pointers.

 

[dutyhog]

I happily used a MacBookPro plus dongle for several years before getting a secondhand Toughbook from LCP. On both I've had OpenCPN and Polarview (the licence allows several computers - Windows and/or Mac). Plus Antares for the west coast here, on them and on an iphone.

With the Admiralty charts they use I can see both vector and raster versions of the coast, giving slightly differing information.

Gordon

 

[Mikedefieslife]

I have OpenCPN on my windows laptop and I believe they do a version for macs as well. You may also need a dongle to receive the gps signals but a clever mac might already have that facility.

I have OpenCPN on a Mac. It's a pain sometimes as all the instructions are for Windows. Furthermore other than an overview or rough route planning, it's pointless in most of the Med as charts to the level of Garmin BlueChart or Navionics, C-Map etc.. aren't available. so that leave you with an outdate CM93 which is poor for cruising anyhow.