Navionics on a laptop

[rascacio]

Hi there, I wanted to buy the Navionics Gold+ for use on my small Windows laptop (I use OpenCPN with CM93 charts) but it is no longer available.

I emailed Navionics asking what the story was and was told there is no date for relaunching it, so my question is, does anyone run it on a windows laptop using an Android emulator and if so, what do you use and how do you use it ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Hi there, I wanted to buy the Navionics Gold+ for use on my small Windows laptop (I use OpenCPN with CM93 charts) but it is no longer available.

I emailed Navionics asking what the story was and was told there is no date for relaunching it, so my question is, does anyone run it on a windows laptop using an Android emulator and if so, what do you use and how do you use it ?

Thanks in advance.

Buy PC Plotter and get the Navionics charts with them. PC Plotter is a good nav software tool.

 

[Sea Devil]

Hi there, I wanted to buy the Navionics Gold+ for use on my small Windows laptop (I use OpenCPN with CM93 charts) but it is no longer available.

I emailed Navionics asking what the story was and was told there is no date for relaunching it, so my question is, does anyone run it on a windows laptop using an Android emulator and if so, what do you use and how do you use it ?

Thanks in advance.

I run a pirate version of C-Map93 with OpenCPN on my laptop and used it from the Caribbean all the way round the world via the Indian Ocean etc.

Whilst I now have a proper chart plotter and NT charts I still use my laptop to plot courses. OpenCPN is arguably the best chart plotter available. There are lots of 'pirate' versions of CM93 around - ask any long distance cruiser. When I was dlivering my last boat from La Rochelle to Plymouth a few years ago I only had the laptop as an electronic means of navigating and in the middle of the night with 25k on the nose decided to head into Benodet as the nearest port. Never been in there before, quite a challenging approach in daytime if you have not been in before but on a dark, windy night it was really easy with the laptop in the cockpit and CM93

 

[rascacio]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I've had a look at pc plotter and it looks alright, but I like OpenCPN, been using it for years so really I just want some decent more up to date charts.

 

[Yngmar]

I haven't tried this myself yet, but apparently Navionics charts are available as S-63 encrypted ENCs. These can now be used in OpenCPN by getting the commercial (15 EUR) o-charts plugin from http://o-charts.org/.

This seems to involve generating a software DRM "fingerprint" for your computer, which means the license is tied to that computer and the charts can only be decoded on that computer. More information: http://o-charts.org/downloads/S-63_plug-in_explained-0_4.pdf

They main problem with this is that S-63 ENCs are proper "for navigation" charts when used with an ECDIS and thus cost an arm and a leg compared to the leisure market "not for navigation" stuff.

Depending on where you're sailing, there are other regional options, including the Visitmyharbour "Chartstick" and of course the freely published US S-57 (unencrypted) ENCs.

 

[rascacio]

Thanks Yngmar, this looks interesting and well worth a look.