Navionics or Blue Charts - what's the difference ?

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Navionics seem to clearly offer the capability of choosing an area and also the ability to download corrections.

Can you do this with BlueChart?

Or am I hoping for too much for my money.
 
Are you talking about a chartplotter or a mobile device? So far as I understood it, if you wanted to use a Garmin device (chartplotter/handheld GPS) then you were forced to go BlueChart but, yes, you could choose the area you wanted and download corrections for that area.

If you are talking about a Bluechart mobile app then, sorry, I don't have any experience of it. But, the apple app store gives prices for in-app purchases for charts covering specific areas, so it appears that you can. See: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/garmin-bluechart-mobile/id523635526?mt=8 (Note adverse comment about the area covered by individual chart packages - too big = too expensive).

(Not sure how the chart updates work for the mobile app).
 
Thanks very much Angele.

Only having half a brain, do I read your response that Navionics and/or BlueChart enable corrections to be down loaded ?


I am anticipating buying a B&G plotter.

Again, thanks very much for your input.
 
galadriel said:
If you buy B&G you dont have the choice of Blue Chart, they are Garmin only.
Click to expand...

I believe Galadriel is correct. I think your choice of charts with a B&G plotter is either Navionics or C-map. There may be others as well, but I'm pretty sure Bluechart isn't on that list.
 
816swim said:
Thank you both for your input.

Do these other chart systems, C-Map and Navionics offer 'correction' down loads ?
Click to expand...

I've got Navionics and with them you can download updates (but only free for a year after purchase, I think, after that I believe you have to pay).

No experience with C-Map.
 
Angele said:
I've got Navionics and with them you can download updates (but only free for a year after purchase, I think, after that I believe you have to pay).

No experience with C-Map.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Navionics lets you get free updates for a year and then you pay for updates for the year. Bluewater charts are only for Garmin units, but Navionics also offers SonarCharts for Garmin GPS to give you more definition in the contours.
 
Angele said:
I've got Navionics and with them you can download updates (but only free for a year after purchase, I think, after that I believe you have to pay).

No experience with C-Map.
Click to expand...
I have garmin blue chart for an iPad and there are no free updates. Last time I checked you have to repurchase at original price to get the updated version
 
816swim said:
...Do these other chart systems, C-Map and Navionics offer 'correction' down loads ?
Click to expand...

I also have Navionics, bought the 43XG Med/Black Sea with a plotter last May so ran out of free updates. I've just paid €99+VAT for 12 months of updates which also gave access to Navionics' crowd sourced sonar data as part of the Navionics+ package. Its not exactly an update service, more of a total refresh each time you use the updater but Navionics say chart changes are available to users within hours of being made. With just the 43XG charts that was around 585MB for each refresh, with the sonar data overlaid its looking like 1.5GB - quite heavy for a PAYG data service in the Med. They do seem to have sorted out the very poor performance that was happening with downloads last year though.
 
Last edited:
One major difference is the naming of terrestrial features. We have just replaced a Garmin 2010 with a B&G Zeus2 running Navionics. I have always named waypoints according to the nearest headland, rock, lighthouse etc on the Blue Chart. The old plotter has 1000 waypoints in it. Trying some wapoints with the Navionics today we were surprised to see that very few names are present, even several towns and villages that we know well are not marked. This is going to be quite a headache, as I believe that waypoint names 001, 002, etc. are a total waste of pixels.
 
vyv_cox said:
... Trying some wapoints with the Navionics today we were surprised to see that very few names are present, even several towns and villages that we know well are not marked...
Click to expand...

Vyv, I'm running the Navionics on a Simrad NSS - same family. Just check in Menu > Chart Options > Settings that Annotation is set to 'Full', with it set to 'Main' I get the effect you describe. I'd also comment that I do most route planning / waypoint creation on a PC using OCPN and transfer the resulting .gpx files via the MicroSD card to the NSS, then use import. Still havent got used to all this finger pointy stuff on touch screens :)

Edit: & before anyone asks, no OCPN cant use the Navionics charts
 
RobbieW said:
Vyv, I'm running the Navionics on a Simrad NSS - same family. Just check in Menu > Chart Options > Settings that Annotation is set to 'Full', with it set to 'Main' I get the effect you describe. I'd also comment that I do most route planning / waypoint creation on a PC using OCPN and transfer the resulting .gpx files via the MicroSD card to the NSS, then use import. Still havent got used to all this finger pointy stuff on touch screens :)

Edit: & before anyone asks, no OCPN cant use the Navionics charts
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea but unfortunately the chart setting is on 'full'. I suspect it is the Greek Islands problem again, Garmin's charts are poor also.

No possibility of me planning on a PC and transferring to the plotter but I have yet to try exporting the waypoints from the 2010 to the Zeus2.
 
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