Navionics or Imray for iPad

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NB Willawaw

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I'm looking at sailing down the west coast of Iberia, through Gib and doing the Western med and Adriatic as far down as Corfu this summer.

In terms of proper below decks chart work, I will use BA Admiralty charts. However, for general cockpit overview, I would like charts on my iPad.

My dilemma is that the Imray charts will be quite expensive because that route spans about 3 of their chart modules which is over £100.

Navionics Marine seem to cover it with one but are a lot cheaper. However, I hear quite a lot of negative feedback about their app.

Anybody got any practical experience of these two?

I don't really need them to be 100% corrected for overview work and I can live with a few errors in them
but I need a bit more detail than you find in non marine mapping.
 
NB Willawaw said:
I'm looking at sailing down the west coast of Iberia, through Gib and doing the Western med and Adriatic as far down as Corfu this summer.

In terms of proper below decks chart work, I will use BA Admiralty charts. However, for general cockpit overview, I would like charts on my iPad.

My dilemma is that the Imray charts will be quite expensive because that route spans about 3 of their chart modules which is over £100.

Navionics Marine seem to cover it with one but are a lot cheaper. However, I hear quite a lot of negative feedback about their app.

Anybody got any practical experience of these two?

I don't really need them to be 100% corrected for overview work and I can live with a few errors in them
but I need a bit more detail than you find in non marine mapping.
Click to expand...

I have both Imray and Navionics HD chart apps for my iPad 2 and my opinion (for what it's worth) is that Navionics is the better for replicating a standard chart-plotter, and gives better granularity for navigating, but I also like the Imray charts for their chart-like look and this helps cross-referring to Admiralty charts down below. Imray does not always produce charts to the same 'smaller' scale as Navionics HD, and as you say they get expensive when you cross regions.

I have the Central Med and Eastern Med charts and that came in at just short of $100 for the two. I bought them from the US site having recently lived in the US, and as I still have US credit cards.

So, in summary - I use both! Yes there is a significant cost associated with this approach but (a) Imray makes me feel happier route planning etc, and (b) Navionics gives me the ability to navigate like a proper chart plotter, and drill down into information on marinas, hazards etc that you dont get with Imray.

Oh, don't even think about a non-HD version of Navionics on an iPad........I speak from experience. Unless you want to navigate using your iPhone. The resolution is too poor.

Hope this helps.

Andy
 
I have the Navionics app on my iPad and think it's pretty nice. It works well for me as the charts match those on my Raymarine plotter and the routes and waypoints can sync between the plotter and the iPad.
I find the Navionics charts themselves easy on the eye, also.
Having said that, I have zero experience with Imray on the iPad.
 
I have both Navionics and Imray on my I Pad.I found the I Phone version of Navionics quite acceptable and I also have a matt magicscreen protector from Mediadevil which cuts out the reflection.
Navionics has a setting to sharpen up the text on charts etc and it works well.
 
Navionics works like a larger version of a traditional plotter. Pay the extra £2.99 for the routing software, gives it full plotter functionality.
 
I believe there's a new entrant to the iPad navigation software market. A company called Jeffersen with software which uses the CMap charts. Not sure how it compares to the Imray or Navionics offerings? I do know the Cmap charts though are the bees knees in my opinion so if the software app is ok, might be worth considering. As you can guess from the brevity of this post, I haven't done any of my own research yet - sorry!

Cheers, Brian.
 
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I purchased Navionics HD for Europe to try it out.

The chart details looks fine. However, it seems you have to download individual cells and they change from grey to white when downloaded.
It seems that you have to zoom in on each one, so that the detail downloads through a Broadband connection. I want to get all the relevant chart detail on my iPad now as I won't have access to data when away. Am I doing this right or if there an easier way ?
 
NB Willawaw said:
I purchased Navionics HD for Europe to try it out.

The chart details looks fine. However, it seems you have to download individual cells and they change from grey to white when downloaded.
It seems that you have to zoom in on each one, so that the detail downloads through a Broadband connection. I want to get all the relevant chart detail on my iPad now as I won't have access to data when away. Am I doing this right or if there an easier way ?
Click to expand...

There is indeed an easier way.
Touch Menu, then Download Map at the bottom. You can then select a reasonably big area to download (though not the entire map, unfortunately!). Good idea to download all the areas you'll be sailing in prior to departure.
 
Thanks for that. I knew there had to be an easier way.

I also downloaded the optional route planning add on as suggested and the whole thing seems well thought out.

It's about a third of the price of the Imray solution, so we will see.
 
NB Willawaw said:
I'm looking at sailing down the west coast of Iberia, through Gib and doing the Western med and Adriatic as far down as Corfu this summer.

In terms of proper below decks chart work, I will use BA Admiralty charts. However, for general cockpit overview, I would like charts on my iPad.

My dilemma is that the Imray charts will be quite expensive because that route spans about 3 of their chart modules which is over £100.

Navionics Marine seem to cover it with one but are a lot cheaper. However, I hear quite a lot of negative feedback about their app.

Anybody got any practical experience of these two?

I don't really need them to be 100% corrected for overview work and I can live with a few errors in them
but I need a bit more detail than you find in non marine mapping.
Click to expand...

I use all of them, my latest is The Imray Caribbean charts. My personal opinion, (which won't be the same as anyone else's) is;

Navionics - Good speed of interface, scrolling and zooming. Nice quick distance measuring tool
INavx - does pretty much everything well but can be slow. Repeats NMEA over wifi.
Jeppesen - after much persistence I gave it up as a non-starter. Criminally poor.
Garmin Blue Marine - V good charts, loads of great pilotage info, even more if you subscribe to Active Captain for free. Possibly the best user interface.
Imray - For the Caribbean the best charts by far, interface not amazing but do-able. I guess there is a bit more comfort using raster charts rather than vector, but not so easy to move between charts. Now able to repeat NMEA over wifi with a cheap add on.

Above opinions gained over a number of years and 20,000 miles. I think everyone will find their personal preference, they're cheap enough so try them all. The only one which is a definite no is Jeppesen, it's unbelievably bad, even if you really try!
 
I've downloaded iSailor which is an American spin-off of Transas. As I use the Transas Navigator (legal version), I thought there may be some familiarity between style - so far so good!

Free download and £11.99 for charts to get from Selsey to Weymouth - ish.

So far, I'm chuffed to bits - but then perhaps I'm easily pleased....

Piddy
 
nigelmercier said:
Make that Jeppesen http://ww1.jeppesen.com/marine/lightmarine/mobile-devices-charts.jsp

It's got poor ratings, but some people are muppets. All I know is I'm not going to give any more money to the thieving barstewards at Navionics.
Click to expand...

That's the only one I've bought charts for so far. It's fine for a quick browse when planning your next passage on the tube journey home, but I wouldn't recommend it for anything more. It's no good for giving a CTS or anything like that. On passage I would only use it as a cross-reference to other sources.
 
There's a very good article on iPad navigation tools in the current (May) Yachting World. It lists several competitors that I didn't know about, and has excellent advice which I learned from on features to look for.

Navionics comes out on top - particularly with the advent of its £3 add-in that does waypoint manipulation. Followed by something called iSailor. Imray and iNavX come out of their review a long way down.
 
BelleSerene said:
Navionics comes out on top - particularly with the advent of its £3 add-in that does waypoint manipulation. Followed by something called iSailor. Imray and iNavX come out of their review a long way down.
Click to expand...

I still prefer the look of Imray and it is much easier to produce a printed 'Route List' by exporting the co-ordinate values of waypoints in a route directly by e-mail.

By the way I have just had a new iBook published on using the Navionics app specifically for tide stream compensated route planning. Check it out if interested. It is companion volume to the Marine Imray book released last November. I'm doing one on Garmin for the iPad next.

There will not be one for iNavX until they fix the amazingly stupid and useless distance measuring device. Impossible to use for any kind of tide stream compensated headings calculations. Doesn't even stay on screen when you zoom. Unuseable!

Info on my website. Regards Chris Medway.
 
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