Navionics

I've used it for a year now in just the way you suggest. Excellent but does drain the power on the ipad when used on board for Nav and tracking so it pays to have the ipad plugged into a 12v supply on any passage more than a few hours.
 
I have it and have so far used it for day sailing around the Solent. I don't have a plotter. I find it excellent, dependable for fixes, and at £40 brilliant value for money.
Of course, I also have paper charts.
Having a record of your track for the day is fun- great to send to friends with whom you have gone out for a sail.
I bought a waterproof neck-bag case off eBay. I got one with hard plastic clips round the top, and tested it for waterproof ness at the bottom of the bath. No worries. In bright sunlight I need to remove it from the case, because the plastic bag impairs clarity. I also need to fix a proper holder for it, visible from the helm. It's not always convenient to have it dangling around my neck.
Having said all that:
The Navionics charts are not "Admiralty", and there's something about the look and feel of HMHO charts that is comforting. There are one or two anomalies in them, for example the drying patch in Osborne Bay, which rather shakes my confidence in their accuracy.
I have not found a way of presenting AIS data on the navionics software. But at the moment I don't have any AIS data to share with it anyway.
I have also just bought the VisitMyHarbour Laptop charts, which are raster Admiralty charts. I plan to use them on my laptop and on my Sony Z2 phone (via the Marine Navigator app). Once I have used them a bit I plan to write up the relative experience.
I did not try any other iPad products (eg iNavx ?). IIRC, at the time I looked Navionics was considerably cheaper.

Bottom line: if you don't have a plotter but do have an IPad there is no question in my mind that it's a great addition to your traditional navigation tools. I have not had to depend on it in safety-critical situations, and would not want to put myself in a position where that was necessary.
 
Not a Navionics fan but I'm finding that my pad is taking over as my main planning tool. I can't remember the last time I hauled out my charts, my laptop/OpenCPN is gathering dust, and my plotters are only used to drive the autopilot.
My pad holds Imray charts, the Jeppeson CMap planner, and the Boat Beacon AIS app (for interest).
Yes you need a 12volt socket and car charger, but that's a little issue. (sorry, corpspeak for problem)
And don't forget Google Earth. It's really useful to have access to detailed images of unknown ports, marinas and approaches.
 
Been using it for two years and love it.

I've never had or wanted a chartplotter but find it great to have a planning tool on the iPad as I can while away the time at boring work meetings planning next months trip, and have it sitting on the chart table for reference when underway. We've used it for trips up and down both sides of the Adriatic from Venice to Brindisi and saved money on detailed charts of ports we weren't planning to visit.

Probably the second best value buy I've made in yachting.( Best was a £1 bungee hook thing used to keep mainsail reefing ring on hook.)
 
I have both the ipad and iPhone version and find both very useful for planning and recording a track, as has been noted. The ability to zoom right in to see detail is very useful (and has been accurate with respect to the sea bed in my experience). I love being able to record a track of my passage and (as a travelling trailer sailor) always record a track for "posterity".

Caveats about having paper charts, access to 12v and waterproof case. I would add that you obviously can't rely on it for the exact position of buoys (eg channel markers) and navionics' "support" is well known to be pretty much non-existent.

That said, the ipad app is worth £40 IMO and is better value than the (slightly higher spec) Imray app.

Any other users having problems with recording a track lately? I used it last season whilst sailing, leaving it turned off (ie stand by mode) and turning on when needed to check position etc. However, now when you do that it does not record a track whilst on standby and simply draws a straight line from the place it was last switched off. The iPhone app does not behave like this and records a very detailed track whether the screen is on or off.
 
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You can get an app for £40 while Garmin charges over £200 for a chip with exactly the same charts on it.

I can't see how the marine electronics companies can survive unless they change their policies
 
davidej said:
You can get an app for £40 while Garmin charges over £200 for a chip with exactly the same charts on it.

I can't see how the marine electronics companies can survive unless they change their policies
Click to expand...

Is that "forty quid is the highest we think ipad owners will spring for an app whereas we've been getting away with 200 quid for dedicated plotter maps for years"?

It's the same data isn't it?

And this is with apple trousering about £13 of your forty....
 
I have the Navionics UK and Holland I phone app on my I pad which cost £18.It does have a slightly smaller screen than the £40 HD version but I find it OK.I bought the cheaper one as I have Imray charts on my I pad as well.The Navionics covers areas of Holland which the Imray one doesn't.It was good fun on a big ship Cunard cruise to see the course plotted around the Channel Islands and North Sea.
 
Perhaps some electronics genius will show us how we can transfer the Navionics (or some of the other chart packages) onto the chips we can put in the chartplotter.

My garmin uses some sort of proprietary chip -not an SD card - so I don't know how you could write on it.

Anyone here who can rise to the challenge?
 
davidej said:
Perhaps some electronics genius will show us how we can transfer the Navionics (or some of the other chart packages) onto the chips we can put in the chartplotter.

My garmin uses some sort of proprietary chip -not an SD card - so I don't know how you could write on it.

Anyone here who can rise to the challenge?
Click to expand...

I imagine there is one hell of a load of protection to prevent that.

I have used Navionics on iPhone and iPad and I think it is well worth the money. Primary nav on the iPad and paper charts incase the lights go out.
There are a few shortcomings though. You cannot export or import waypoints or routes..... well if you can..... I can't find it and it would be darned useful. In a bouncy chop the touch screen interface can be hard to use. They do not appear to offer update and upgrade routes. You may get stung for another £40 in a year or two.
iNavx is more versatile, but costs significantly more and there is no way to upgrade from your iPad Navionics chart to a iNavx Navionics chart, even though they are exactly the same data.
 
Lots of benefits and it's been our primary plotter for 3 years. A few niggles, the iPad GPS chip sends data much less frequently below 2 knots to help battery life and that means that very slow passages through tricky rivers don't save great tracks. We have the free update for life package and so far it's held good but one day Navionics will stop supporting it - still I paid about £30 3 years ago - can't complain. iPad charting is completely revolutionising the yacht plotter market, within 5 years there will be one or maybe two makers of what we think of as plotters now, the rest will sell equipment that in one way or another works seamlessly with an iPad and uses charts from the net. The hardware will go up in price and the charts will be cheap and almost constantly updated. As it is my charts have cost me £10 a year - not bad for the whole of the UK, most of France, all of Belgium, Holland and Denmark. Trouble is now we've discovered The Solent we don't go to those other places any more :)
 
erbster said:
Any other users having problems with recording a track lately? I used it last season whilst sailing, leaving it turned off (ie stand mode) and turning on when needed to check position etc. However, now when you do that it does not record a track whilst on standby and simply draws a straight line from the place it was last switched off. The iPhone app does not behave like this and records a very detailed track whether the screen is on or off.
Click to expand...

Have not had this issue. I have version 6.0.3 (UK & NL) on iPad 2 with iOS 7.1.1. Which iPad do you have?
 
lampshuk said:
Have not had this issue. I have version 6.0.3 (UK & NL) on iPad 2 with iOS 7.1.1. Which iPad do you have?
Click to expand...
I too have v6.0.3 UK & NL but on ipad 4 (Dec 2012, retina and lightning connector) with iOS 7.1.1.
I'm finding I now prefer to have both iPhone app running (for track) and ipad app used intermittently for nav if needed. I notice the latter shows the old position when switched on and then a second or two later, jumps to the new current position. I imagine the GPS is getting turned off to save power.

This is ok in the uk, but I will be sailing in Sweden later this season and only have navionics Europe on the ipad; I don't want to buy it for the iPhone too, just to be able to record a track.....

I emailed navionics a week ago to query this and have yet to receive a reply (other than an automated "you are in a queue" reply) :(
 
erbster said:
I emailed navionics a week ago to query this and have yet to receive a reply (other than an automated "you are in a queue" reply) :(
Click to expand...

Sounds about right, I have found their support to be useless and when they did eventually reply they weren't very helpful.. I won't be upgrading Navionics and will rather try out some of the other packages around..
 
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