passage planning software (sailing)

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pjsmith

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Hi,

About 10 years ago I was using a really neat bit of pc software that would give me passage planning info for sailing routes. The neat bit was that it calculated currents and direction and suggested times and routes to take.

I can't rember the name of it and can't find anything similar.

Anyone suggest somthing (preferably not too expensive!) that does tidal calcs and factors that in?

Thanks.
 
For long distance sailing Virtual Passage Planner2.

This has the ocean pilot data on wind and ocean current roses by month and will give you passage times based upon a statistical analysis of the weather and currents for the month you plan to set sail.
 
Neptune Plus works well. Does all the optimum course stuff, plus has the facility to print out a passage plan to meet the IMO requirement (SOLAS Ch V).
 
I've just downloaded Neptune Plus as a trial for the weekend but I can't find a 'run' programme. Got lots of downloads but I can't find any simple instruction about how to use it :confused:

I want to plan a passage from Poole to Portsmouth on Sunday and then return on Monday. I know that I'm IT challenged but on this occasion I'm lost as to where to start.
 
Phideaux said:
I've just downloaded Neptune Plus as a trial for the weekend but I can't find a 'run' programme. Got lots of downloads but I can't find any simple instruction about how to use it :confused:

I want to plan a passage from Poole to Portsmouth on Sunday and then return on Monday. I know that I'm IT challenged but on this occasion I'm lost as to where to start.
Click to expand...

Paper Chart + Tide Tables :D
 
Danny said:
Ha! you cheapskate, Neil. :)

It wouldn't be that one as I've only been publishing it for about 4 years.

There was an earlier version of the TidePlan program, called CCX, which may be what the op was thinking of.
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Yes maybe I am a bit! A friend of mine makes an annual purchase of it and told me about it. However, I would only want it for cross channel use and I tend to just add up the hours of east / west tide and call it quits. Haven't missed France yet! Also, I tend to make the most of a lift of tide if it means the wind will be freer when the tide turns, so often end up off the CTS anyway. Then the last two three hours out, I assess the progress and adjust heading to suit. Seems to work, but I accept the software is very good.

As you appear to be the man, I would only comment that the CTS is displayed to a tenth of a degree. My compass only reads in units of 5 degrees!
 
freebird1 said:
As you appear to be the man, I would only comment that the CTS is displayed to a tenth of a degree. My compass only reads in units of 5 degrees!
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I take your point - thanks for the feedback. I had to round the final CTS to something and chose one decimal place as being a greater precision than anyone would ever require in the real world. I'm working on the 2011 version at the moment so maybe I'll change the precision to one degree for the overall CTS.
 
pjsmith said:
Hi,

About 10 years ago I was using a really neat bit of pc software that would give me passage planning info for sailing routes. The neat bit was that it calculated currents and direction and suggested times and routes to take..
Click to expand...

Are you thinking of one where you told it where you were going from and to and it gave you various departure times and told you how long it might take, taking into account the wind forecast, aproximation of your boat's performance and tides, plus once you chose a time, it worked out a route including a guide on when to tack?

5 years or so ago I used Sea-pro, which did the above, but I remember it wasn't cheap.
 
kcrane said:
Are you thinking of one where you told it where you were going from and to and it gave you various departure times and told you how long it might take, taking into account the wind forecast, aproximation of your boat's performance and tides, plus once you chose a time, it worked out a route including a guide on when to tack?

5 years or so ago I used Sea-pro, which did the above, but I remember it wasn't cheap.
Click to expand...

seaPro Standard still has those features. There is a download and price list at www.euronav.co.uk
 
kcrane said:
Are you thinking of one where you told it where you were going from and to and it gave you various departure times and told you how long it might take, taking into account the wind forecast, aproximation of your boat's performance and tides, plus once you chose a time, it worked out a route including a guide on when to tack?

5 years or so ago I used Sea-pro, which did the above, but I remember it wasn't cheap.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think so. It was full navigation / mapping as well, though really I'm only currently interested in the tidal predictions and departure time advice.
 
kcrane said:
Are you thinking of one where you told it where you were going from and to and it gave you various departure times and told you how long it might take, taking into account the wind forecast, aproximation of your boat's performance and tides, plus once you chose a time, it worked out a route including a guide on when to tack?

5 years or so ago I used Sea-pro, which did the above, but I remember it wasn't cheap.
Click to expand...

I used Seapro plus at the weekend and have to say I wasn't really impressed. Now I see it is over 900 quid and I'm even less impressed. The user interface reminded me of a windows 3 program. Obvious tricks like popping an info window up as you hover over map features were missing. The zoom in and out was painful - I'm spoiled by the iphone interface and I want to drag the map like I do google maps.

I'm sure the nav functions underpinning it are superb, but boy does the interface need bringing into the ipad generation.
 
Yes, I'd forgotten that. Most mapping & plotting programs seem to have tricky interfaces. Sea-pro isn't intuitive and if I recall some actions like zooming don't follow the usual conventions. I don't find Memory Map any better and the iPhone Navionics app isn't foolproof, though zooming in/out and dragging the map around are straightforward. To be fair it is also good at moving between charts without the user having to do anything, which Memory Map doesn't do well.

I guess it is easier if you produce both the charts and the application and you stick to either vector or raster. I think that is true of Navionics and Garmin.
 
pteron said:
I used Seapro plus at the weekend and have to say I wasn't really impressed. Now I see it is over 900 quid and I'm even less impressed. The user interface reminded me of a windows 3 program. Obvious tricks like popping an info window up as you hover over map features were missing. The zoom in and out was painful - I'm spoiled by the iphone interface and I want to drag the map like I do google maps.

I'm sure the nav functions underpinning it are superb, but boy does the interface need bringing into the ipad generation.
Click to expand...

seaPro Standard which has all the features mentioned in the first post is £350.

Once you get used to the mouse gestures, its actually quite an easy way of navigating around the charts. However I do understand it is not like using a touch screen device.
 
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