Seapro LIBS Show Offer

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Toutvabien

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I am looking to upgrade my laptop based nav sofware, I have been using Maptech for the last year or so and as an introduction to PC Navigation it has been very useful and educational. Maptech's business model of selling chart packs of particular areas has many merits if you sail in a particular location and do not wander too far. For longer distance stuff however it starts to get quite expensive as one cannot, for example, buy passage charts to get you from one area to another. My trip to SW Ireland using Maptech would have involved me having to purchase about five of their chart packs, at £85 each, to get the coverage that I would need.

At the show yesterday I was offered, and am very tempted to buy, Seapro for £450 which includes fairly full chart coverage of the UK and Ireland, certainly enough to get me to Dingle and back with only a few extra harbour charts needed for the SW Coast of Ireland. This seems like a very good deal to me and I wonder if we are on the verge of a price war between the major navigation software suppliers.

I can see an arguement for a change of business model where the software suppliers seek to generate income streams from the maintaince/chart updating aspects of the business. This of course would necessitate them generating more users for the products in order to produce sufficient income to maintain profitability.

What do those in the know think?
 
Ah! And so, you will be selling these old useless charts I suppose? Hard to find buyers these days, what with so many people going over to this electronic stuff. Just so.


However...
 
I upgraded my Seapro today based on the offer. So glad I held off to buy more charts. Apparently they'll be able to offer charts for some other countries soon for 100 per country. Not bad and, IMO, beter than cartidges.
 
If you buy MaxSea, you can continue to use your Maptech charts and probably expand your chart areas more cheaply with C-Map. MaxSea uses the widest range of chart types. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
It was dead easy to stop doing DR when GPS came in. Everyone said, "Do the paperwork, don't rely on it", and here most of us (I dare to suggest) relying on it absolutely.

However, I still mark where I am at frequent intervals on the old paper chart. It doesn't matter that they're out of date or that the positions might not be exactly the same as the GPS derived ones, it shows me an input error and gives me a "feel" for the thing. I don't currently have a plotter on board, but even if or when I do I cannot imagine I would ever go 100% electronic and not keep making those crosses on the chart.
 
[ QUOTE ]
At the show yesterday I was offered, and am very tempted to buy, Seapro for £450 which includes fairly full chart coverage of the UK and Ireland, certainly enough to get me to Dingle and back with only a few extra harbour charts needed for the SW Coast of Ireland.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who was the dealer? Stand number?
Thanks
 
It was on both Euronav/Seapro stand and the Marine Computing stand. I went back to buy yesterday and the woman on the Seapro stand said that they were selling out fast at this price.
 
Thanks for the message, I was there yesterday and would have like a peak for interests sake, but actually I think my budget this year is going on a deck house re-paint and a shipwright modification to my fore cabin, and a couple of items outstanding from a partial re-wire last year, so nothing really lost.
 
I went yesterday, I ended up buying Sea Pro Lite for £100 which also includes all UK and Ireland charts. I have not had time to play with it yet but even if it is only a basic nav package it seems like it has enough functionality to evaluate the product.

It would have been nearly £500 just for the charts with Maptech.
 
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