Visit My Harbour Confusion, Some user assistance please.

[Sandy]

Hello All

I am a "standard user" on VisitMyHarbour.com and am currently planning a "warm up lap" of the British Isles in 2022 before heading off to do some long passages.

The VisitMyHarbour web site does the best it can to total bamboozle me, things all over the place and over use of colour in text so I dropped them an email asking how I could use their product for the trip and their email has left me even more confused; if you work with computer programmers I am sure you will understand.

I'd love to hear from somebody that actually uses their stuff who can tell me in plain English the following

1) Can I buy their charts and use them on a PC, if so what application do you use, are there any others that you are aware of that are usable?

2) Can I use the same data on a tablet, they name an app so I have no problem with that.

3) What benefit would upgrading my account to a paid account give in the long term?

Thanks

Sandy

 

[nrcoyle]

Quick Answers based on my experience so maybe not 100% up to date.

1) yes, I use OpenCPN with is open source I believe that they can also be used with expedition and polarnavy, both paid for products.

2) the licence you buy to achieve 1 also included the right to an android install

3) I am a paid member, useful to browse charts at work, but not really any use for nav, and it will be a few years of chart buying discounts before the memberships breaks even so no probably not.

Hope this helps,

Neil

 

[Sandy]

Quick Answers based on my experience so maybe not 100% up to date.

1) yes, I use OpenCPN with is open source I believe that they can also be used with expedition and polarnavy, both paid for products.

2) the licence you buy to achieve 1 also included the right to an android install

3) I am a paid member, useful to browse charts at work, but not really any use for nav, and it will be a few years of chart buying discounts before the memberships breaks even so no probably not.

Hope this helps,

Neil

Thanks Neil, that is very helpful.

 

[prv]

their email has left me even more confused; if you work with computer programmers I am sure you will understand.

I am a computer programmer and I find VisitMyHarbour hard to understand

They seem keen to help but also congenitally unable to organise or explain their products in a coherent fashion.

I'm sure they opened their shop in Cowes just because of the number of people who couldn't follow their website and needed to talk face to face

Pete

 

[Little Dorrit]

I would echo what has been said already.

Proceed with some caution if you want to use a PC using Windows as Windows 10 broke the latest versions using Sea Clear. It's frustrating that they were not very interested in helping me find an alternative solution and the website is still a bit ambiguous about this. Overall the customer service left me with a nasty taste in my mouth.

Having said this if you want to browse good quality detailed charts offline similar to paper charts they are good. I personally found the windows software (Sea Clear in my case) and the tablet app quite cluncky a bit like the web site.

For the cost they are worth the money but expect a rocky ride especially if operating system updates mess things up!

 

[DJE]

Their raster charts work fine with Opencpn for Windows or with Marine Navigator for Android. But they do not support Opencpn for Android.

 

[Skylark]

I paid the VMH subscription. My boat uses Simrad & Navionics and I like the familiarity of Raster charts so I bought the Marine Navigator app for Lenovo Android. It is pretty basic but functional as a back up (or stand alone on another vessel) if required.

I often look for tide and pilotage info when logged-on to my Windows 7 PC.

I think I’ve only once successfully made the overlay function work on Android. I am not particularly computer literate and wasted a great deal of time trying to download add-ons and/or fool the computer into using Flash. I’ve no idea how I did it and have never been able to repeat it.

I’m sure that VMH support some quite useful functions but, seemingly, they are only available to those with a higher degree in
Computer mumbo jumbo.

 

[Sandy]

Thanks guys, not just me then.

I work with a large team of programmers and often have to convert geekspeak into plain English, but this totally floored me.

I am up on the Solent in about three weeks time and will go and have a chat if we go ashore in Cowes.

The plan is I can do some of the prep on the laptop (Windows 7) and use the tablet (Android) at the chart table to supplement my paper charts. I am a bit old fashioned and prefer to work with a pencil and paper charts.

 

[RivalRedwing]

You probably require one of their unified charts options for the PC which comes with two Android downloads for Marine Navigator, see:
http://www.visitmyharbour.com/unified-charts/
cheap as chips in the grand scheme of things yotting

forgot to mention - I've had not problems with them on Windows10

 

[dunedin]

Alternatively try using Memory Map, which also sells full set of U.K. wide Admiralty charts for cheap as chips - and runs well on PC, Android and OIS as part of the licence. All charts stored on device so works away from internet.
Also works well with Antares Charts which are strongly recommended for the interesting bits of the round U.K. coastline.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Alternatively try using Memory Map, which also sells full set of U.K. wide Admiralty charts for cheap as chips - and runs well on PC, Android and OIS as part of the licence.

I use MXMariner which is free and for which UKHO chart packs are absurdly cheap, although you need two to cover north and south of Ardnamurchan.

 

[nicappotamus 2]

I started with the android app to check and the charts are fine as is the plotter

then I bought an android tablet, their charts and a wifi ais transponder and that works well

It's a fine tablet chartplotter as long as you are happy to do some thinking about tides n stuff, and you don't want the plotter to do weird vector thinking with wind and tacking and all that garbage. it does however show me a picture of where I am and I much prefer raster over the vector charts of navionics.

my two criticisms (or three) of the andriod marine nav - it's sometimes slow to load the next chart (being picky) and it can need zooming in or out to focus properly on the underlying chart (can be a bit fuzzy if out of focus) and that it hasn't got a set of dividers to measure bearings easily - there is a work around which is fine but not as sexy as the navionics or time zero way of doing things. Ais on it is good and I'm happy that i've got it when I want it (not often as I've got a pair of eyes and binoculars) in the mist/cross channel etc.

as a consequence i've just ordered the full set of uk, and european charts on a memory stick and will try them on a laptop with one of the free charting apps for windows - great value.

overall it's a very very cost effective way of getting good charts and really for what we use it for the app is fine - bung in a go to - look at the bearing and distance to the waypoint, make sure that I'm not running into any rocks or sandbanks etc.

the other alternative would be to use an ipad and get maxsea time zero which is a brilliant raster tablet jobbie for the ipad. keeps doing well in the magazine tests. but the visitmyharbour approach is certainly the cheapest and makes keeping charts bang up to date for a huge area nice n cheap.

their website is mad

 

[MM5AHO]

I use their charts on Seaclear (free) software on a PC. I agree the website not so easy, but the charts are good, and the harbour details useful sometimes.

 

[Sandy]

I use their charts on Seaclear (free) software on a PC. I agree the website not so easy, but the charts are good, and the harbour details useful sometimes.

Thanks MM5AHO

Any better of worse than Reeds? I buy that large book once every five years or so.

 

[Amulet]

VMH and and Antares charts with Seaclear on Windows and Marine Navigator on Android. It all works.

Last year I had Marine Navigator set up so that I saw both sets of charts together. This year the set-up procedure has changed and I have to switch between chart sets. I have not worked out you can't do what I want, or I have just failed to find out how. I also have Navionics on the Android. I think VMH mean to be helpful, it's just that they're not very skilled at it. I agree that it is a real pain to set up. I have worked with computers all my life, and can usually work things out, so I am not willing to believe that I'm simply a hopeless user.

In truth I don't like any of the nav systems I use nor any of the three or four others I've tried. I usually create routes on in Navionics on my tablet (I can do it in my bunk over morning tea). I then extract them by a backdoor method I worked out and bluetooth them to the laptop. On the Laptop I use GPSU to convert them for whatever system I want to use. I load them into Seaclear for on the screen.

I don't have a screen in the cockpit, but I have a Garmin handheld wired in from the cockpit, so I send routes to it using the Garmin protocol. I know that for tidal efficiency it's not done to simply drive along a route sea, but in complex pilotage situations it is extremely handy to put up the cross-track error. It is also handy to be able to display VMG when beating.

 

[MM5AHO]

Reeds is much heavier!

 

[Overner]

Steve from VMH here. To answer the OPs questions

1) Can I buy their charts and use them on a PC, if so what application do you use, are there any others that you are aware of that are usable?

YES. PC charts (Unified Charts) work with OpenCPN, qtVlm, Polar View, Expedition and SeaClear. If new to this we recommend the USB dongle rather than the download method. Portable, easy to use, .


2) Can I use the same data on a tablet, they name an app so I have no problem with that.

YES. Android charts are bundled for Marine Navigator app, these are fully installed with 2 Unlocks provided.


3) What benefit would upgrading my account to a paid account give in the long term?

Immediate benefit being able to download our harbour coverage as pdfs. Keep on tablet or PC for offline use. Discount on products. Longer term membership benefits being able to see if the charts you are using are out of date, or an aid to update paper charts.

Hope this helps

PRODUCTS:

From next year the legacy SeaClear DVD will be dropped. Windows 10 1803 update has killed that (Although it still works fine on older machines).

2019 products: Unified Charts, Marine Navigator Android charts, and fully cross platform qtVlm charts

WEBSITE:

New (mobile friendly) simpler map driven website is under development. A test version is here, comments welcome via the contact us form on VMH:

http://media.visitmyharbour.com/mobile/index.html

At present this pulls in harbour coverage from the desktop site, but for 2019 it will have it's own mobile style harbour coverage and be https compliant.

 

[Sandy]

Steve from VMH here. To answer the OPs questions

1) Can I buy their charts and use them on a PC, if so what application do you use, are there any others that you are aware of that are usable?

YES. PC charts (Unified Charts) work with OpenCPN, qtVlm, Polar View, Expedition and SeaClear. If new to this we recommend the USB dongle rather than the download method. Portable, easy to use, .


2) Can I use the same data on a tablet, they name an app so I have no problem with that.

YES. Android charts are bundled for Marine Navigator app, these are fully installed with 2 Unlocks provided.


3) What benefit would upgrading my account to a paid account give in the long term?

Immediate benefit being able to download our harbour coverage as pdfs. Keep on tablet or PC for offline use. Discount on products. Longer term membership benefits being able to see if the charts you are using are out of date, or an aid to update paper charts.

Hope this helps

PRODUCTS:

From next year the legacy SeaClear DVD will be dropped. Windows 10 1803 update has killed that (Although it still works fine on older machines).

2019 products: Unified Charts, Marine Navigator Android charts, and fully cross platform qtVlm charts

WEBSITE:

New (mobile friendly) simpler map driven website is under development. A test version is here, comments welcome via the contact us form on VMH:

http://media.visitmyharbour.com/mobile/index.html

At present this pulls in harbour coverage from the desktop site, but for 2019 it will have it's own mobile style harbour coverage and be https compliant.

Thanks Steve...

Just a little plea, can VMH review the website, the constant change in font and colour makes it really difficult to read. Brilliant as a exercise in HTML but not for old geeks like me.

 

[Overner]

The mobile version under development (link above) will be plain and simple once we re-do the harbour coverage and product pages in a simpler style specifically for this . The map driven menus cut out most of the site navigation so reducing clutter.