VisitMyHarbour website

[Overner]

Hello Steve

I have been one of the people who have posted "unkind" comments on here about the website. You have been kind enough to answer questions both on here and by email, but I am still scratching my head trying to understand what you are selling and why I should buy it. I don't just single out you, I spent a day with Google back in November and my feedback form was not very complimentary.

Professionally, I work day in day out with a huge number of websites and companies gathering all sorts of information for mission critical safety stuff. They are all extremely easy to navigate and understand what either the supplier is selling or how to get to the information I need.

May I suggest a well laid out introduction about that the product is, how and why we can/should use it would be really, really useful and what membership really means.

Here is a challenge. I have a Garmin Chartplotter with Homeport on my PC , where I do my initial passage planning (I prefer paper charts to do the detailed stuff), why should I buy the VisitMyHarbour charts for a forthcoming circumnavigation of the British Isles?

I won't try and convince you to buy our "For Nav" charts.. that's not what this mobile website is about. We're NOT selling Desktop charts on there at all. We will sell a limited range of our Android Marine Navigator charts from the mobile site. If you prefer paper charts for the detailed stuff (as opposed to vector) .. get ours on an Android phone or tablet. All the UKHO charts are there and you will find you use them more than the chartplotter, esp in close to shallows and land.

I also suspect that if you have a mobile phone, you will find the free harbour coverage on the on the mobile site that we provide will come in very useful as you move around the UK. We hope that if you like that you will join.. to be able to use un-defaced tide tables and see satellite/chart overlays of where you are going in to.

Steve

 

[Overner]

Could you explain a little more about what you see as the point of VMH? I'm not sure whether you are a community, a pilot book, a collection of products, or an almanac. Does "member" mean more than "customer"?

VMH started in June 2009. We were the first outfit to get a UKHO license to display their charts online. The aim was to create a "Online Pilot Book" covering the UK. Having covered 30,000 sea miles and amassed loads of books.. and with mobile internet coming along (yes even in 2006).. thought it was a good idea. Seems popular, so we expanded our harbour coverage. So we are a small business, and memberships and products is what we do. Harbour coverage we provide is basically free to use. Buying a product we make does not make you a member. You join up, like the 5600+ other members and pay a fee. Members don't get any enhanced harbour info. They get to view all the charts at full size. At first many were screenshotting and printing A4 chartlets.. nowadays no need as so many apps out there.

So we also have 400 tide tables, 1000s of charts, the NP atlases.. plenty of deeper research stuff for members, not in free part of site. Members also get big discounts on the products we make.

So in summary: A small UK based business, providing useful free information to small craft mariners. Memberships for those who appreciate what we do and want more. Products for those who just want to navigate on a laptop or tablet.

"I could probably name 61 harbours and anchorages within a day sail of Port Bannatyne."

No doubt there are untold anchorages, massive coastline. We concentrate on places that are passage-making anchorages, or harbours with some facilities.

Steve

 

[JumbleDuck]

VMH started in June 2009. We were the first outfit to get a UKHO license to display their charts online. The aim was to create a "Online Pilot Book" covering the UK. Having covered 30,000 sea miles and amassed loads of books.. and with mobile internet coming along (yes even in 2006).. thought it was a good idea. Seems popular, so we expanded our harbour coverage. So we are a small business, and memberships and products is what we do. Harbour coverage we provide is basically free to use. Buying a product we make does not make you a member. You join up, like the 5600+ other members and pay a fee. Members don't get any enhanced harbour info. They get to view all the charts at full size. At first many were screenshotting and printing A4 chartlets.. nowadays no need as so many apps out there.

So we also have 400 tide tables, 1000s of charts, the NP atlases.. plenty of deeper research stuff for members, not in free part of site. Members also get big discounts on the products we make.

So in summary: A small UK based business, providing useful free information to small craft mariners. Memberships for those who appreciate what we do and want more. Products for those who just want to navigate on a laptop or tablet.

"I could probably name 61 harbours and anchorages within a day sail of Port Bannatyne."

No doubt there are untold anchorages, massive coastline. We concentrate on places that are passage-making anchorages, or harbours with some facilities.

Steve

Thanks. That's quite a lot clearer. I suspect that you'll have problems if - as I read it - the main point of paying for membership is to get full-size charts since so many of us have them anyway (in my case £4.61 for all I could ever need). However, a user-updated digital pilot book for everywhere is a good idea, so good luck.

 

[Sandy]

I won't try and convince you to buy our "For Nav" charts.. that's not what this mobile website is about. We're NOT selling Desktop charts on there at all. We will sell a limited range of our Android Marine Navigator charts from the mobile site. If you prefer paper charts for the detailed stuff (as opposed to vector) .. get ours on an Android phone or tablet. All the UKHO charts are there and you will find you use them more than the chartplotter, esp in close to shallows and land.

I also suspect that if you have a mobile phone, you will find the free harbour coverage on the on the mobile site that we provide will come in very useful as you move around the UK. We hope that if you like that you will join.. to be able to use un-defaced tide tables and see satellite/chart overlays of where you are going in to.

Steve

Thanks Steve.

From your post I'm not your target market, I work with some pretty complex IT systems in the day job and love switching off the computer and using charts, books and bits of paper with notes scribbled on them when I get on the boat. The phone is usually switched off as I spend a lot of my working day on the thing; the odd call home, text and get the weather (now I've sorted out how I want to use the sailmail website the way i want to use it) is all I want when onboard.

 

[dunedin]

Like some others I have over time visited the VMH site a few times (focussing in Scotland West Coast) but left feeling there was something of value there but not sure what exactly. And never felt compelled to return to use it (apologies, just saying what I felt, to try to be helpful in understanding non users to date).

I probably should be target market - as I am an avid user/buyer of both paper Pilot Guides & Charts, and very extensive user of electronic charts and guides, on iPad, Android phone and chart plotters.
Indeed I have electronic charts on iPad and phone for all of U.K. (Memory Map and Navionics), most of Norway, Sweden and Denmark (NV) etc, as well as Antares Charts. I am also an avid user of and contributed to Cruising Association Captains Mate, and compulsive user of the online HavnGuide for the Baltic.

Unfortunately I am still left a bit cold by the new site:
- on starting up I come to a map of the U.K. with tags planted seemingly randomly in the middle of the sea - why? And what are these supposed to represent. Yes if I click on them then select harbour info (strange double action) I get a map with more detailed icons. But rather clunky and not intuitive. Why not start with the detail (like CA does) or more like Antares Chart selector (both more intuitive IMHO)
- the detailed harbour icons also need a dual stage to access - why?
- then just get a page of headings with yet another stage to access the info - which starts by telling me the courtesy flag is red ensign (guess it will be for the entire area so why tell me this, and first).
- could we not save a lot of stages by immediately getting a summary paragraph on a single click of each harbour icon? Then have the option of more info if needed once decided if the harbour is of interest?
Felt to hard work to review the detail so didn’t get any further.

There is a lot of valuable data in there. But it still feels awful hard to access, INHO.

Have you compared with the HavnGuide or Captains Mate for example (clearly without borrowing content). Neither of these are anywhere like excellent in terms of usability, but arguably closer than VMH

Hope this is helpful, as wish you well with this enterprise. But it still doesn’t yet make it onto my top 3 of go to resources for electronic pilotage

 

[chewi]

i just tried several times to buy the £33,00 package of charts for the uk from vmh but i go round in circles not finding anwhere to add it to the basket.

 

[Plum]

Hmm. I've never had a problem. Have just put a chart set in my basket on this page BUY 2020 Android Charts (easy auto activate) : by VisitMyHarbour [Android: Marine Navigator Charts] - VisitMyHarbour articles and now see a button marked "checkout securely". Did you see that button? Also, i dont see a chartset for £33 ?

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[chewi]

i have not seen any way to add to the basket!

 

[chewi]

found it.. thanks

 

[Bru]

Others may have beaten me to this ..

Dark blue links on a black background! Ugh

Light grey (mighty even be white) text on a black background. Fairly ugh. Especially in bright sunlight (virtually unreadable in the sunshine sitting in our conservatory, had to go back in the same room as the wife :0 )

From this you might reasonably surmise that i don't like light text on dark backgrounds! You'd be dead right, it is a long standing pet hate

It's the information that matters not the appearance and black sans serif text on a white or nearly white background is the format that is most likely to be readable on all devices and in all situations

There may be more ...