Category: Charts

Today Garmin announced that updated 2010 g2 and g2 Vision BlueCharts are now available, apparently with some interesting changes.  If you recall, the company got pretty excited about the 2009 edition, but then suffered some grief when a processing error caused a global recall.  I’m not sure the 2009 charts ever got out, but I’m darn sure that all new editions go through some serious quality control.  I can’t really tell from the screen shot above what the “redesign” talked about in the press release is like, because it largely involves “transitions between zoom levels” and other possibly valuable improvements that you need to see in use.  But I did immediately recognize that busy harbor as Little Creek, VA, because I once departed to Bermuda from there, and there are a few new features that print can describe better…

When MaxSea bought Nobeltec from Jeppesen last Fall, there were hints that one somewhat counter-intuitive result might be a new partnership between Furuno/MaxSea and Jeppesen, but I didn’t think we’d see results this quickly.  Today Furuno announced that NavNet 3D displays will soon support a worldwide portfolio of “C-Map by Jeppesen” MapMedia charts, in addition to the NOAA raster and vector and “Datacore by Navionics” MapMedia charts they already support, thus making them “the most versatile” chart plotters available.  It sounds great, but there are some details to note… 

One thing I’ve always liked about Coastal Explorer is the way it handles points of interest (POI) information.  It includes a vast, searchable gazetteer, along with coast pilot info that gets listed and icon-located when you’re checking out a harbor (“places” tab).  Plus it integrates Panoramio community photos if you want and Maptech marine facilities and port photos if you have them. (CE 2009 is not sold as Maptech Chart Navigator Pro, though CNP, which is actually CE version 1, is still being sold as “new” software.)  You can see in the Options box above how Rose Point is working on an automatically synchronized Community Guide Book idea that has terrific potential.  But, whoa, check out the new “Subscription” options that will appear in an CE update very soon.  Rose Point has struck an interesting deal with the Atlantic Cruising Club guide folks, and thus CE users will get free partial ACC marina listings — like the Wayfarer data above — for those guide areas shown.  They’ll also get a neat way to integrate complete ACC guides into CE…

Tim Thurston earned that grin.  We were out on Lake Megunticook last week, randomly comparing the digital map I helped Navionics make last fall with the survey work Tim did for his little Maine Lake Charts company at about the same time.  And while that little islet in the background is on the beautifull MLC paper map Tim made, and on that Garmin Etrex he managed to put his digital data on, it was completely missing from the Navionics map!  While this is a shallow and somewhat out-of-the-way spot I steered us to — and both maps are way, way better than what was available right until to this summer — I tend to think that Tim got the details better.  Unfortunately boater can’t make best use of those details just yet…

Actually C-Map never went away. But it has been fairly quiet since becoming part of Jeppesen Marine in early 2007.  Oh there was scuttlebutt about how Jeppesen resources meant vastly improved data acquisition and distribution capabilities, not to mention evidence of zero error tolerance. And C-Map MaxPro cartography came to Nobeltec charting, though sadly many remember the event more for a dumb raster chart policy than, say, MaxPro’s slick Quick Sync data updating.  Meanwhile, arch rival Navionics worked its way into more and more displays.  But things change, as certainly happened on Tuesday when Raymarine previewed E Wides, which will come C-Map preloaded and also support a new format C-Map calls 4D…

The photo isn’t fair, because the shooter (me) is reflected in the Raymarine A57D‘s screen and the iPhone is in an Otter Box which includes a screen protector that muted its display in a way I don’t notice in normal use.  But there’s some truth here, too; the screen on the Lowrance HDS 10 has been bright, crisp, and completely readable in all light conditions so far experienced on Li’l Gizmo’s completely exposed helm, whereas the other two have sometimes been quite hard to read.  Another truth is…