Nobeltec 9, lots’o’goodies
The above screen shot, full size here, is actually Nobeltec’s Bathy Recorder, a “plus pack” option to Admiral and VNS 8 that Jeppesen Marine introduced last year. I’ve seen these results of a tester’s survey of heavily dredged Port Everglades, and all the ways you can display it, demonstrated at a boat show, and it was quite impressive, though not inexpensive. But I’d neglected to mention this for so long that we are now seeing the arrival of Nobeltec 9! The press release went out last night, marking the start of the Newport Boat Show today (Admiral PDF here and VNS PDF here). Some highlights:
* Both Admiral and VNS will now display regular GRIB weather files and have new “Nav Info Panels” which can show strip charts as well as numbers. (All seen below and bigger here).
* Admiral also gets “AIS Filtering” (I don’t know what that means yet) and now include OCENS WeatherNet.
* Admiral 9 can also support a new Plus Pack called Tender Tracker which integrates with Seetrac hardware.
* Either charting package can work with the new Sailing Plus Pack, which can display existing polars, build new ones, overlay laylines and wind info, and provide “basic instrument support for B&G and Ockam instruments”.
* And either can support the new XM Plus Pack, which apparently integrates the WxWorx PC version of XM Marine Weather with Nobeltec.
So…wow…goodies for megayachts, racing sailors, and all the rest of us who care about weather (more detail and screen shots coming to Panbo soon). And we already know that Jeppesen/Nobeltec has been working with Simrad, and is also in a quiet period while it finalizes a deal to acquire C-Map. Looks like a really big year for these guys.
This looks like Nobeltec is copying MaxSea, yet again. I used Nobeltec for several years and switched to MaxSea when I took my boat to Europe for the summer last year. The initial reason for changing was because Nobeltec’s Passport Charts are terrible for everywhere except the U.S. and the Bahamas. Maybe the charts are good for Russia, where Passport charts are made, but I haven’t been there.
I’ve had one technical issue with MaxSea and was able to speak with a person at Furuno. When I had Nobeltec, I had to pay for each technical support call. Nobeltec crashed constantly on three computers.
Nobeltec is good at hype and leaching off other companies; their program is terrible.
MaxSea is very good with good backup now Furuno own 40% of them. (I wouldnt be supprised if in 2007 Furuno take control of MaxSea)
MaxSea 12.6 that is due for relase soon should be good and the version after that (12.7? 14?) will be rewritten from the ground up.
Well I have been using Nobeltec since Version 5, and it is a fantasic program. As far as charts are concerned I am in Australia, and the Passport Charts are beter than C-Map pr Navionics.
And with Tech support if needed I can get it from the Australian agent MR Marine for free or from Nobeltec in teh USA via email. I had one problem and MR Marine arranged fro Nobeltec USA to call me and sort out the problem.
I can only say I am totally happy, and I do not experience teh program crashing, I use Windows XP Pro.
I have ordered my new Version 9 of Admiral. ALso MR MArine has set up a website just fro AUstralian Users, http://www.nobeltec.com.au
Nobeltec Bashing:
I have been using Nobeltec since Version 1. Like most users, I have a love hate relationship. I think Nobeltec’s interface is the best on the market but I also don’t like some of the gyrations that I have been forced to go through to make there latest versions work properly. WRT crashing: Since I upgraded to version 8 a while back, I have had crashing problems. I had no help (or apparent interest) from Nobeltec in discovering why my machine was crashing. In comparing notes with other Nobeltec users, I found that those who had implemented AIS were experiencing the same problems. By trial and error I was able to discover that the crashing seems to caused when I am displaying anemometer information on the display screen. By eliminating the true and relative wind information, my machine no longer crashed. I reported these findings to friends who successfully implemented those recommendations. As a result, their systems stabilized. Now it is hard to understand the relationship between wind info and AIS making the system crash, but the results have been verified by other users. I reported my findings to Nobeltec. Not only did I not get a thank you, nor feedback, but I was left with the impression that all my effort was not even considered. The reason for that perception is that I have not seen the crashing problem fixed in any of their updates. Bad PR.
Has any one tried to apply the Nobeltec 9.3 feature pack? I am very surprised – they deleted all my S57 charts. They did warn me, but come on..!
Has anyone attempted to install VNS on a Windows 7 computer?
Hi Don,
I did — no problems found when installing Admiral Max Pro (which is “Vista certified” by Nobeltec) on Windows 7.