I am in the market for digital charts of the Bahama Islands. It is my
understanding that Maptech or what's left of it supplies these on CD-ROM. I
was also told that some editions of the Bahamas CD-ROMs included charts for
Bermuda and /or Monty Lewis' Explorer charts, or some combination of these.
If there are any users here familiar with these packages, I'd appreciate
hearing what is available, and which chart format is used for which sets of
charts (i.e., which charts will run under which charting software package,
etc.). All details appreciated.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:56:35 -0400, "Armond Perretta"
wrote:

I am in the market for digital charts of the Bahama Islands. It is my
understanding that Maptech or what's left of it supplies these on CD-ROM. I
was also told that some editions of the Bahamas CD-ROMs included charts for
Bermuda and /or Monty Lewis' Explorer charts, or some combination of these.
If there are any users here familiar with these packages, I'd appreciate
hearing what is available, and which chart format is used for which sets of
charts (i.e., which charts will run under which charting software package,
etc.). All details appreciated.

The very, very best charts of the Bahamas are in the Explorer chart
books, available at West Marine among others. The good news is that
they are also available in electronic format via C-MAP-NT chips.
There is a USB card reader available for the CMAP chips which comes
bundled with software that converts your laptop into a chart plotter.
I mostly use it offline for planning purposes but it does support GPS
input and could be used for navigation. The Explorer charts, either
paper or electronic, are far better than Maptech's, no comparison at
all.

http://www.landfallnavigation.com/ecmnt.html

http://www.boatersland.com/cmanac306.html

If you have a CMAP compatible chart plotter, be sure to order a
compatible chip and card reader combination.

"Armond Perretta" wrote:

I am in the market for digital charts of the Bahama Islands. It is my
understanding that Maptech or what's left of it supplies these on CD-ROM. I
was also told that some editions of the Bahamas CD-ROMs included charts for
Bermuda and /or Monty Lewis' Explorer charts, or some combination of these.
If there are any users here familiar with these packages, I'd appreciate
hearing what is available, and which chart format is used for which sets of
charts (i.e., which charts will run under which charting software package,
etc.). All details appreciated.

I have the Maptech B ahamas charts (3 sections) and have found them to
work fine (yeah, I know the explorer charatws are supposed to be
better, but we use dthe Maptech ones and had no trouble). they are in
an encrypted BSB format but Fugawi reads them fine, and I'd imagine
any other ptogram that uses BSB could read them too.

Michael Porter
Michael Porter Marine Design
mporter at mp-marine dot com
www.mp-marine.com

Michael Porter wrote:

"Armond Perretta" wrote:

I am in the market for digital charts of the Bahama Islands. It is my
understanding that Maptech or what's left of it supplies these on CD-ROM. I
was also told that some editions of the Bahamas CD-ROMs included charts for
Bermuda and /or Monty Lewis' Explorer charts, or some combination of these.
If there are any users here familiar with these packages, I'd appreciate
hearing what is available, and which chart format is used for which sets of
charts (i.e., which charts will run under which charting software package,
etc.). All details appreciated.

I have the Maptech B ahamas charts (3 sections) and have found them to
work fine (yeah, I know the explorer charatws are supposed to be
better, but we use dthe Maptech ones and had no trouble). they are in
an encrypted BSB format but Fugawi reads them fine, and I'd imagine
any other ptogram that uses BSB could read them too.

It isn't that they don't work. It is that they weren't accurate.
Bimini was displaced about a mile south and west, so that when we were
entering the harbor, it appeared that we were driving along a ridge in
south Bimini.

Rosalie B. wrote:

Michael Porter wrote:

"Armond Perretta" wrote:

I am in the market for digital charts of the Bahama Islands. It is my
understanding that Maptech or what's left of it supplies these on CD-ROM. I
was also told that some editions of the Bahamas CD-ROMs included charts for
Bermuda and /or Monty Lewis' Explorer charts, or some combination of these.
If there are any users here familiar with these packages, I'd appreciate
hearing what is available, and which chart format is used for which sets of
charts (i.e., which charts will run under which charting software package,
etc.). All details appreciated.

I have the Maptech B ahamas charts (3 sections) and have found them to
work fine (yeah, I know the explorer charatws are supposed to be
better, but we use dthe Maptech ones and had no trouble). they are in
an encrypted BSB format but Fugawi reads them fine, and I'd imagine
any other ptogram that uses BSB could read them too.

It isn't that they don't work. It is that they weren't accurate.
Bimini was displaced about a mile south and west, so that when we were
entering the harbor, it appeared that we were driving along a ridge in
south Bimini.

Where we went (Abacos, Exumas, Rum Cay, Mayaguana, Turks & Caicos)
they _were_ as accurate as one can reasonably expect. Never went to
Bimini and probably wouldn't.

Michael Porter Marine Design
mporter at mp-marine dot com
www.mp-marine.com

On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:29:56 -0400, Michael Porter
wrote:

It isn't that they don't work. It is that they weren't accurate.
Bimini was displaced about a mile south and west, so that when we were
entering the harbor, it appeared that we were driving along a ridge in
south Bimini.

Where we went (Abacos, Exumas, Rum Cay, Mayaguana, Turks & Caicos)
they _were_ as accurate as one can reasonably expect. Never went to
Bimini and probably wouldn't.

I have both the Maptech charts of the Bahamas and the CMAP Explorer
charts. The Explorer charts are far more detailed, accurate and up
to date. If I could only carry one or the other, it would be the
Explorer charts without question.

I have also had issues with the Maptech encryption/decryption not
working properly on some of my PCs, and Maptech support is almost
non-existent these days.