Maptech chart kit
 

I just got the Maptech chart kit for the west coast of Fl for my
aborted cruise. It is a lot more than I expected. It even has a cd
and plotting software. I highly reccomend this. This one book
replaces almost all of my charts and covers the entire west coast of FL
( i thought it would only be SW Fl)

wrote in message oups.com...
I just got the Maptech chart kit for the west coast of Fl for my
aborted cruise. It is a lot more than I expected. It even has a cd
and plotting software. I highly reccomend this. This one book
replaces almost all of my charts and covers the entire west coast of FL
( i thought it would only be SW Fl)


You should check out the electronic Maptech chart kits.

One little CD holds hundreds of charts. You can even burn copies
and trade with your buddies so you have thousands of charts
for the cost of a single kit.

The electronic nav software is impressive with all the bells
and whistles and can be interfaced with gps so you get
a real time position of your boat that proceeds along the
chart to the edge where a new chart pops up .

Paper charts are still required in case of failure of electronic
equipment but I enjoy using the electronic charts on my
laptop because of the many features they offer over
and above paper. You can even print them out if you
like a paper copy.

Try them, you'll like them

CN

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 13:10:44 -0400, Capt. Neal®
wrote:


wrote in message oups.com...
I just got the Maptech chart kit for the west coast of Fl for my
aborted cruise. It is a lot more than I expected. It even has a cd
and plotting software. I highly reccomend this. This one book
replaces almost all of my charts and covers the entire west coast of FL
( i thought it would only be SW Fl)


You should check out the electronic Maptech chart kits.

One little CD holds hundreds of charts. You can even burn copies
and trade with your buddies so you have thousands of charts
for the cost of a single kit.

The electronic nav software is impressive with all the bells
and whistles and can be interfaced with gps so you get
a real time position of your boat that proceeds along the
chart to the edge where a new chart pops up .

Paper charts are still required in case of failure of electronic
equipment but I enjoy using the electronic charts on my
laptop because of the many features they offer over
and above paper. You can even print them out if you
like a paper copy.

Try them, you'll like them

CN

I second the recommendation for US coastal cruising.

The Maptech database is what is used to generate the NOS paper charts.

If you use such paper charts as your first line of defense in
navigating (recommended for safety/reliability reasons), seeing
exactly the same layout, colors, symbology, etc. on your laptop makes
it act like a "zoom magnifier" for the selected paper chart, with
active data features.

I especially like the ability to click on a tide station symbol and
get the current current (pun intended) or a prediction thereof.

Of course, laptop screen brightness limitations make electronic charts
useless in the cockpit in daylight. But, a portable color inkjet
printer at the nav station can printout your annotated, zoomed section
of chart, complete with courses, distances, etc.

This gives you the best of both worlds (as long as you keep the
printout in a plastic sleeve g).

Al
s/v Persephone