Has anyone used Fugawi software with the free ENC nautical charts?
 

Hi All,
I'm interested in using the free ENC charts that you can get from the
NOAA web site. Being a cheap such-and-so, I'd rather get free charts
than pay hundreds of $$$ to West Marine for chart chips or CD's.

Has anyone used the "Fugawi" software for viewing ENC charts? Do you
have any other viewing/chartplotting software that you like? Can it be
used underway on a PC with a GPS hookup?

Thanks,

Jeff

"Cap'n Jeff - MarathonFL" wrote...
Hi All,
Has anyone used the "Fugawi" software for viewing ENC charts?

I used the cheap low end Fugawi SW. It worked OK for viewing ENC charts -
just good enough to get me hooked - but did not have any navigtion
capability. So I bought their better SW that did. Of course it couldn't read
ENC charts so I had to buy others. )c:

Has anyone used the "Fugawi" software for viewing ENC charts? Do you
have any other viewing/chartplotting software that you like? Can it be
used underway on a PC with a GPS hookup?


I've tried it and Coastal Explorer. There's no comparison. If you just
want to look at the ENC files, the Fugawi software will allow you to do
that. If you want to use the ENC charts for navigation or anything real,
get Coastal Explorer. It's only a little more expensive than the Fugawi
package.

I've been using Fugawi with BSB charts for several years and find it
excellent. I have the ENC viewer which is free from them, but it is only a
viewer. I'll be buying the full package soon, been waiting until more charts
were available and they seem to be now. The full vector package has,
according to their literature, gps interface with moving map, just like the
raster version. I have no reason to disbelieve this. The upgrade from raster
to vector software is only $100 or so and I think it's about $200 to buy
without owning a previous version.
BF


"WillT" wrote in message
news:WXgpe.6038$nk4.1344@trndny01...
Has anyone used the "Fugawi" software for viewing ENC charts? Do you
have any other viewing/chartplotting software that you like? Can it be
used underway on a PC with a GPS hookup?


I've tried it and Coastal Explorer. There's no comparison. If you just
want to look at the ENC files, the Fugawi software will allow you to do
that. If you want to use the ENC charts for navigation or anything real,
get Coastal Explorer. It's only a little more expensive than the Fugawi
package.