Got a chance to play with some really neat nav/weather/routing
software this afternoon - MaxSea Professional.

I really wish I had a boat big enough to justify this program.

I'd go into details, but there was so much "stuff" like overlays,
WEFAX, sat detail, nav screens - it was really amazing.

Cruisers might want to look into this PC based system.

On Apr 13, 4:04?pm, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
Got a chance to play with some really neat nav/weather/routing
software this afternoon - MaxSea Professional.

I really wish I had a boat big enough to justify this program.

I'd go into details, but there was so much "stuff" like overlays,
WEFAX, sat detail, nav screens - it was really amazing.

Cruisers might want to look into this PC based system.

Lots of people use PC nav systems and like them very much.
I'm still unsold on the suitability of most PC hardware for marine
applications.
I guess that's what makes a horse race.

For $5000 you can buy an excellent radar and chartplotter. With the
$5000 software package you still need a radar antenna, gps receiver,
etc etc.
If the $500 "basic" setup is competitive with Nobeltec or Coastal
Navigator this company probably has a viable business plan. To spend
$5k, there would really have to be some special stuff in the upgrades.

On 15 Apr 2007 07:44:01 -0700, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

If the $500 "basic" setup is competitive with Nobeltec or Coastal
Navigator this company probably has a viable business plan. To spend
$5k, there would really have to be some special stuff in the upgrades.

They've been around for awhile and seem to be doing OK. Their primary
market is commercial fisherman and high end recreational.

With a boat like yours, with a fully enclosed pilot house, you should
have no PC reliability issues at all. Start off with a clean install
of fully patched Win2K or WinXP, and do *NOT* install anything else
that is not marine related. Most PC reliability issues stem from junk
software of one sort or another.

On Apr 15, 9:09�am, Wayne.B wrote:
On 15 Apr 2007 07:44:01 -0700, "Chuck Gould"

wrote:
If the $500 "basic" setup is competitive with Nobeltec or Coastal
Navigator this company probably has a viable business plan. To spend
$5k, there would really have to be some special stuff in the upgrades.

They've been around for awhile and seem to be doing OK. *Their primary
market is commercial fisherman and high end recreational.

With a boat like yours, with a fully enclosed pilot house, you should
have no PC reliability issues at all. *Start off with a clean install
of fully patched Win2K or WinXP, and do *NOT* install anything else
that is not marine related. *Most PC reliability issues stem from junk
software of one sort or another.

Maybe it's the salt air; but I have noticed a difference in
reliability between the components aboard my boat that were originally
designed for a non-marine use and actual marine electronics. My AM/FM/
CD player is a case in point.
To be fair, I put it in in the early 90's but it's already starting to
fail. The darn thing has a "removeable face" and the power switch is
entirely contained within the face plate. The salt air environment has
corroded the contacts to the point where it takes an annoying amount
of "fiddling" to turn the stereo on or off. There is no access to the
backside of the switch so the most obvious solution, (taking a can of
contact cleaner to the corroded surfaces), is out of the question. I
really need a new stereo anyway- the present one is so old that it
won't read MP3 files off a disc burned in the home computer. I'm sort
of in a holding pattern in the music department for now as I still
need to adapt to listening to music out of some minipod and without
speakers. I'd be happy to continue feeding CD's into the present
unit's changer if it would simply turn on without pressing the switch
40 times and resorting to a questionable chant.

Perhaps it's my disappointing experience with the stereo, a series of
"junked" toasters, and other terrestrial appliances that inspire me to
be skeptcal of relying primarily on a household or office computer for
navigation.

On 16 Apr 2007 07:32:52 -0700, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

Perhaps it's my disappointing experience with the stereo, a series of
"junked" toasters, and other terrestrial appliances that inspire me to
be skeptcal of relying primarily on a household or office computer for
navigation.

There are some important differences.

Most people take their laptop off the boat when they are not cruising
so its not exposed full time to the marine environment. When they are
on board, they are usually in use, or at least on standby, so the
heat tends to drive moisture out.

Secondly, not too many people would expect more than 3 or 4 years from
a laptop. Something would make it obsolete after that, i.e., a
newer/better/cheaper would come along.

I have a lot of navigational redundancy on my boat so a PC crash would
not be a life threatening event. The convenience for route planning
and route tracking can not be overestimated however.