which is the best Electronic Charts to buy for Chart Plotters

[BaitThrower]

Yeah the latest Bluechart has a better representation of Mud Island than the one you show. Although I must say the Navionics looks slightly better. Probably the same amount of data, but it just looks slightly better

I use latest Bluecharts on my handheld Garmin 76CSx and I havent hit a sand bank or anything hard yet, so I can't complain

[rando]

I have to agree with Smithy, the detail that will be most helpful will be the amount of contour detail.
Visable features, land forms, beacons, etc you can easily identify, and find,, inmost cases.
Ill be looking for charts that help me find the structure.

I would like to be able to see operating units using various formats side by side, I suppose some of the chandlers will have "comparitive" displays.
still looking!!

[SummerTrance]

If your looking for one of these on the sunshine coast, check this out.

Last week I purchased a Navonics Gold (Rosslyn Bay to Brisbane) sd card, for $99.00 (on sale from $289.00) at BCF Noosa. This was 4 days after the promotion offically ended, however they are still (in the noosa store only) advertising and selling them for $99. They had about 6 or so left when I was last there on Saturday.

[skipalong]

hey mate have seen many maps but the navionics brand are they way to go more clear and detailed great to read.

[kingtin]

What units are compatible with navionic maps. Most seem to promote C maps. I'm a bit out of the loop here as I've had a furuno 1650 for 4 yrs and found it to be a bit slow on the zoom, although the sounder was an excellent piece of kit.

cheers

kev

[jimbo59]

Quiz question can i change my c-map for a navionics map can this change be done by a dealer?

[kingtin]

This is the latest c-map on a furuno 7000. There's a lot more info at Mud if you zoom in further.

Judging by previous illustrations.......c map beats 'em hands down, unless the others have updated since.

kev

[kingtin]

Some more

[honda900]

Bluechart maps of the same areas. for comparison.

Regards
honda.

[Local_Guy]

Navionics chart of same area...... sorry about quality.

[emj]

I have the navionics gold sd east coast map for a lowrance lms 525 cdf and it gives a great coastal navigational picture. The only drawback i find is i would like to be able to put the maps onto my desktop pc to keep a backup of routes, waypoints ,"secret spots " etc , and also type in positional descriptions on the pc and then downloading them back into the 525 , making it a lot easier than using the key pad , which is a pain in the ass, but i have been told if the nav card even looks at a card reader it will self destruct . does anyone out there have the solution to this , as it would make the nav gold card a dream. Please note that I hav'nt had the luxury of comparing all the differeent cards on the market today .

[Fatenhappy]

Hey Redspeckle or others ...

From your experience and what's been said, does anyone know of any of the new you beaut new generation charts interhangeable?

Cheers
Greg

[r3volt]

I have the navionics gold sd east coast map for a lowrance lms 525 cdf and it gives a great coastal navigational picture. The only drawback i find is i would like to be able to put the maps onto my desktop pc to keep a backup of routes, waypoints ,"secret spots " etc , and also type in positional descriptions on the pc and then downloading them back into the 525 , making it a lot easier than using the key pad , which is a pain in the ass, but i have been told if the nav card even looks at a card reader it will self destruct . does anyone out there have the solution to this , as it would make the nav gold card a dream. Please note that I hav'nt had the luxury of comparing all the differeent cards on the market today .

Navionics navplaner software and card reader. It aint cheap though

[nitroburner]

Wow technology has come along way in the last 15 years .The chartplotter that was on the trawler i was on in 93 had no detail , just green polygons for islands and the like . It wasnt unknown for the electronics to go down due to loss of satelite communications , and then it was back to paper charts , dividers , pencil and radar. Quick question do the chart plotters and GPSs today have a tendency to go offline still ???

[ozscott]

I use a little Garmin 178C - a combination colour chart plotter with east coast Blue Chart and a 500watt (RMS; 4000watt peak) dual freq' sounder. I have got a Humminbird beside it - likewise a combo, but the last of the black and whites with C-Map. Its not fair to compare because of the age difference and the Garmin is STREETS ahead in terms of speed of re-drawing, detail, pixels, etc. What I can say as a fair comparro though is that the Garmin's menu system is MUCH better and easier to use in my opinion. As for chart detail, my mate has a Lowrance unit that is the same age as my Garmin and uses Navionics...it isnt quite as good as Blue Chart in the Jumpinpin area and Im told that the reason that Blue Chart is better there is that they went and did their own soundings and plotted the best path through the waterways. The BC gives you recommended routes in the pin areas which is very nice - otherwise there isnt much it it.

The Poll will not be likely to give you an idea of the 'best' chart because most people will simply vote for what they have...the poll results would probably be more accurate if it read "What is the most common chart for sounders..."

Cheers