Marine Navigation Software

[johnthekayaker]

For those of you who have wanted to try computer navigation software and do not want to pay a lot of money, check out Polar Navy View NS. It's only $39.99 to buy or you can download a free 30 day trial and there are versions for Windows, Linux and Mac. http://www.polarnavy.com/
Charts are not included but they can be download for free from NOAA.
What better way to kill time during this long cold winter...

John Loos
1986 A27SC
1989 A32CB
West Bridgewater Ma

[mhanna]

Thanks John, I tried the link and had the software up and running in 10 min.. ( I already have NOAA charts in a directory for another charting program) and I pointed Polar view to them and it imported with no issues.
In case anyone needs the charts here they are:
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/?Disclaimer= ... Downloader
I suggest getting the ENC version but if you like the look of paper rasters work too.

Matt

[johnthekayaker]

Here is a link to a video demo of the software. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTIYZxC1lrY

I tried both Windows and Linux yesterday and it is easy to use. I does not have all the bells and whistles of Coastal Explorer that I use, but well worth the money. You can even download the Active Captain Cruising guide for your area and have the data available on your charts.

John Loos

[DougSea]

I tried the demo of the new 1.5 Beta that's available with a preview code. If you go to the review done at Panbo (www.Panbo.com) and go to the main story you'll find the link and the code. Same 30 day free trial. The Active Captain site also has a link to the new version.

Really nice for someone just getting in to the PC navigation side. And the chart download tool that's built in is great, if not entirely intuitive. You just highlight the area you wNt charts for using the "select" button and click "Find Charts", and it brings up a list of all of the NOAA charts for your selection. Highlight the ones you want, click and it downloads them and loads them to the program. I had all of the charts for the Northeast loaded in about 5 minutes. I may just have to go out and get a USB GPS and try this further.