Navionics products for route planning

[PJHoffnet]

I have a Simrad NSS12 Chartplotter and own the Navionics Platinum Plus US Southeast and N Bahamas (906P+) chart pack. No issues with use on the boat and doing updates to the SD card using either the PC or phone/tablet.

I can make and save routes on the PC (Navionics’ site, Chart Viewer) and sync/view/edit them on the phone/tablet in the Navionics Boating HD app. I can edit the routes on the phone/tablet and it will sync to the PC.

I have the Boating HD app, but can’t load my Platinum Plus chart pack. The only charts available are the Government and Navionics 'basic' chart. Neither of which really have the fidelity to do route planning or even navigate safely (IMHO). From what I can tell, the only way you can load a Navionics' chart is to use the Navionics + app? My worry is that if I purchase the Navionics + app, I’d still have to ‘buy’ charts to use on the app. Am I correct? Or can I ‘load’ my Platinum Plus chart pack - I’m guessing not, since the charts I see listed in Navionics + don’t include the chart pack I own.

One last thing - how can I transfer the routes I make on the PC/phone/tablet to the chart SD card so I can use them on the boat’s chartplotter.

Thanks in advance.

[dsolo]

Have you tried Navionics with your questions? Good luck.

[PJHoffnet]

An idea I wasn't quite ready to jump to - thought the community would have someone who already knew the ins and outs from a 'users' stand point vice the normal 'customer service' angle. I have had good luck with their customer service when I was first learning about chart updating, so perhaps I'll call back.

[bud37]

Paul a question/opinion from you.....Is navionics the gold standard for marine charts and are there other chart people out there, lets say Garmin.....I guess I am not sure the origin of the charts in the first place.
I now have navionics in my raymarine c80 ( hate the plotter by the way) and previously had Garmin blue charts in a touch screen which I loved ( easy for old brain to use, intuitive)......I am curious to know if those different charts are derived from the same place.

[PJHoffnet]

@bud37 - I really can't speak to others, since I've never used them. I've been away from boating long enough to have left during the paper chart era. In the Navy we were just starting to validate electronic charting during my last sea tour. I have used Garmin in the early days - but only for land navigation.

From what I've read the charts, in large part, are all coastal/open water charts are derived from NOAA https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/sta ... spubs.html and inland waters from the Army Corp of Engineers https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/usace.html . I can only guess that commercial providers of electronic charts take these data files and 'format' them for their own systems. I do like to down load the .pdf versions of the chart because I find that you can not read the notes, warnings, survey history, etc that is easy to do on paper charts because the electronic ones are stitched together and don't contain those items from the 'margins'.

Navionics, and perhaps others (again, I haven't used others) can 'accept' user data such as sonar logs and comments which you can download and 'overlay' over the government charts.

I understand there's no going back to paper for on the water piloting though I do like paper for route planning - at least until I find a good PC alternative. Doing it on a phone/tablet just won't cut it for me, and as you and others have mentioned, doing it on the chart plotter itself isn't ideal.

[km1125]

I would be VERY CAREFUL using the Navionics chart for automatic course plotting without looking at some good reliable charts (NOAA). Navionics looks great and gives some great detail, but have some pretty gross errors. Someone down in Bahamas used the route planning and ended up on a reef.

Around here there are a few areas where the Navionics charts were off by QUITE a bit. In one place, the channel was 25' feet deep and the navionics charts showed 2-3'. In another place, where the NOAA (and real) depth is 2-4', they had anywhere from 10-30'. I went round and round with Navionics a couple years ago to get these fixed and they barely made improvements to the one area.

[PJHoffnet]

@km1125, couldn't agree with you more ... for planning purposes the only way to go is paper which is why I d/l the pdf version from NOAA to check the things I see on the Plotter's e-charts.

While the data source is the same, I'm still not completely sold in how e-charts are stitched together and switch from small scale charts to large scale charts when you zoom into an area.

As with all things navigation related, the more reliable sources you use the safer you are. That being said, I wouldn't mind doing the initial 'rough out' on a PC and then 'check' on paper. Then go and ensure the courses and way points are correct.