You can have a look at the Quickcharts when we catch up in Bundaberg. Quick charts only needs to be authenticated once (not every time you use it) and can be done off line as well as online. memory map allows for charts to be imported so I assume what the the distributers of Quickcharts has done is use the import function to load up the raster charts. I have only purchased the East Coast set up that covers Tassie to Queensland. There is a West Coast package available for those only interested in SA, WA and NT. The main shortcoming is the lack of sufficient instructions for someone using it for sailing. For someone selling their product through boating supply retailers this is disappointing. A bit of effort to get someone to write instructions applicable for nav planning for sailing shouldn't be too hard. Having said that, once you hit upon a way of getting it to produce what you want it is very useful. Having used it for planning I will be interested to see how it performs in the nav mode at sea. I have a GPS antenna that plugs into my old pc so I don't expect a problem.

The advantage of Seaclear is there is a very active worldwide forum for support. The limitation is the quality of charts which is basically down to the Admiralty charts. The Admiralty charts of course are what all these other charting programmes use under license anyway. So under normal circumstances the chart quality is just the same and is only limited by what the operator chooses to load. What Cisco is probably referring to with chart loading problems is the fact that with Seaclear you have to calibrate your charts and then set up a chart flow so that at sea the charts self load as you proceed up and down the coast.

Ramona said..

What Cisco is probably referring to with chart loading problems is the fact that with Seaclear you have to calibrate your charts and then set up a chart flow so that at sea the charts self load as you proceed up and down the coast.

That is exactly it. I am sure once done it would work beautifully. It is just getting that done correctly and completely that scares me.

Also I don't think you have yet revealed where or how you scource charts at a reasonable price.

Would Seaclear run Quick Charts? They are reasonably priced.

I have an old lap top running Windows 98 SE on which I have installed a pirated version (Russian I think) of CMap4 for the whole world. As Frant says, the zoom capabilities of vector charts is way above par of anything else. The problem is that it is quite old now and I have so far been unable to get it to recognize a signal from a puck GPS. It is to do with a 4800 Baud rate apparently.

Previously mentioned I did a trip from Bundy to Brisbane on a friend's 40 ft Flemming Moreton bay Cruiser using the TMQ Nav and Chart Program. It is quite excellent with zoom and detail and I think cost circa $1,000.

A PC based nav program is invalueable for night time in close waters. For most other situations I am more than happy with paper charts and a standard GPS receiver.

DMatz, can you explain the comment "the only calibration ,,,is to enter the shift on the chart into the ,,," I am assuming there is no calibration required when using the raster charts with the memory map program. If there is then lease let me know because I haven;t seen any reference to that. Or are you referring to your plotter?

cisco said..


I have an old lap top running Windows 98 SE on which I have installed a pirated version (Russian I think) of CMap4 for the whole world. As Frant says, the zoom capabilities of vector charts is way above par of anything else. The problem is that it is quite old now and I have so far been unable to get it to recognize a signal from a puck GPS. It is to do with a 4800 Baud rate apparently.

Windows 98 SE is more than capable of handling Seaclear. The important requirement is a large screen with high pixel count otherwise you may as well use a plotter. The Baud rate depends on your GPS puck. It's usually 4800 but can be 9600. Its selected in the properties box in Seaclear. In your case check whether you have the drivers loaded for your GPS puck. If anyone is about to update their GPS puck ensure they buy a Sirf 4 chip version and not a Sirf 3. The new one is twice as sensitive and operates through a steel roof where as the old one and hand held Garmins etc will not. Naturally they are twice the price.
I mentioned previously the pro boats here use Seaclear or TMQ, about 50:50. There is no difference in performance and its all down to the charts you load.
My homeport chart is a digital MSB chart downloaded from their webpage as a PDF file for free or you can pay for a paper version. My off shore charts are all digital admiralty. These are readily available but expensive or you can trade. The Msb charts are more accurate than the admiralty! If you scan paper charts the error can be eliminated when you calibrate. The error is listed in the details in the top LH corner for conversion to electronic charting, I have no idea why there should be an error, its usually only small and I just calibrate my charts as normal.
My unit on my yacht is a 16 inch laptop but have been thinking about an update. If I was starting again now I would go straight to a 24 inch screen, mini computer running 98SE. Retain the trackball but also use an air mouse from the cockpit.

I have have just downloaded Seaclear and had a play and yes it does seem to be supperior to Memory Map, a lot more features
and looks easier to plan routes etc.
I think I will be able to convert Quickcharts to use with seaclear!
I will keep you posted!

If anyone is interested in making your own OpenCPN-compatible charts from images (either scanned from a paper chart or converted from another electronic format, such as PDF), check out this simple web app I wrote to make the overlay/alignment process a little easier:

http://www.nobletech.com/maps/chartlayer.html

I also wrote a blog post which describes how to use it:

blog.arribasail.com/2013/06/tech-making-charts-for-use-with-opencpn.html

You'll also need to download the free imgkap program.

My Point was that if you have an old copy, of say, Win 98 SE laying around you will have trouble as new hardware these days is not backward compatible with old operating systems. Somewhere in the future at some point you will have to upgrade to the new operating systems, why not do it now if contemplating a lappy based nav system.

If you have an old lappy laying around and you have Linux on it why on earth would anyone contemplate reverting back to Window$, assuming of course you have a nav program that runs under Linux without resorting to using Wine.

Hi dmatz

No both my ChartLayer and imgkap (which you also need) only work with image formats, such as png or jpg.

Met up with Have Fun yesterday here in Bundaberg and he showed me his smart phone with the Navionics App installed which costs the princely sum of $15.

Unbelievable. Why would anybody ever again buy a Garmin hand held??

He also showed me Quick Charts on his laptop and as he mentioned previously, the program does not come with much of a help file or instructions. However I think with some practice and experimenting one could learn how to use the program reasonably quickly and by way of forums like this one tips and tricks will emerge.

The quality of the raster charts is very good and the price quite reasonable. I think it is a good tool for passage planning at least, with printable screen dumps.