GROUP TEST
MAPTECH CHART NAVIGATOR PRO £150 FOR THE PROGRAM
£95 for charts covering all UK,
Ireland + European coast (but 1
vectorised charts.
without European port charts)
Movement around the
– including two years of tides. screen is very versatile. You
If you want detail charts of the
can click and drag, use the
Continent it costs an additional
arrow keys on the keyboard or
use the eight directional keys
£95 for coverage from Gibraltar to
by nudging the corner of the
Germany, plus the Canary Islands
chart – up, down, left, right
and Atlantic passage chart.
and the four corners.
Tidal information is
comprehensive. Right click
anywhere for tidal properties
Chart Nav Pro starts in Plan mode with a (height or current) and a box
comprehensive tool bar at the top of the page opens at the bottom of the
for route creation. (1) screen. (3) & (4)
To navigate, you select Cruise mode, which When underway, the chart can be
gives much bigger buttons (easier to use on a
2
fixed with the boat moving or the boat
rolling boat) at the bottom of the screen. You fixed and the chart scrolling – and you
can also split the screen to view two charts can select whether to have the boat in
simultaneously. (2) the middle of the screen or offset for a
These comprise the most commonly better view ahead.
needed functions when underway and The AIS is good. Initially it shows
following a route, including MOB and Instant just the vessel name, but then full
Route. Cruise mode also provides a user- details pop up in a panel when
definable information/instrument console clicked. When an AIS target enters
to the right of the chart. This can show a pre-set CPA (Closest Point of
compass, SOG, wind etc – in fact anything Approach) range it changes colour
attached to a laptop port giving NMEA data. and an audio warning is given.
The Browser is yet another panel that
appears below the chart when selected. It Summary
does constrict the remaining display available online and open it in Chart Nav Pro. A feature A good, mid-price raster chart plotter
for the chart, but it provides extra information not available on the lower cost Raster charts, that does much more than the entry
such as tides, weather and pilotage. which we found particularly useful, is chart level systems. It’s easy to use and has
If you want to obtain weather overlays you quilting. Think of it like a patchwork quilt, sensibly large numerals for digital data.
download a .grb file (known colloquially as where each chart is a separate piece of the The brilliant Instant Route function
a ‘GRIB’ file) from one of the plentiful quilt. You can move around seamlessly from simply requires one click to select
weather sources available chart to chart, as indeed you can do with the function and another to put the
waypoint on the chart, after which it’s
automatically activated.
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• MAPTECH CHART NAVIGATION
62 Sailing Today June 09
ST147 Group Plotters_RTG.indd 48 15/5/09 10:05:57
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