Well I guess I'm guilty of that old adage about the first one I tried is what I stuck with and what I like. And, disclaimer, I have never tried another. But this does everything I need and I find it hard to understand why anyone would pay for charting S/W while bypassing this.

I certainly got way more than my money's worth out of this one because it is totally free. Just search for SeaClear on the internet and download it. It has a lot of features I have not been able to try yet and seems to be like so many fancy new products these days in that way. You know what I mean. They have so many features that you end up just finding a few things you like and sticking with that because it takes so much time to learn and by the time you do, something better comes along and you have to start all over again.

It uses the charts from the NOAA site which are also free for the downloading. I like this because you can always get the latest charts.

All you need is a PC and a GPS that will link to it. I have a Garmin GPSMap76C and a Toshiba Satellite PC running Windows XP. The Garmin was $75 on EBay and the PC was a hand-me-down from my brother who is always into recent stuff.

So I've now got a 15" color chart plotter for under $100 and a bit of set-up time. The GPS sends it's signal on an old serial cable which the PC had no connector for, so I found a serial to USB converter (about $15). The PC takes the signal from the GPS (I had to find a driver on the net and also set up a "virtual com port" since the S/W does not "look" on the USB port). It took a favor or two from computer saavy friends to get me going but I love it.

It puts you on the chart with a little boat symbol and the symbol moves across the chart as you do. There are rings around you at intervals which you control so you know your distance to other things on the chart at a glance. There is also a line extending in front of you to show you where you are headed. Charts automatically flip to the next page when you sail off the edge. You can also choose another chart from a list if you want to change scale. It has features to do routes and planning. You can put the cursor anywhere and read off the lat/lon. It displays NEMA information from just about any source (needs proper interface) and will send a signal to your autopilot. And it creates tracks of where you've been if you turn that option on.

I ran into one curiosity which may just be my computer. I began to turn the computer off to save power. When I'd boot back up, it was messing up. Windows opening and closing all over the place and the cursor jumping around like crazy. Couldn't do anything with it. I thought the whole thing had gone haywire. Then I figured it out. It is neccesary to pull the active GPS USB cable out of the PC out during boot up. The signal was screwing the PC up. Let the PC boot and then plug in the USB and it's OK.

As Rick Sylvester noted, I do some racing along with my cruising. This thing already helped me place well in a lighter air race by showing me where I was headed on current tack. I could quickly place myself in the most advantageous spot for the tidal current and made short work of a leg that confounded the competition. Then I can spend more time concentrating on steering fast. Nice to hear your boat name announced and walk up in front of a group of sailors to receive an award! I was concerned about bringing the weight of the old PC and a small inverter aboard, but I think it was worth it. Now I might have to think about one of those lighter netbooks that uses 12V power...

btw, I'm old school and always carry all the paper charts for my area plus charting tools and I know how to use them. I've been piloting since before LORAN. I don't need this fancy new stuff but it sure is nice.

~smile~

SMon