100 bucks? Anybody who has the means to own a sailboat today will find this new chart source an economical route in comparison to updated charts.

This is a first season with an ipad aboard but we got a lot of benefits. A big one on a simple boat like ours was low charging requirements for the ipad. With laptops aboard(when we had 2 teens sailing with us) we had big amp/hr eaters and dragged our house down quickly. Ipad seemed to put us back to "old days" in charging, no engine time, no belt problems.

But we skyped with our son overseas on it. Got accurate weather, downloaded hundreds of RAW photo files(simply synched them to my laptop when I got home). For navigating, it was the extra info available on the charts that was a surprise. Coast pilot info, cruising guide info(up to date in fact only days old on some changes), current services through various sources, the overlay of satelite photos on the charts for hiking and shore access, bridge opening proceedures. Having tide and current charts at your finger tips was a huge plus for me and I'm a tinkerer on charts striking bearings-dstances, the tools are in your hand now.

And there is a learning curve to this new tech too; my ipad froze. Not a problem with the chartplotter but I know now why it happened and will learn more(plus apps will improve at light speed now). I want one more separate device for comfort and it will be a smart phone(a business need anyway). Just like digital photography or CAD design, the transistions have a learning curve. What doesn't?

All this info was available to use before, but it took time via various paper sources onboard, vhf, cruising guides. That still works too.

Charts are great and I'm all for people using them but I guess I've gone through this new door now and see all the benefits for how I sail(and live, this is not just boat stuff for me).

Not everybody embraces new tech at the same rate, many not at all. It's good we all have what we like and charts will be there too.