Our Northstar (chart plotters) and Furuno (radars) haven't been an issue with sun or rain -- but we keep them with plastic covers, under a binnacle bag when we're not on the boat.

I'm not sure of how the "black box" will work with the your Nobeltec Times Zero. The Nobeltec is really the Max Sea program with few, if any material, differences.

I had Nobeltec VNS for years with the Pathfinder charts. I loved the program; however, I upgraded to Windows 7 for all the reasons and the Nobeltec wouldn't function on that platform.

With my Furuno NavNet HD radar and chart plotter system, I opted to upgrade to the Trident. I really like it. PLUS, it will function as radar control unit. HOWEVER, you have to have at least one MFD (multi-function display) or you have to have a "Black Box" unit -- which is very expensive and big. Since we always have units at the helm (and we also had one down below at the Nav Station below) that wasn't an issue.

I really like both our NavNet and the Nobeltec Trident system. They've been very good with support.

I also believe you can use Navionics charts, and a number of other formats. Now I'm not sure what you have for Canadian and other non-US waters, so that may not be so simple.