EDITOR'S NOTE: The End Of The Series

Whenever we attend a boat show, or give an electronic charting presentation, somebody always asks the inevitable question: which navigation packages do we recommend?

After all, we reviewed 15 major pieces of software in the last year, interviewed dozens of boaters and software developers, and then wrote roughly 80,000 words on the topic. We must have drawn some larger conclusions, right?

Well, the answer is yes – and we're happy to share them. Over the next four days, we'll walk you through the lessons we learned and how you can apply them to the question dogging most boaters who want to get started in electronic charting: what should I buy?

We will discuss topics such as the out-of-box experience, the user interface and feature set for different packages, and offer a detailed Feature Comparison Table (see link). Together, we believe these will provide a framework you can use to navigate a confusing marketplace. And on Sunday, we'll cut to the chase and offer you some outright recommendations in several price ranges.

LESSONS LEARNED

When we started to work on this series back in August, we naively thought we would conclude by recommending the perfect e-charting package for each type of boater. The goal seemed simple: recommend "Brand X" for weekend sailors, "Brand Y" for coastal cruisers and "Brand Z" for long-distance voyagers.

But as authors, we learned quite a bit on this project – including the realization that boaters, their boats and the software market all blend to make simplistic recommendations impractical, and perhaps even downright irresponsible. Instead, our final task is not only to summarize the packages and make some recommendations, but to discuss various boating e-needs as well.

TIKITIKI Navigator is a newcomer in a competitive software market, with dozens of programs.

Every boater values different features in different ways. For some, cost is the controlling factor in a purchasing decision. For others, ease-of-use may be more important. Many also have what could be called "e-charting baggage," meaning you already have hardware aboard your boat, a collection of cartography or some other issue that will influence your decision.

The goal here is to help you pinpoint your needs. Do you value waypoint management, buddy boat tracking or a fuel calculator? Can you live without an engine room video monitor, sea temperature display or Great Circle route planning? Once you decide what matters to you, the menu of options will start to narrow and the right package – the one that adds capabilities to your boat and increases the safety margin, without breaking the bank – will become apparent.

THE E-CHARTING MARKET

Unfortunately, the industry doesn't make it easy for a boater to decide which e-charting package to purchase. It's a crowded and confusing marketplace.

We reviewed 15 packages for this series: CARIS Easy View, SeaClear II, MacENC, NavimaQ, Fugawi Marine ENC, Raytech RNS, Coastal Explorer, Nobeltec VNS, Maptech Chart Navigator Pro, DigiBOAT Software-On-Board, TIKI Navigator Pro, NavSim BoatCruiser, The Capn, Nobeltec Admiral and MaxSea Explorer.

And still, there are other contenders hoping to gain traction in the U.S. market, such as Deckman, Expedition, Global Navigation, GPSy, Henry Navigation System, MacGPS Pro, NavGator, OziExplorer, Seatrack, and Tridentnav.

Among the packages we reviewed, the choices range from one-person shops distributing their software for free (SeaClear II) to Boeing subsidiaries (Nobeltec VNS and Admiral). Unlike buying a car, where everyone understands the choices and brands, the e-charting market has not yet presented the consumer with a well-established map of options.

But a crowded marketplace can also be good news for boaters – who benefit as many companies chase each other's capabilities. This "keep up with the Jones" product cycle has created an assortment of packages with incredibly advanced features. Weather downloads, AIS support, annotated charts with linked image files and transit calculators are fast becoming standard features.

Today, you don't need to go with one of the "big guys" for a professional or full-featured product. Even SeaClear II, the free option, includes support for GPS, autopilot, AIS, wind, depth, water temperature and radar! In fact, in many cases, small companies such as DigiBOAT, TIKI Navigator, GPSNavX and NavSim have more high-level features and are on a more rapid development cycle than larger companies.

This crowded and competitive marketplace is also good for pricing. Consider how much Nobeltec VNS (currently at $490) would cost if Fugawi Marine ENC (at $279.95) wasn't also in the market. Besides a bona fide free option (SeaClear II), there are PC e-charting packages ranging in price from less than $100 (Software-On-Board) to several thousand dollars (Admiral and MaxSea). Boaters with Macintosh computers also now have several feasible options, such as NavimaQ, GPSNavX or MacENC.

However, marine software has not quite caught up with the general software industry in terms of pricing, packaging, and user experience. Like everything else on your boat, expect a marine surcharge. Unlike general consumer software, which often costs $29.95 or $49.95, commercial e-charting packages start at $53 and quickly run into the hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars. So before you start comparing prices, realize that a $200 e-charting package is relatively inexpensive.

Conspiracy theories aside, the additional charge is not because you're a boater with a surplus of disposable income. Rather, you are a victim of low-volume sales. E-charting vendors simply cannot cover their costs without charging more because marine software does not attract hundreds of thousands of users.

Marine software is also immature in other areas, such as packaging, documentation, automated updating and stability. For example, though many low-cost packages take advantage of fast and efficient delivery via download, many e-charting packages still must be purchased as boxed sets of physical media – and that often means the charts they include are out of date.

Other standard software services, such as integrated help files or automatic updates, also tend to be lacking. Only two of the applications we reviewed, Fugawi Marine ENC and MaxSea, have video tutorials, which are now a standard demo and educational tool in the general computing market.

Perhaps most telling of a software industry still in its infancy is this: almost half the applications we tested regularly crashed or locked up.

MAKING A DECISION

To make a decision among all these choices, your best resource is the company's demoware. These free downloads, available from a company's website, give you something unique: the opportunity to try out the product before you buy. Many limit functionality, such as restricting the number of waypoints or routes, or expire after a set period of time. But they all afford a hands-on preview.

Nearly all the packages we tested, with the exception of Nobeltec VNS and Admiral, provide some sort of trial. (Although Maptech does not provide a trial version of Chart Navigator Pro, the trial for Coastal Explorer is comparable because the base software is the same).