Explorer comes in a boxed set that includes an installation CD, a Quick Reference Card, a Getting Started Guide and more than 1,000 NOAA raster charts on DVD. Optional MapMedia discs, such as regional bathymetric charts, are also available. Any add-on modules are marked on the box and included with the software.
Licenses are transferred using a software key, obtained by registering over the Internet, or via a hardware key commonly called a dongle. However, Furuno recommends the flexibility and safety of a hardware key. A dongle allows the software to be installed on any number of computers for back-up or planning purposes and allows for re-start without contacting Furuno in the event of a catastrophic computer crash.
At first, MaxSea's installation is a bit intimidating. This is an extensive program, involving a lot of documentation in a mix of French, English and "Frenglish." Surprisingly, it was easy to learn, thanks in part to detailed documentation in a variety of formats. MaxSea includes an 84-page Getting Started Guide, a 34-page Installation Manual and a 530-page Operator's Manual (installed in the My Documents folder). Fifteen tutorials are loaded into My Documents>My MaxSea Tutorials and are also available to view directly on the web (see link). The robust HTML Help is accessible through the program from the Help Menu or by pressing F1. It's better than a typical help menu, with a table of contents, index, search, glossary and even a way to save favorites for tasks that are complex or seldom used.
The good news about the reams and gigabytes of documentation is that the diversity of formats accommodates different learning styles. You can get started simply by reading the Installation Manual and viewing the Tutorials. Or, if you are a meticulous document-reader, you can go through all the written material at home over a winter. We recommend beginning with the excellent tutorial movies, then reading the Getting Started Guide then filling in any detailed questions using the Help Menu, Operator Manual or Installation Manual.
Chart installation was straightforward. Explorer automatically recognized our C-Map charts on discs and C-Map cartridges read from a USB Multimedia Reader. It also recognized our NOAA BSB and Maptech BSB charts. The first installation of Maptech's 63 BSB charts from Region 8 "Florida West Coast and the Keys" was a bit slow. According to Furuno, Explorer verifies the entire chart catalog upon the initial load. Once raster charts are loaded they open promptly.
FURUNOThe program's roots lie in traditional navigation. Three Dry Tortugas lights – bearing 350°M, 65°M, and 120°M – confirm your dead reckoning or electronic position.
Although there is no Wizard, the GPS installation was also easy. Very clear instructions guide you through the process screen-by-screen. The only possible confusion arises when a USB GPS device is in use, requiring you to download the device's USB-to-serial driver from the manufacturer. Furthermore, since your device is no longer reading as a USB device, choose the button marked "Serial Port (COM)" rather than "USB."
LOOK AND FEEL
MaxSea's interface centers on a Tool Palette and a Chart Palette. The icons of the MaxSea's Tool Palette were designed to emulate the tools mariners use with paper charts. Though it is a computer-based tool, MaxSea emphasizes traditional navigation tools and concepts. Recall that MaxSea is the most popular navigation program in Europe – a part of the world that often requires recreational boaters be licensed and demonstrate a basic knowledge of navigation. MaxSea assumes users are familiar with basic navigation and are inclined to think in terms of traditional navigational reasoning. For example, it is very easy in MaxSea to quickly use traditional triangulation to confirm your electronic or dead reckoning position (see photo).
The Tool Palette consists of a collection of icons which change the functionality of the cursor and allow you to perform various actions. For example, the pencil tool creates marks, the finger tool highlights for more information and the delete tool removes objects. The Tool Palette can be customized to include only the tools you typically use.
One of the toolbar icons looks like a yellow Pacman. This is the delete tool. The Pacman icon is appropriate: it is ruthlessly efficient, deleting in a single click without warning or confirmation. This tool is especially dangerous since MaxSea has no "undo" option. We found ourselves accidently deleting objects until we learned to be more cautious.
The downside of a Tool Palette is the amount of mousing associated with each function. For example, one must enable the pencil tool to create a waypoint, then return to enable the "move position" tool to move it. But there are some shortcuts and workarounds. Instead of enabling the finger tool to request object information, you can also simply hover the cursor over the object to display the information link.
To really cut down on your clicking, important windows such as the Waypoint Center or Route Center can be saved with a tab at the bottom of the screen. This optional tabbed interface is similar to Microsoft Excel and provides much faster access to windows you need to open repeatedly.
The Chart Palette, across the top of the screen, works a bit differently than the Tool Palette. This row of "buttons" is for tasks such as changing the orientation of the chart (north up, head up, or course up), displaying different chart or object layers, or switching to a 2D or 3D display. Unlike a tool, which stays enabled to perform multiple cursor-based actions, a button initiates a single action. Like the Tool Palette, the Chart Palette can be customized; you can add or omit buttons, display a button's name, or display large icons for easier viewing underway.
MaxSea also uses traditional menus along the top of the screen, adding 54 keyboard shortcuts for the power user. Data boxes are shown as windows along the right edge of the display. The Cursor Data window shows information such as the latitude and longitude of the cursor position, its distance and bearing from your vessel, and the depth at that point. The Nav Data window shows the latitude and longitude of your vessel position, speed, course and heading. Both windows can be customized for the data, level of transparency and font size.
MaxSea's interface is highly customizable visually and operationally. Features such as line width, shading, icons, objects and color can all be user-defined. More importantly, the menu Utilities>Option provides options for accessing and customizing specific windows, such as GPS/Track, Fuel Consumption or Radar.
WORKING WITH CHARTS
MaxSea reads charts in several formats, including both raster and vector. It is one of the few navigation applications that reads British Admiralty Raster Charts (ARCS). In raster format, MaxSea can display NOAA BSBs, Maptech BSBs, Canadian Hydrographic Office charts such as NDI/DigitalOcean and ARCS. It can also read SoftCharts and MapMedia's new charts (MaxSea's cartography company is providing raster charts for Europe, Africa and Pacific territories).
However, MaxSea does not support S-57 vector charts, which includes free NOAA ENCs and Army Corps IENCs for U.S. coastal and inland waters. These charts were supported in version 12.0 but were dropped in version 12.5 "for internal reasons," relating to strategic decisions with MapMedia, MaxSea's cartography division. MapMedia sells digitized charts and maps in raster format and is moving toward vector (see link).
In vector format, MaxSea can display C-Map NT+ and C-Map Max charts. Although MaxSea can read C-Map charts from CD-ROM or cartridge, Furuno recommends CD-ROM. Reading chart data from an external device, such as C-Map's USB 1.0 Multimedia Reader, is too slow for the program. We can attest to this.
