FURUNOMaxSea's Weather Routing uses a weather forecast, tidal current and theoretical speed of the sailboat to calculate an optimal route. Step 1 (above) is to choose a polar file to use and/or modify. Step 2 (below) inputs a start time, then graph, calculation, and routing parameters such as isochron intervals, sailing efficiency expectations, current data, maximum wind tolerance and route preferences.

FURUNO

Tide and current predictions are displayed with a single click. The data can be shown as a chart overlay or as complete tide or current tables for a chosen station. Weather data is also integrated, using a utility called MaxSea Chopper. This free service requests a GRIB weather file by email from the MaxSea server. You can choose different sources of weather data, weather from many regions of the world, the type of data (such as wind, pressure, waves and sea surface temperature), and the forecast period. An area of weather data can be specified by simply dragging a rectangle over the weather download map. The data can be sent as a single email, or as part of an excellent free subscription option that delivers a new weather file based on your saved parameters each day.

Weather is displayed as an overlay on the chart, with a pull-down menu to select the particular data values shown. For fastest access to your weather layers, you can drag the button off the Chart Palette to create a tiny weather toolbar, letting you single-click to display or hide weather information as you need it. The display can even be animated and saved to a file as a movie for future reference.

Some of MaxSea's additional features require the purchase of modules. For example, displaying contour and bathymetric data requires the 2D/3D Module and additional bathymetric charts. We loaded MaxSea's East Coast 04 Cape Charles to Cape May disc, which covers Hatteras Canyon to just north of Hudson Canyon. We've already mentioned the stunning displays of this data, where perspectives of the sea bottom rotate instantly, showing your vessel on a transparent sea surface. However, these extras are specifically geared to fishermen. They not only cost extra, but the single region we loaded was 1.2 gigabytes, included 50 files of 3D data and took nearly 90 minutes to load. These are not extras to add unless you need them.

If you are a deep-sea fisherman (or treasure hunter), you can go a step further with the Personal Bathymetric Generator (PBG). The PBG updates the bottom contour in real time using your echo sounder or fish finder. Your collected data is stored in a PBG database separate from the database provided on disc – the two databases seamlessly blend for the actual display.

For sailors, MaxSea provides a Sailing Performance Module to visually display and calculate the relationships between true wind angles, true wind speeds and boat speed. Performance efficiency is shown graphically and numerically, letting you evaluate your speed relative to your boat's theoretical potential.

The Weather Routing Module is a significant enhancement to the Sailing Performance Module, calculating optimal routes based on weather, sailboat characteristics and currents. This is an impressive algorithm. You begin by choosing a polar file that corresponds to your vessel (see photo) – or you can set your own custom specifications. Then the route is initialized by setting start times and position (see photo). You can limit your route to sailing conditions below a particular wind speed, or choose "less than 100 knots" to let the algorithm calculate the most efficient direct route. You can pre-set the algorithm to avoid certain areas, such as night sailing through regions reported with pods of right whales. The algorithm then computes the most efficient and safest route between points based on the isochrones, which are lines representing potential positions given equal time. This route is saved and can be invoked as an active route.

FURUNOA detailed plot is then calculated showing original (straight-line) route and a route optimized for meteorological factors, currents, boat characteristics, and navigation preferences.

ASSESSMENT

At first glance, MaxSea Explorer may appear to have the same features as many other full-featured packages: waypoints, routes, annotated charts, tide and current prediction, weather and so on. If so, then what's the difference? What is there to justify a $1,000-plus price tag?

The distinction is not simply the presence of particular features, but that Explorer includes all of them – and each with excellent implementation. MaxSea's marine software does well on the details of each of these features, such as automatically showing cross track error on all routes, integrating waypoint management and layers or providing GPX data transfer.

We evaluated Explorer, which is definitely one of MaxSea's more expensive packages. But it is a mistake to think of MaxSea software as expensive products that are only for professional navigators or racers.

To do so would be to discount MaxSea's lower-priced option, Navigator+. You get the same framework as Explorer or Commander – including the same interface and basic features – but without the specialized modules. If you're looking in the $500 range, Navigator+ is worthy of comparison to Maptech's Chart Navigator Pro or Nobeltec VNS. You may never grow into the full package, but we bet you'll add the Sailing Performance Module or the Weather Routing Module to next year's holiday wish list.