EDITOR'S NOTE: This story, the 17th installment of Hard Facts on Software, marks the final review in the series. But it's not over yet. The authors are taking several weeks to prepare a conclusion that will summarize what they have learned and make recommendations. For more on the conclusion, read our Room13 Blog.

More than 20 years ago, a group of engineers in France realized they could bring a computer onto a boat if they could re-engineer the system to run on 12 volts. They began with hacksaws, soldering irons and a Macintosh computer.

So the name MaxSea was born – originally "MacSea," named after this first onboard Macintosh. In fact, one of the company's founders and its current CEO, Brice Pryszo, used this Mac as navigator during the Quebec Saint-Malo Transatlantic Race in 1984. With an official software release in 1985, MaxSea is technically the oldest e-charting software company and application.

MaxSea is now an established player in electronic charting, forming a technical alliance in 2004 with Furuno to combine software and hardware strengths. MaxSea is currently the leading navigational software in Europe – available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, French, Icelandic, and German – with more than 40 percent market share in the fishing industry and 30 percent in the yachting industry. Since 1986, every winner of the Volvo Around The World/Whitbread, BOC and Vendee Globe Races has used MaxSea software. Over 25,000 copies have been sold worldwide.

MaxSea is a modular application, meaning it consists of a base software package with optional add-on modules for specialized features. Understanding these modules is important because they govern which features are included and which can be added. The basic software comes in five options: Planner (free), Navigator+ ($500), Commander ($1,000), Explorer ($3,000) and Professional ($5,000).

MaxSea Planner is simply planning software, available free on DVD from Furuno dealers. It does not connect to a GPS, but you can create and transfer routes to your Furuno chartplotter using an SD memory card. It is a "MaxSea Lite" sample, a planning tool or trial before upgrading to a full version of MaxSea.

Navigator+ is MaxSea's base package developed for the U.S. market, and it includes a full set of NOAA raster charts. Although it does not include any add-on modules, the application connects to a GPS and autopilot and can download and overlay weather data. Performance Sailing, Weather Routing and ARPA modules can be added.

Commander adds features such as events recording, data layer editing and the option of additional modules, such as 2D and 3D images or advanced AIS display. Explorer is a new package, designed to bundle the best features of Commander with the 2D/3D Modules and the Windows Desktop Management Software. Professional is the same software as Commander, but with nearly all modules included. It also integrates a fleet tracking system that works via e-mail, designed for shipping, fishing or charter companies.

Furuno also offers NavNet-Commander and NavNet-Explorer, which are the same as the basic Commander and Explorer packages but allow direct connectivity and interaction with Furuno NavNet systems.

Clearly, MaxSea has no shortage of e-charting options at an assortment of price points. There are entry-level packages that compare in price and functionality to Nobeltec VNS or Maptech's Chart Navigator Pro. There are also options that cost thousands of dollars with all the modules, and are designed for the professional.

Which package you choose depends on which modules you need or may want in the future. Not all software choices are compatible with every module. The best way to explore the choices is with MaxSea's software comparison website (see link). Click on the title of each package, then click on accessories for details on which modules are supported.

Indeed, navigating the modules alone can be daunting. For example, MaxSea provides two modules for integration with ARPA devices. The ARPA Module ($250) allows the display of ARPA and AIS targets, but does not include the ARPA Center or AIS Messaging. The Mobile Target Tracking Module ($250) – MaxSea's most popular – displays targets, includes Target Centers and AIS Messaging and allows target tracks to be saved.

The 2D/3D Module ($250), included in Explorer and Professional and available as an add-on in Commander, allows the display of 2D and 3D data. With the Personal Bathymetric Generator (PBG), you can continuously update your 3D charts with data from your sounder. A Ground Discrimination Module ($250) combines with third-party hardware to record bottom hardness and bottom type, which is a popular feature among fisherman.

The Sailing Performance Module ($250) adds tools such as upwind and downwind lay lines displayed on the chart, which are continuously corrected for changes in true wind direction and current. MaxSea's Weather Routing Module ($250) uses a boat's theoretical performance data, tide and current information, and GRIB weather files to calculate an optimal sailing route.

The NavNet Module ($500) upgrades MaxSea Commander, Explorer or Professional to the NavNet version, allowing for direct data exchange with a Furuno NavNet system. The MaxShell Windows Desktop Manager Software ($250), included with Explorer and Professional upon request, is a module that replaces the Windows interface. It is designed for use on professionally crewed vessels, separating MaxSea from the PC's other functions, while giving direct access to MaxSea utilities.

SETTING UP

Here we evaluate Explorer (version 12.6.3), MaxSea's full-featured recreational package, with the addition of the Sailing Performance and Weather Routing Modules.

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.

FURUNOMaxSea has a stunning display. Here a split window shows off excellent screen rendering of a satellite photo (left) and NOAA raster chart (right).

With the 2D/3D Module, MaxSea can also display contour and bathymetric charts, which are purchased separately from MaxSea.

Like all upper-end navigation applications, MaxSea displays charts seamlessly and with split windows. Charts are panned with a "hand" grabber and zoomed with the mouse scroll wheel. Panning has a bit of a different look: new charts beyond the "seam" are not dragged along, but are left as black, only appearing when the panning click is released. This behavior is disconcerting at first, because it suggests a missing chart region. But the idea makes sense: rather than dragging along all those pixels the display waits until you have stopped panning, then displays a fully-rendered chart.

Most notably, MaxSea has stunning image quality. The display is incredibly vivid and sharp, with excellent line quality for raster, vector and satellite images (see photo). While most charts typically use 256 colors, charts produced by MaxSea's cartographic company MapMedia use 16-bit color (that's 65,536 colors). MaxMedia claims to be the only company to produce 16-bit color charts.

Although MaxSea originated as a Mac program, it is now firmly in the Windows camp. In fact, MaxSea's display architecture uses the same Windows technology that drives a Microsoft Xbox for interactive gaming. The technology is DirectX, a graphics acceleration add-in to the Windows operating system that is used by game and CAD programs. In the MaxSea setting, DirectX lets you quickly render high-quality 3D graphics that can be rotated in perspective. Note that since MaxSea relies on an integral Windows technology, it does not run on an Intel Mac that is being used to emulate a PC using software such as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.

FURUNOCrossing Lake Okeechobee, a Go To Waypoint can be set to monitor cross track error (XTE). MaxSea adds many nice touches, such as red (port) and green (starboard) dotted lines to visually indicate user-chosen XTE boundaries (in this case 0.10 NM).

Waypoints, routes, and marks are easy to create in MaxSea. The Insert Waypoint tool creates a waypoint on the chart location, which can be dragged and dropped to adjust its position. Unfortunately, mark names are limited to an eight-character field. You can circumvent this restriction by choosing Text instead of Point to set a mark, then choosing an icon to associate with the text. When the mark is entered on the chart it will have a long text field for a more complete name.

Charts can be annotated with a palette full of options, including marks, lines, areas, circles, text, color and/or shading patterns. All objects can be saved on a layer or multiple layers to be displayed or hidden, letting you customize and organize your charts with fishing areas, danger zones or anchorage notes.

The Go To tool quickly creates one-stop routes, a commonly-used navigation trick to monitor one's cross track error (XTE). Selecting the Go To tool and clicking on a point on the chart drops a waypoint, creates and activates that route, and opens a Steering Data window with information such as your estimated arrival time. It automatically transmits that information to your autopilot, if it is connected. Any active route also displays cross track error boundaries with dotted lines (red for port and green for starboard). You can customize this from the default setting of 0.2 NM (see photo).

Longer routes with multiple waypoints are also easy to create. Drawing and clicking across a chart image creates a temporary route with QuickWaypoints. These points are linked to the route and won't be saved in the waypoint database unless instructed.

MaxSea's routes include many nice features and details. For example, routes can show distance and bearing (if turned on in Route>Catalog). You can calculate departure or arrive times or estimate fuel use. Routes can be activated at any leg along the route by selecting the Go To tool and clicking on a route leg. An active route can be quickly cancelled by double-clicking on the Go To tool.

Routes are also very flexible in MaxSea. For example, you can customize routes to exclude certain areas when planning a route, automatically avoiding areas such as exclusion or danger zones. You can be running an active route while displaying a planning route, allowing you to plan and create a route for future use while actively navigating a previously-created route.

Waypoints and routes are managed through the Waypoint Center and Route Center, windows that appear across the bottom of the chart, or as tabs for easier access. The Waypoint Center includes detailed information such as waypoint names, comments and creation dates. You can customize these data columns. The Route Center is similar, summarizing information about each route. The Routing Center (different from the Route Center) shows the information for the active route, such as leg number, course, speed and direction.

These windows are linked to the actual chart image, letting you bring up charts from waypoints or routes. By highlighting a waypoint in the Waypoint Center and clicking on the Center icon, a chart opens with that waypoint in the center of the display. Any waypoint you touch on the chart is highlighted in the Waypoint Center; and selecting a waypoint in the Waypoint Center highlights that mark on the chart.

All waypoints, marks, objects and tracks are created on layers. Every object you create – points, lines, text or anything else – is assigned to a layer. Each layer can be displayed and edited separately, or they can be combined. The concept is much like creating a drawing using layers of stacked tracing paper. But you must plan your layer construction so you can hide or display each layer intelligently. Obviously you don't want everything on one layer, nor do you want every single object on its own layer. If you think about how to layer your personal navigation information you can create data-rich charts without cluttering your display.

Fortunately, it's easy to change an object's layer. For example, a waypoint can be assigned to another layer simply by pulling down the new layer's name in the Waypoint Center. The buttons in the Chart Palette let you toggle between displayed layers. Once you have created your information in layers, you can turn on and off individual layers to only show those within your chosen groupings.

MaxSea also records tracks, customized to record either all your instrument data or only your position by points at a specified time or distance. Tracks can be saved to a file, deleted, or copied onto a CD or USB drive. If your display becomes cluttered with too many tracks or layers, they can be made inactive, which temporarily removes them from the menu of pull-down choices. These files can even be encrypted, accessible only with a password – a useful feature for fisherman who hide their hot spots or philanderers hiding something else.

Because it supports GPX technology, MaxSea's ability to import and export is excellent. GPX constrains the format of the data, guaranteeing a direct and accurate transfer. Comma- or tab-delimited data transfers typically require some massaging. For example, should the "N'" in the latitude be placed before or after the numerals? Should the format have a degree symbol, or should there be a space? Becauuse these files do not dictate the specific format – only that each field is separated by a comma or a tab – we've often noticed errors in data transfer. By contrast, we instantly and accurately transferred more than 2,000 waypoints from a Mac running MacENC (which also supports GPX) to a PC running MaxSea.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Although MaxSea supplements its features with add-on modules, many important features – such as tides, currents, and weather – are integrated into all packages. This extends from Navigator+ at the lower end all the way up to Professional at the high end.

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.

Capt. Mark Doyle and Capt. Diana Doyle are authors of the Managing the Waterway cruising guide series, and their work has appeared in numerous publications. They also produce CDs and DVDs of NOAA and USACE charts.