While I haven't tested the latest beta (V1.1.43) on the water, I have
worked Coastal Explorer over pretty hard in the past couple of days.
Although there are some items that I think need a little more "sanding
and paint", in the main this is an excellent program. First, it accepts
the usual chart formats (and many older ones, too) as well as the free
NOAA ENC's (Electronic Navigation Chart) in vector format. Given that
there are weekly chart changes in some areas, the ability to download a
chart set (280M - not for slow telephone lines) covering almost all US
waters and major rivers means a significant savings in maintaining
current charts on board.
 
The program does the obvious task of handling steering and routes very
well. Waypoints and routes follow a model also seen in VNS: waypoints
can be used in multiple routes instead of having to define the same
waypoints over and over, as happens with Capn. It's also possible to
upload route and waypoint info to GPS receivers (but currently not vice
versa). Although not present in the release version, 1.0, current and
tide data is present on the screen in the beta version and will be in
the next release.
 
The betas do show some rough spots (notably the graphic WX browser has a
few issues) and I think comm port management is still in need of some
tuning (Rose Point agrees), but nothing I've seen keeps me from using
Coastal Explorer as I planned.
 
Compared to Capn and VNS, response from Rose Point has been superb,
often with under 24 hour turnaround and, on one or two occasions, I've
had followup phone calls. Better still, the contacts actually know what
they're talking about.
 
The current price for Coastal Explorer is $299 and it will go to $399
with the next release. I strongly recommend buying in now, using the
betas (no nasty surprises found over the course of a three day
mini-cruise of about 100 miles), and getting the finished V1.1 gratis
when it's released. Coastal Explorer can be seen at:
http://www.rosepointnav.com/default.htm
 
Rick Emerson
S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35
 
Disclaimer: I have no connection with Rose Point Navigation Systems save
as a customer and informal beta tester.


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Received on Fri Jul 01 06:38:26 2005