by Christine Kling
Sample of Navionics chart and route with iNavX
Garmin BlueChart app with route and Active Captain data. Both charts show boat location slightly NE of southern waypoint
This is another question I am often asked, especially since Garmin released their new iPad app BlueChart Mobile (app is free and in-app purchase of charts ranges from $29.99 for US Coast to $44.99 for US and Caribbean). Previously, in my travels, I have always used iNavX ($49.99 for app alone and another $49.99 for US and Northern Bahamas) and I’ve been wondering if Garmin’s new offering was going to sway me from my go-to app.
It didn’t happen.
Let me give you some background first. See, the thing is in some respects I’m old-fashioned – even as techie as I am. I mean, I still carry a sextant on my boat. And my main mode of electronic navigation is via my laptop. When did it happen that everyone had to have a chart plotter at their helm or they weren’t real sailors? Frankly, I can’t afford one and I suspect I’m not the only sailor out there who can’t.
So all of these navigational apps boot up with a warning that they are not to be used as real navigational programs. And most of the bloggers say that they would never, ever use an iPad as other than a planning tool.
So here’s my thing. My laptop is down below on my little chart table and my iPad is right there at the helm. The iPad started out just being a planning device, but after a while, I realized that I, singlehander that I am, didn’t have to keep dashing below to look at the laptop. So over time, I have come to rely more and more on the iPad as my primary electronic navigational device – and of course, I have paper charts spread out on the cockpit seats as well.
So, for me, like lots of cash-strapped small boat sailors the question is which navigational app works best as a real chart plotter.
Both Garmin and iNavX can create waypoints and routes and all that is great for planning what you are going to do. They can both import and overlay tide and weather information. Garmin has some outstanding charts for certain parts of the world, but when I was in Thailand and the Philippines recently, they didn’t cover that area. iNavX allows one to buy charts from different vendors and covers more of the world. I was able to buy charts for my SE Asia trip from them. The list of charts available for iNavX is vast – especially when compared to Garmin. However, Garmin uses the Explorer chart data for the Bahamas which is considered to be the best there is, and overall the Garmin cost for app and charts is cheaper than iNavX. In addition, Garmin has partnered with Active Captain and users can choose to import that data while iNavX does not permit this.
iNavX app with GOTO activated and instruments ribbon showing across top of page.
But as far as I can see, there is only one app that lets me perform a GOTO or NAVIGATE TO function and that is iNavX. I like being able to look at my instrument readings and be able to see the BTW (bearing to waypoint), DTW (distance to waypoint), ETA (estimated time of arrival), and TTG (time to go) without having to calculate these on my own. At present, the Garmin BlueChart Mobile app doesn’t do this and while some in the tech industry have called this a “silly complaint,” I think having the ability to navigate to a waypoint is at the heart of what I want a navigation program to do. I readily admit that other peoples’ needs might differ.
I dream of the day when I will be able to get some of the other information I have swirling around my boat integrated into my laptop and iPad navigation. With a Raymarine radar and a Standard Horizon Matrix AIS radio on board my boat, only iNavX gives me hope of possibly getting my NMEA network onto wifi and getting some of my info onto my iPad. If I wanted to get such a system working with the Garmin BlueChart app, I would have to re-outfit my entire system with Garmin’s newest equipment. I sure don’t have the dollars for that. For those interested in trying to put together such a Garmin system, there’s a good long 10-page discussion about the Garmin app on the Tugnuts site here, and another on BoaterEd here.
In the past, I have always used Navimatics Charts and Tides app (each region charts and app for $19.99) for the Active Captain data and I have liked keeping my navigational charts free of all that stuff that I normally associate with a cruising guide. And I must admit, I am happy I own all these apps and I am able to switch between them and get the best information that each of them is able to offer. There is no chart plotter on the market that will let you check out the cartography of several different vendors. Today, our cruising guides (aka Active Captain, the Wikipedia of the Sea) are displayed on a chart, and I prefer that to be one or several different charting apps than the one I am using to navigate. Now I will have a choice to use either Garmin BlueChart or Charts and Tides, but for me, the best marine navigation app remains iNavX.
Fair winds!
Christine
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Good info! Thanks…
One thing needs pointing out:
iNavX: Version 3.6.3 (it’s been out about 3-4 years)
Garmin BlueChart Mobile: Version 1.0 (it’s been out about 3-4 months)
Give Garmin a little bit of a chance to mature their product. It’s by far the best in many ways – the charts are better, the display is much more readable and professional, the consistency is extreme, and the integration to Garmin equipment is quite nice. Oh yeah, it’s half the price of iNavX too and even less expensive if you need any type of international charts or even vector charts for the US.
Jeff,
I recognize that this is a first version, but my point is that until it does mature (if it does), I can’t recommend it as a first choice for navigation – not without the ability to navigate to a waypoint.
And I don’t agree with you that the display is more readable. I really don’t like that fat black band at the bottom of the Garmin page with the three big icons in the middle. It eats up too much valuable screen space without offering information. The Garmin waypoints show up as huge buttons and the boat icon that like a toy powerboat. When you go to add a waypoint, you get this big wheel with a bunch of odd, non-intuitive icons. I find the appearance of the Garmin system is childlike in general.
And it’s not a bargain at half the price if it only has half the features.
As to the charts, I like the idea that I can have more than one source for cartography in iNavX, and I don’t agree that any one brand of charts is better than another in all areas. Each has areas where they excel and other areas where they don’t do as well. I have both the Navionics and the NV charts of the Bahamas in iNavX.
And I don’t like the fact that BlueChart makes it more difficult to download all the charts you’ll need in advance. I can’t find a list of the charts anywhere. Garmin doesn’t start downloading a chart until the user navigates to it. If there is another way to download charts, I have’t been able to find it.
You are welcome to your opinion that Garmin is better, and I hope you will respect my preference for iNavX.
CK
One more question: Do you have OS 6 in your iPad, and if so, has it changed anything as far as chart display?
Tnx!
Gene
Hi Gene,
Yes, I’m one of those crazy early adopters who HAS to upgrade to the new OS the day it comes out. I haven’t noticed a single hiccup with OS 6 either in the nav software, chart display or any other apps on the iPad. Everything works great and just the same as it did before. I have a third generation iPad, but it is the first version of that one, not the one for sale in the stores today. I bought it in April 2012.
CK
You can pre-download the charts on Garmin – it’s in the Settings/BlueChart Maps area. The Bahamas charts are the Explorer charts and I could show you countless examples of how they excel in comparison to Navionics and NV charts.
And speaking of “half the features,” I don’t remember seeing iNavX or Navionics having ActiveCaptain integration. I’d sort of know if it did.
I think the Navionics apps are pretty good. I’ve used them for the last 3-4 years. Every time I pick up iNavX it makes me want to chuck the iPad overboard. I think it has the worst user interface that exists in any chart display product. Setting its price at double most everything else is criminal. And if you want better charts in iNavX, you’d be looking at $49 + $49 versus $29 for Garmin.
These are just my opinions. I hope you find the charts good enough in your Bahamas travels. Just be careful and don’t rely on them…
Jeffrey,
Thanks for showing me how to download the Garmin charts. It didn’t occur to me that once I’d bought them I’d have to go back to the Garmin Store to download them. And I agree with you that the Explorer charts for the Bahamas are the best charts available, so in that region, Garmin has the better electronic charts. I already have the paper Explorer Charts, and I always keep paper charts out in addition to electronic charts when I’m navigating. I never rely on just one source.
However, that does not convince me that the Garmin charts are better in all regions. That I will have to see. At the moment, I’m not impressed by their Florida charts as you can see in the screen shots I’ve taken above. The soundings are identical to Navionics, but I don’t like my charts mucked up with all the locations of the artificial reefs offshore. I’ll use a dive guide for that.
Sometimes when charts or apps try to do everything, they don’t do the one most important thing very well. That’s how I feel about the addition of this dive data or Active Captain data into my charts. It makes them too busy. I prefer to have two separate apps – one for serious navigation and one for my cruising guide on a chart, which is what I see Active Captain as. That is what I will use Garmin Blue Charts for now, and it is what Garmin says in their description of the “Garmin Bluechart Mobile Marine and Trip Planning Application.” I bought the entire American region. I love it and study it the night before a trip, but I don’t want all that data on the chart while I’m trying to navigate.
As to choice of user interface, that is just a personal decision, I guess. You hate iNavX and I love it. We’ll never agree on that. I find iNavX clean, easy to use, intuitive and full of information from the swinging compass at the top of the page to the ribbon with my instruments. It’s very simple to set up routes and waypoints and to save them for future uses, and it allows me to navigate to waypoints.
With Garmin, I set up a waypoint at Memory Rock and I named it. Then I tried to create a route to that waypoint. I couldn’t. The only way to create a route is to tap on the “map” to create a new waypoint. I worry about a marine navigation program that refers to charts as “maps.” So, I started over and created a new route by tapping waypoints at both ends. But there was still this brown dot I had created as the first point of a route. In my mind it was a waypoint, but I couldn’t select it. Every time I tried to tap it to select it, I created a new waypoint. So I looked for a menu to delete waypoints. I found that under the button at the bottom of the page for My Content, but that waypoint was listed under routes instead of waypoints because it had been created as the first point of a route. So now I recognize that this program has two ways of thinking of waypoints – as single points that can’t be connected to anything else and as parts of a route. That is an interface that is easier for a programmer perhaps, but it’s not good for navigation.
I happily paid the $49 for the iNavX app plus I’ve bought nearly $150 worth of charts for use in the US, Caribbean and Western Pacific and Indian Ocean because I get a real navigation program that is designed for mariners. I was also able to import the NV charts that were included on a CD with the Bahamas Chart Kit I bought. Vendors create software and offer it to the public at a price that covers their cost and it’s our choice to buy it or not. Garmin is a huge corporation and iNavX is developed by a single small developer. It’s like comparing Walmart prices to those in a designer boutique. I’m happy to pay him more to keep him in business because I love the app and I want it to stick around.
CK