MaxSea Marine navigation software is the next thing that appears in Google searches. I have some practical experience with this nautical program, which I would like to share with you.
About five years ago, I had an adventurous voyage on a Jeanneau Prestige 36 pleasure craft from Riga on the Baltic Sea to Lowestoft, UK, on the East Coast. It was a very instructive, exciting, and sometimes a little risky enterprise. I have never before sailed on this kind of boat and had less than three days for preparation. Technically, the boat was in good order with small engine hours, and two independent 620 KW Volvo Penta engines gave me confidence.
I am more concerned about the reliability of navigation. The boat was equipped with a Raymarine E-class GPS navigation system. We made a purchase of three C-MAP NT+ electronic cartridges to cover a sailing area with updated navigational charts and which cost about €450. By me, that was very expensive. I did not have to worry about expenses.
All money headaches were the very wealthy boat owner’s business. Guys want to meet friends in England to accompany them for hunting. Why not? For me, it was an exclusive opportunity to prove my skills, for which I even got compensation.
From my previous experience of navigation in unknown and even in familiar sea areas, backup entirely independent navigation tools are a must-have on board. For that, I used Windows 7 running on an Acer laptop with MaxSea marine navigation software. Even more, I had an iPhone 3 charged with the Navionics app.
However, this time not on the topic, but just want to say that I had to use the iPhone as a real GPS navigation for boats tool after the Raymarine and laptop were out of order. And even more, I had to execute navigation in dark Stralsund’s narrow approaches, just gazing at the tiny smartphone screen to avoid grounding or violating the prohibited navigation area.
My old good Acer laptop was down not because of the computer itself, but because of the AC/DC converter failure. Prestige 36 pleasure yacht was not equipped with 110-220 V output sockets, so I was forced to use a lighter 12V socket. The laptop is charging by 19V, so the solution was a use of converter 12V to 220V in my case.
Regarding all I have written above, and how it fits in my marine navigation software theme? I just want to say that I have some experience with using marine software for a laptop, and at that time, it was MaxSea.
How good or not so good, how convenient in practice on the rolling boat board it was?
Software for navigation is OK, but it needed some time to get used to it. Need to find a place to fix a laptop in a way that does not break the screen, and at the same time be handy to use a keyboard and mouse. I did not do it properly because Raymarine was gone at sea, in rough seas, so the backup laptop came to full operation mode quite unexpectedly. But it is not an excuse to me. I had to anticipate it some days ago on shore.
Returning to the MaxSea navigation program. I may be something not quite understand it correctly, but as you can understand, now MaxSea and Nobeltec use the same software- TimeZero, about which I read my previous post. What is the difference between the two nautical software programs? I do not know.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
As I am writing this post, an idea for a future post is emerging. Why not share the story of my adventures and some practical information about my real sea voyage of more than 2000 nautical miles on a boat with fuel autonomy of about 120 n.m. I hope it could be helpful or exciting for adventure lovers.
Safe Sailing, fellow boaters!
Hello, Andrejs,
I finf your article about GPS Navigation Systems very interesting inside a well built website.
I am amazed with the complexity of the MaxSea  Marine navigation software.
While I’m not, by far, your average sailor (lol), the very first image atracted me to read the rest of the post.
Computer aided sailing must be very exciteg.
Maybe I’ll join an adventure of the kind someday,
I think sharing your adventures with us is a great idea.
Cheers!
Thank you, and I am glad for your interest in marine software and other GPS navigation related themes.
Today technical side of boating and sailing is more accessible to everyone. But it is not the same sitting and sail on PC simulators in home office or be on boat in high seas, sway in the waves and to suffer from seasickness.
But you are right, this is an unbelievable adventure to feel salty sea water and roaring winds and then calm down….satisfaction guaranteed!
A site on various GPS systems and devices. The site looks the business and very professional. It goes into great detail about product information and goes through smartphone, marine, car navigation plus a whole lot more. A lot of hard work has gone into this site and i hope one day i can have my site looking as good as this. Well Done
Thanks Roy for kind words!
You know, I have so many ideas, but a hardest is create helpful content. Not, just rewrite someone’s article but, at least, inject in any post my experience. Unfortunately, experience is not endless, but I try.