MacSailing.net

I must have gone through the "buying cycle" with PassagePlus at least half a dozen times now. It usually goes a bit like this:

1. Attention grabbed by announcement / email etc..
2. Download trial software and demo charts
3. Play with system and am really impressed with speed and usability
4. Think "I'll buy this once I've got some charts.. now where can I get those ARCS Skipper charts?"
5. Go on to the UKHO web site and trawl through all the on-line vendors only to find that they don't sell the ARCS Skipper folios, just every other chart by the Admiralty!
6. Give up and go and have a cup of tea!

So may I so boldly make two suggestions?

1. Sell ARCS Skipper charts via the PassagePlus web site. You may even make a commission, and, for those people willing to re-purchase their chart folios in a new format, it makes buying the product so much easier.

2. Most importantly... please, please, please look at supporting another raster format - preferably Maptech's BSB. The charts may not be as pretty, but they usually sell for about a third the price of ARCS Skipper folios, have world-wide coverage, and are supported by virtually every other Mac / PC based navigation software out there.. so there's loads of users who would license the product to use with their existing cartography.

Just my two pennies worth.. and great news about AIS support, BTW.

Cheers,

ReeferJon

Can I suggest, just as a very satisfied customer, Seachest in Plymouth?

http://www.seachest.co.uk/

Ron

ReeferJon Wrote:So may I so boldly make two suggestions?

1. Sell ARCS Skipper charts via the PassagePlus web site. You may even make a commission, and, for those people willing to re-purchase their chart folios in a new format, it makes buying the product so much easier.

Many thanks for the comments and the bold suggestions! I'll respond to the two suggestions separately. First: sourcing ARCS Skipper charts:

I travel a lot. One of the great joys about being a programmer is that all I need is a computer and an internet connection. So if I'm going to be anywhere for more than a couple of weeks I can get some work done. Selling ARCS charts involves physical stock (the CDs) and all the trials and tribulations of postage and packing, making it unsuited to a peripatetic lifestyle. Plus a ton of extra admin dealing with orders, returns, credit card processing, VAT admin, etc. I simply don't have the time. So I'm afraid there's no chance at all that I will get involved in selling charts (unless they later become available in downloadable form).

I do agree with you that it's not as easy as it might be to find ARCS charts via the UKHO site. Although there are places where you can buy from an online shop (such as SailGB: http://www.sailgb.com/ ), I have actually found that it's sometimes preferable to use a bricks and mortar retailer and handle it by email. Ron has suggested Seachest. I myself have recently had good experience with B Cooke & Sons of Hull ( http://www.bcookeandson.co.uk/contact.htm ). If you're buying anything other than one of the pre-set folios, I find it pays to have email correspondence first so you can make sure you're going to get exactly what you want.

Kind regards
Jon

ReeferJon Wrote:So may I so boldly make two suggestions?

2. Most importantly... please, please, please look at supporting another raster format - preferably Maptech's BSB. The charts may not be as pretty, but they usually sell for about a third the price of ARCS Skipper folios, have world-wide coverage, and are supported by virtually every other Mac / PC based navigation software out there.. so there's loads of users who would license the product to use with their existing cartography.

I have thought about it several times, but so far have always decided against. Essentially the benefit to users seems to me to be fairly small, whereas the amount of work involved is certainly large. If it was something I could do in a couple of months, I would probably just do it despite the (apparently) small benefit, but unfortunately it's probably more like a year.

But maybe I have underestimated the benefit to users. I tend to think that people will choose either BSB or ARCS but few will have both. So the complexity of supporting both formats in a single app doesn't seem justified. Do you think I'm wrong? What other benefits do you see? I'm really interested to get input on this.

Kind regards
Jon

I suggest adding S-57/S-63 ENC support. This would make PassagePlus compatible with the Admiralty ECDIS Service..

http://www.ukho.gov.uk/amd/ECDISdisplaySystems.asp

Vector charts offer many significant advantages over traditional raster charts.

Fortunately in the United States, both BSB raster and S-57 ENC vector charts are available to freely download and work with MacENC.

I agree with ReeferJon about PassagePlus. I downloaded the demo version and am very impressed with the useability and features offered. It does everything I need and is hard to fault. Then I looked into buying the ARC Skipper charts - OUCH it is going to hurt to buy the folios of charts I will need to cover the area I want.

So I echo Please look into supporting another suppliers Raster charts, i.e. Maptech's products.

and what is that 12 month expiration of the serial number all about? That's going to be pretty annoying halfway across Biscay when it expires......

apart from that a great product.

Dave

Today both GPSNavX and MacENC work just fine with the affordable Maptech BSB raster charts. Compare the feature set..

http://www.gpsnavx.com/html/compare.html