[RBJ]

I've emailed Navionics your questions, and as soon as I hear back from them, I'll post the response.

Any news yet? I emailed Chartworld asking whether I could buy their charts, put them on a Compact Flash card, and use them in my Raymarine Series C. They have not replied.

Seems as though this is not a Mac only problem. There is an interesting thread on YBW where a chap wants to use his "Navionics Gold" charts on a PC for planning purposes.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?C...ost1390027

From the the replies here and on the thread above it seems that the Navionics Navionics charts and the Chartworld Navionics charts use the same source data but are supplied in different formats.

It has been said that Navionics Gold "isn't stored in encrypted S57 format" but nowhere can I find what format it is stored in.

Moving along, I bought a card reader, plugged it into my MacBook and inserted my "Navionics Gold" card. I can read the contents. There is a dire warning on the "Navionics Gold" box telling you not to do this. I put the card back in the plotter and it worked just fine. So my plotter can read and use the card and my Mac can read the card.

Then I opened my demo copy of MacENC.



It can see the charts but does not recognise them and won't let me add the chart folder.

Therefore any problems must be caused by the supplier of the data interfering with the data to limit the way/s in which the data is used with no consideration at all for the paying customer who wants to use what he bought on more than one device.

Navionics have sold me "Navionics Gold" charts which my plotter can read and use but my Mac with MacENC can see but not use. PC's running Raymarine planning software can use "Navionics Gold" charts for planning so it is possible.

However, if I buy Chartworld Navionics Charts, my Mac with MacEnc can read and use the charts. I presume I can copy these charts onto a Compact Flash card but I don't know whether my Raymarine Series C plotter would be able to read them.

This is completely ridiculous and strikes me as being similar to the I-Tunes/I-Pod/OtherMP3 players situation which the European Commission announced this morning was illegal under competition legislation.

I don't care which way I go Navionics Gold to Mac or Chartworld Navionics to Raymarine C Series plotter but I want to use the data I have bought and paid for on both devices.