Login at MacSailing.net

The latest version can be found on VersionTracker..

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/33856

In order to improve MacSailing.net, I'll be upgrading both the hosting and software for the site over the next week. Therefore the site may be down for a period of time.

ISP Upgrade
The servers hosting MacSailing.net are quite slow at times, so I'm transferring to another ISP with much faster hardware. During this transfer, the site will be down.

Migration to FusionBB
MacSailing has been running on phpBB version 2 since its launch. This software has done admirably (especially considering it's free) but there are a number of significant shortcomings around the new user signup and spam mitigation. Also, there are now much better BB packages out there.

Therefore, I'll be migrating MacSailing to FusionBB, a commercial BB platform that offers a much better UI, significant improvements in functionality and better adminstration functionality. Again, this migration will cause the site to be out of action for a period of time.

Please bear with us during these changes! Feel free to email me at reeferjon at mac dot com with comments or questions.
[/b]

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

Anyone interested in beta testing a Boat Log database developed for Bento™ is asked to pm me with their e-mail address.

Bento™ is required and can be downloaded as a trial version or purchased for $49 from www.filemaker.com

Aside from the cost of Bento™, Boat Log metadata is free to users of GPSNavX or MacENC.

Is this a good choice for us Mac navigators? What are the downsides?

Hi just thought I would advertise a website www.hcsoc.org for the north of Scotland cruisers. Its tenuous I know but it is written on a Mac with Freeway and I do use MacENC and eek... Chart Navigator Pro on Parallels and soto voce on a Toshiba. Ok that s it - love to all..

g

I'm pleased to announce the release of PassagePlus v1.5.0.

The main new feature is AIS support, an important safety feature enabling the tracking of ships, aids to navigation and other broadcasters of AIS data. This is particularly valuable for those who sail in busy waters.

There are also improvements to:
- the archived tracks feature,
- the artificial time feature,
- the handling of serial ports,
- the number of supported GPS devices.

And, of course. various bug fixes.

As ever, it can be downloaded via http://www.windvector.com/passageplus/downloads.html or using the Check for Updates function in PassagePlus.

Good sailing in 2008
Jon

It isn't clear to me whether you have to download DeLorme's version of the NOAA charts for this unit or whether you can use the publically available ones. Anyone know?

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCC...site=10020

Has anyone been following these announcements from Garmin?

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

I've just downloaded all these bits of software to test drive against my GPSMap76Csx and would be interested to hear if anyone else has driven them yet.

A user complained to me about the new maps in Mr. Tides 3. He didn't like the low resolution of the satellite images. Not that I blame him, they're the best I could find that are free, but it still raised a good question. How should Mr. Tides display maps? I don't have ENC-type charts, and the only free ones are in the U.S. which leaves most of the world blank (not good).

I have some options, as reflected in the poll. Please tell me what you think the maps should be, and I'll figure out from that what to do. I'm already working on interfacing with Google Maps but that's only when you're on the Internet, and I don't know about you but MY boat doesn't have internet access while underway

Thanks!

August