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lloyds

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C Dory Year
1996
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
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undecided
I recently purchased a boat mainly for fishing and it came with a hummingbird 798cI with sidescan. While at the coast and playing with the chartplotter I found the included chart has absolutely no detail, no bottom points, contours, nothing. I find if you want any real chart information you have to buy a navionics chip with your area. Anyone familiar with this? It seems like I have too choices, either buy the chip or purchase a used, small garmin, which I am very familiar with and have had really good luck with. Any opinions?
 
Lloyds,

I really like the Navionics chip. Better graphics IMHO. I used it side by side on a Lowrance chartplotter next to a Garmin and preferred the Navionics.

Peter
 
I've had Garmin and other plotters. IMO the Navionics charts are better.
 
Have you ever tried Coastal Explorer on a laptop, or notebook?

I use it on both boats as a laptop doesn't require any type
of permanent mounting, just a 12Volt outlet.
 
Thanks for all the input. Looks like I will give navionics a try.
 
Definitely get the Navionics chip. Hummingbird has the most experience in down and side scan. So for fishing this should work well. There may be faster redraw, and perhaps better resolution plotters than yours, but it should work well. Also you can get the Navionics App for a tablet, or use the web version of Navionics:

App here. (This may put the map on the Gulf Coast, just zoom and pan. You can experiment with the chart and routes etc.

Be sure and check on the compatibility with your chart plotter and the various Navionics chips. Sometimes you may need to get an older chip, which works for your plotter. There are several versions of Navionics also. (as well as costs)!
 
Checked out the app. Does a good job. Thanks.
 
Coastal explorer apparently does not work on Apple products such as iPad.
Would be great if it did. Googled it. It is for products using windows unless I did not read it right
 
Coastal Explorer does make the following statement:
Bootcamp is also the only method for running Windows on a Mac that we support. Because there are so many unknowns and levels of obfuscation when running Windows in a virtualized environment, we cannot provide support for it. So, if you wish to run Coastal Explorer in Parallels, VM Ware, or other virtualized environments, you are on your own should problems arise.
Click to expand...
 
Coastal Explorer on a PC is really great and the NOAA and USACE charts are free, but you really need a good daylight viewable monitor mounted at the helm and those are pricey. I bought a cheap used PC laptop just so I could run CE. Bootcamp on a Mac would work, but why? This is a Windows product, use a Windows laptop and avoid keyboard mapping issues and so forth. I tried an inexpensive USB monitor, and it was less than satisfactory. Then I found Duet Display, a $15 app that turns an iPad into a pretty good external monitor. The iPad is bright enough to be daylight viewable. This worked great with the iPad on a RAM mount, and had the added benefit that I could switch back and forth between AC on the laptop and iPad nav apps. So, there is no fish finder or depth sounder, but as a navigation tool, this beats the pants off dedicated chartplotters.
 
Of course, the OP says his boat is mainly for fishing, so I imagine a great nav program or app and charts are secondary to the fish finder!
 
I bought the Navionics chip for my new Lowrance unit. Now I send them my sonar plots and a couple weeks later my upgrades, and those from other users, are available for me to download to my chip!

That way, the latest depth information is there for the area you fish or travel.
 
Purchased a chip today for the western states. Will probably play with it later in the week. Gonna go freeze my butt off sailing on the Columbia for a couple days.
 
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