lap top
 

There is a lot of software available for lap top computers that can be used for navigation and fishing. Has anyone have any experience with this?:smash:

I use the maptech stuff
offshore navigator

great great software
get the contour charts too if you're really interested.

Blue charts, pretty detailed, kind of neat to sit at home the night before and plot your course and load up to your GPS for your course.

:D Hopefully next fall or so I'll have some REALLY intersting options and commentary for you on onboard computer navigation :D :D :D :humpty:

From your yard to Hooters:D ;) ;)

You're just mad that I put fish in your boat yesterday and you didn't :laughs:

From your yard to Hooters:laughs: clammer you kill me!

Charts
 

The Blue charts by Garmin are good. If you pick up an I-Que you can download them and have a nice little Handheld Color Chartplotter.

Thanks
 

Thank you for your input.

John how is the boat comming along for this up comming season??
Get all the water and toys out of it yet? :laughs:

Navigation software
 

Quick
I have been useing Nobeltec Tides and Currents with visual planner. It is awsome! You can get a free download sample at either www.nobeltec.com or www.tides.com

Macojoe you are killing me ROTFLMAO:laughs: :hihi: :laugha: :laugha: :scream: :rotf3: :rotf2: :rotfl:

LOL!! Thats a pic someone sent to me as a joke, so I thought I would do the same to someone else.
JohnR just fit the bill today.
Sorry John, Not :laughs: :laughs: :laughs:

Does anyone actually use a laptop on the boat? I've been trying to figure out how to do it, for a reasonable price, for years now. Big problem seems to be the screen. The screen on the laptop can't even be read in bright shade and the remote screens that have enough contrast cost $$$$.

Best to use them inside a cabin. I've got a friend that uses one on board his Commercial fishing boat with Maptech's program and a basic handheld GPS feeding the navigational data. Works real nice!

If you have a "big boat" with an enclosed cabin...a built in computer or laptop computer is the way to go hands down. I know of several guys that use nobletec and LOVE it. Maptec is also very good and priced cheaper. Nobeltec has some added features like automatic routing...(click where you want to got and it plots the best course..) both units support autopiolts as well so it can steer the course.
As far as the "screen" ...what you pay for are "NITS" a brightness rating. Laptops are hard to see in open sunlight. Some cabins though block out direct light so it is very visable. A T-Top helps but it is not perfect. They make super bright marine screens but they run about 3K for a 15" monitor.

My friend has a 57' west bay and has several 19" regular monitors in the pilot house and a 15" superbright monitor on the bridge. He runs nobletec (but has a sseprate screen for radar) (nobeltech supports radar overlay)

For the small boatman and open boat...IMO compuers will be here as well. You can do it but if you want to buy something off the self today it is costly. I have been playing around with putting together a solid state computer (more or less) using a pen drive as a primary boot disk. These are now avaialbe up to 2 GB via USB2.0 and bootable so you can install and run an simple OS. What this means is that you should be able to put together a simple computer with few or no moving parts. Software is install and runs off of the pen drive. I have not worked on it the last few months but I have obtained some parts recently...a waterproof keyboard and trackball. It is a matter of putting the pieces together and working out the details...maybe later this winter. I think I can get it to work with a normal flat screen monitor pretty cheap.
To be honest, I have lost some interest in this as my current system seems to meet my needs. BUT if I were a boat manufacturer I would be building computers (that could be upgraded)into the boat...the possible software options are endless and very flexible. But todate, little software has been written...here is a place one can make some $ IMO.

Inside the cabin don't work for me, since I have to be in the (very open) wheelhouse to run the boat. I do have a garmin 2010C as well as a CRT depth/fish finder that the brighness doesn't bother, but the last time I had my laptop onboard I could see anything on the screen. I guess, at least for me, it'll be another ten years before I can really get a computer onboard.

If screen brightness is a problem, you need a monitor with a lot of NITS...these cost about 3K and up. They are weatherprof and have good direct sun readability. I bet you can see them at the boat show and check some out...there was a guy there last year who had a few...

I bet you start seeing cost effective boxes for open boats in 3-4 years

Mike:
I run a similar boat to yours with my fishing partner (Blackwatch 30) and we have a a 1 gig Argonaut marine laptop computer on board mounted in a bracket to the left of the helm and have no problems seeing or using it at all, even in sunlight.
The Argonaut laptop we use is water resistant & has a special "hardened' hard-drive thats designed not to crash from the impact of waves, etc. Its linked to a Trimble dual differential GPS. It runs "Nobeltec Visual Suite" software which is outstanding.
If you ever want to come over to see it this summer at Point Judith just give me a holler & I'll be happy to show it to you.
Heres a link to the Argonaut site: the computers they have now are improved models from what we have obviously; Ours is almost 2 years old now. http://www.argonautcomputer.com/laptops.htm
Maury on the RAVEN

Maury,
Thnaks, maybe I'll tkae you up on that offer, once the weather gets warmer. :rolleyes:

I have delivered several boats (usually sail) to Florida, Bahamas, and elsewhere up and down the coast, and have used different types of software.
It is all pretty good, but, I find that alot of people depend to much on them. I always bring (2) GPS's and use paper charts that are logged every hour. remember, fuses burn, batteries die, water sometimes comes in everywhere!! At least with the paper charts, I know where I was an hour ago. Always double check yourself.
I think the best advantage was the ability to get realtime weather maps.
Pete