Free Navionics Charts on the Web

[Gerry Zagorski]

It's been a while since I have been on it http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp but it's improved a lot. The "Government Maps" are free and have some pretty good detail and the site is pretty easy to use. If you create an account you can also share all your information between your desktop, phone and tablet.

Great for planning a trip or route while away from the boat, getting GPS coordinates for the more popular spots and you can upgrade to more detailed maps if you want.

The free Navionics app in the apple store is great as well and is really slick on the iPad.

The google store has it for Andriod tablets and phones too.

Definately worth a look and a great free tool.

[joerosa1]

Is it worth upgrading to the Navionics maps does it provide greater detail over the goverment maps?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Not sure about that since I did not purchase the upgrade. Maybe some others can chime in who have.

[makosnax]

I purchased the ten dollar version years ago and my old man showed me his free version over the weekend and the maps looked pretty much the same. I didnt get involved enough to compare options but he rattled off a bunch off a bunch of features and it appears to be the same program. Its a great back up in case you run into a problem and as Gerry stated, i mostly use it to explore from my couch and gather numbers for interesting spots. Highly recommend it.

[captainsteve25]

I use it as a back up to my boats chart plotter. I love it as I programmed by boats specs so it also calculates fuel burn for me, saves tracks and charts performance via graphs. Also, have it in my home and work ipad and have them all synced so while working or sitting at the house I can either plot a course, add a waypoint that I get a tip on from the site or do some exploring on the waters in the area. Really neat thing is that it has great zoom capability and actually lists all the major known spots everyone talks about. As a newer boater to the area it helps when someone says bug light or timers shoal to quickly pull the app and see where that is. Obviously it's a back up, and my phone and ipad don't talk to my inboard system but I use it all day while I'm out. Keep in mind it burns battery so have a handy phone charger with you. And at the end of the trip, I click save in the track, get home and over analyze every move I made, look at my fuel burn vs speed and plan for the next trip. I have also loaded many locations under weather and tide to get a good idea of tide, current and wind before I leave the house. Wouldn't boat without it.

[mrfritz44]

Also check out MX Mariner for Android....free charts and it works great as a backup.

[Gerry Zagorski]

I use it as a back up to my boats chart plotter. I love it as I programmed by boats specs so it also calculates fuel burn for me, saves tracks and charts performance via graphs. Also, have it in my home and work ipad and have them all synced so while working or sitting at the house I can either plot a course, add a waypoint that I get a tip on from the site or do some exploring on the waters in the area. Really neat thing is that it has great zoom capability and actually lists all the major known spots everyone talks about. As a newer boater to the area it helps when someone says bug light or timers shoal to quickly pull the app and see where that is. Obviously it's a back up, and my phone and ipad don't talk to my inboard system but I use it all day while I'm out. Keep in mind it burns battery so have a handy phone charger with you. And at the end of the trip, I click save in the track, get home and over analyze every move I made, look at my fuel burn vs speed and plan for the next trip. I have also loaded many locations under weather and tide to get a good idea of tide, current and wind before I leave the house. Wouldn't boat without it.

So Capt Steve - I saw that it calculated fuel burn and was not sure how it did this. I am assuming you need know your cruising fuel burn rates in either gallons per hour or mile and plug that number in your profile? Once it knows that it tracks how long or far you've run and calculates it based on that?

[captainsteve25]

Gerry, that would be correct. Go to the settings page and plug in your engine profile. Remember to double it if you run twins like me. Now, I'm not saying its perfect but it does give you directionally correct info.