Maptech + Rose Point = Chart Navigtor Pro!

CNP box imageWhoa, things are happening even faster than enthusiastic yours truly thought possible. For $500, Maptech’s new Chart Navigator Pro (CNP) give’s you 13 (13!) DVDs containing NOAA’s entire portfolio of U.S. RNCs and ENCs, plus all of Maptech’s accessory cartography—photo maps, harbor panoramas, topos, bathy maps, pilot books, and information databases. But the real surprise inside is that Maptech ditched its aging, non-quilting, non-vector charting software in favor of Coastal Explorer. The name has changed, but CNP is CE 1.1 with nothing taken out and Maptech’s decent 3D contour engine added. CNP gets introduced today at the Fort Lauderdal Boat Show and will supposedly be in stores next month.

PS, 11/7: Thanks to Greg’s comment for a head’s up that Maptech has launched a new site, freeboatingcharts.com, where you can download all the U.S. RNCs you want. I don’t quite understand why Maptech is doing this before NOAA has a system in place, but it works fine. First you select the charts you want, then the site packages them up in a self executing zip file and notifies you when it’s ready for download. It only took maybe a half hour for me to receive the 15 charts that cover my area in all scales.



Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

7 Responses

  1. GPSNavX says:

    When will NOAA be releasing the RNC’s to the public? Looking forward to pointing GPSNavX and MacENC customers to more free charts.

  2. Douglas says:

    Wow that’s 61 GB of compressed chart data!! NOAA ENC’s entire chart set uncompressed require 830 MB.
    Here is the link for the NOAA Raster charts alas they do not appear to be free yet..
    http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/ocs/rnc/raster1.htm

  3. Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

    Douglas, I think your calculations are correct; now, how many cubic feet of paper do all those charts, maps, and photos represent? I saw the DVDs today and they are done right — each has all the data for a particular region.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Try a YAHOO search of “+maptech” “+free charts” and you will find a site with free US nautical charts ready to download.

  5. bp says:

    Are their any freeware programs that can view these charts?
    It’d be even better if they could be converted for use in my Garmin gps. 🙂

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