The first chart plotter, 1985 & Italian

C-Map owns this ‘historic’ machine, which is supposedly the first chart plotter (bigger here) ever sold in the U.S. That was around 1985, when Navionics founders Giuseppe Carnevali and Fosco Bianchetti developed the first crude vector charts and this Datamarine-labeled plotter to show them. (Bianchetti soon went off to found C-Map). Wasn’t it about 5 years later that the first PC charting program came out? At any rate, we’ve come a hell of long ways in 20 years, and Carnevali and Bianchetti—who still run their companies—deserve some of the credit.

Now, would anyone care to predict what marine electronics will look like in another 20 years? 10? 5? With that, I wish you all a wonderful new year.



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.

4 Responses

  1. tom says:

    I have a datamarine chart link in good working order and like sell it.1 631 205 9560

  2. Giampietro Giudice says:

    Hi, I’m writing from Italy
    I inherited this machine without instructions on connecting the antenna and without antenna. Do you have some information about it?

  3. Alexander DeFilippi says:

    how much are one of these worth

  4. Anonymous says:

    Tom please call Fusion at 866-870-8015

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