T&T: Big Bay and Coastal Explorer Charts

[Bob Austin]

A quick look at their web site--and my opinion is that you are paying a
premium for a mediocre computer.  The only plus I see is that some of the
models of both laptop and small tower (box) have a seriel port--and AIS is
pretty much seriel input--but there are good seriel to USB connectors
available inexpensively.

The soft ware is essentailly available free on the internet, but if you want
hard copy, you can get it via map tech for $50.  This includes all of the
coastal US and inland COE rivers.

My personal opinion is that I use computers for planning, but when on the boat
use dedicated chart plotters for navigation.  I have tried both ways, and find
that the chart plotters are brighter (real daylight bright)--and night modes
(which actually change colors to reds and purples, to keep night
vision,instead of just dimming display).  The chart plotters are far faster
and far more versitile.  If you are getting a boat next year, wait until
everyone is at NMEA 2000.  It has lots of advantages--and Lowrance plus
Raymarine are there now.  I believe that Lowrance is the only one who has both
NMEA 0183 (two outputs, one input) and NMEA 2000.  The chart plotter world is
changing almost weekly.  AIS is going to be a big thing and integrated in most
of the plotters shortly--Weather is also (and is now in some --Garmin and
RayMarine).

As for computers, any good computer with lots of RAM and a good  hard drive
will work well--you can get bright screens which are very versitile.
Computers are also going into a huge change, with the release of VISTA, and
dual core processors are becomming far more the norm.  I used off the shelf
computers and they last at least 4 years in far more severe conditions than
the average trawler encounters...

Sort of wait and made the decision when the boat arrives...

Bob Austin