WORKING WITH CHARTS

Today, only a few e-charting applications are developed to leverage the resources offered by chart manufacturers such as C-Map and Navionics. SOB is one of only three PC-based applications – along with BoatCruiser and MaxSea – that use C-Map cartography. (Of course, many chartplotters use C-Map cartridges.) C-Map charts have international coverage and embed additional information such as tide and current predictions, animated navigation aids, aerial photographs, and port and marina information.

In fact, SOB is currently only compatible with C-Map cartography, able to load the charts either from a C-Map CD-ROM or from C-Map cartridges. SOB is compatible with C-Map FP, NT, and MAX charts. It does not currently support C-Map MAX Pro charts. If you already own C-Map cartridges, such as those for your chartplotter, SOB can read them using a C-Map USB Multimedia Reader, which is required to un-encrypt the files.

Users of SOB should have no trouble loading and managing their C-Map charts. With a 28-page chapter in the User Manual, DigiBOAT provides more content and detail on C-Map charts than C-Map themselves. Within SOB, you can easily view a list of your C-Map assets to confirm all your files are properly installed and recognized (see photo).

DIGIBOATChecking to make sure all of your C-Map licensed chart files and cartridges are recognized is easy with About SOB>C-Map Chart Info.

Although C-Map cartography is among the best in the world, we're always surprised by the numerous inaccuracies within any of these chart catalogs, whether from C-Map, Garmin, Nobeltec or Navionics. To be fair, international chart and port coverage is a phenomenal amount of data to manage. But we often notice gross omissions or inaccuracies, such as phone numbers without area codes, inaccurate city names, humorously misplaced ports, marina icons placed well inland, entire regions with omitted nav aids and even aerial photographs with the wrong image matched to the location. As a warning, always be alert to possible inaccuracies when relying on a single source of chart information.

SOB does not support – and does not intend to support – raster charts, focusing on the "intelligence" that comes with the embedded information native to vector charts. In other words, common raster formats such as NOAA or Maptech BSBs, ARCS, and Seafarer charts are not supported. SOB also does not support user-scanned charts because the company considers the practice of scanning dated paper charts to be an unsafe navigation practice. Other proprietary formats such as MapSource (Garmin), BlueChart (Garmin), SoftChart and Navionics are also not supported. Although SOB does not currently support standard S-57 charts, such as those available free from NOAA, this project is reportedly in the works.

SOB's charts and features are largely a function of the cartography. Chart rendering is good but not exceptional. Charts easily pan and scroll, with much faster responsiveness when loaded from CD-ROM than from an external USB 1.0 Multimedia Reader. There were occasional display "artifacts." For example, moving objects results in a blurred after-image across the screen, like a fanned deck of playing cards.

Charts can be printed directly from a toolbar icon. However, we consistently experienced print artifacts in the form of solid black rectangles striping across the images.

The use of C-Map cartography does allow SOB to take advantage of the "intelligence" of vector charts and C-Map's additional assets. For example, depth areas can be custom shaded. C-Map also provides the capability to animate the color and rhythm of navigation lights. Additionally, to help you calibrate what you see in the real world with your PC display, only lights within the nominal range of your vessel show as illuminated. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify this C-Map functionality in SOB. The company says SOB supports animated lights but we were unable to get this feature functioning properly.

An Anti-Grounding function can check a defined area ahead of your boat for potential navigation hazards – at least, those that appear on the chart – every two seconds. A green look-ahead triangle displays if no obstructions are found on the chart, turning red if a potential hazard is located. You can customize the feature to match your draft and set the look-ahead distance and degree width. This feature was temporarily disabled by the company, but is scheduled to return in a future release.

To remove non-essential chart elements, such as text, tools and symbols, you can choose Declutter Mode. For example, your boat's label becomes transparent, route and range/bearing lines are simplified, and target names (but not their tracks) are hidden. For night viewing, charts can be set to gray, red or black. These settings not only alter the luminance of the chart, they adjust all other components such as borders, buttons, toolbars, and scroll bars.