You can't understand The Capn software–the first computer navigation program and long an industry standard–without understanding the story behind it. As with all "Captains," there is a story, and like many salty tales this one sets sail on the coast of Maine.

It begins with Dennis Mills, a boater and former journalist who wanted to create a computer program to help mariners calculate and display lines of position from celestial sights. This was nearly 20 years ago, when most people didn't own a personal computer. The project literally began as a computerized version of The American Practical Navigator, so he called it CAPN, short for Computerized American Practical Navigator.

At the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was beginning to experiment with electronic versions of their paper charts. As we mentioned in previous stories, NOAA was looking for a private company partner to release the charts for sale to boaters. After considering 37 bids, the winner was a company in Bangor, named BSB Electronic Charts, who produced spiral-bound collections of paper charts called ChartKits. (If you think this sounds a lot like Maptech, you're correct; BSB Electronic Charts was eventually acquired by Maptech.)

With charts now available in electronic format, Mills added a revolutionary feature to his CAPN program. He included the ability to plot a vessel's position directly on an electronic chart display. His company, Nautical Technologies, was one of the first companies to take advantage of NOAA's electronic charts. And The Capn became the first commercially available Windows-based charting and navigation program.

Today, more than 15 years later, The Capn is an aging player in a field full of modern products. But there are still about 8,000 registered Capn users, and the program is used by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Marines, as well as pilots, tug operators, merchant vessels and commercial workboats.

It also was very popular among "pirates." The Capn was created early in the PC revolution–long before today's technology of registration, licenses, keys and dongles. Retired Coast Guard boaters introduced recreational boaters to The Capn, which was then the only show in town. Lacking anti-piracy features, recreational boaters freely copied and passed around the software and its cartography. During the 1990s many cruising vessels in the Caribbean carried a pirated copy of The Capn, courtesy of another cruising buddy boat.

Although this piracy was economically fatal to Nautical Technologies, it created a huge base of Capn users and generated incredible market momentum that continues to this day. Capn users love this application. When Maptech merely hinted at killing The Capn, the public outcry was vehement–including threats to never again purchase any Maptech products. Maptech, aware of the bootlegging problem, granted an "amnesty program" of sorts. Capn users–even without a serial number or replacement CD–could call Maptech and order the upgrade, in effect receiving the complete Capn software and data portfolio set for $149.