At the beginning of this year I wrote the greatest good I thought of the Digital Almanac, the digitized version of Reed’s Nautical Almanac. The Figaro group, Publisher of the website www.figaronautisme.fr, owner of Météo-Consult / The Weather Channel and Logbook – Marine Block, Published since the end 2014 "Stopover Guides", the digitized version of the Marine Block on the iBook Store. Read more …
Author : Francis
From 2009 independent IT trainer and consultant for boating. Translator of several navigation apps on iOS and MacOS. Professional in boating for over 30 years old, I provide training for applications and consulting and assistance for the integration of mobile devices (tablets, smartphones) on board pleasure boats.
Roseanor, 2000 nautical miles against the grain around Europe
Conveying a boat from Corsica to Normandy in May, it's a bit like going around the world upside down from East to West, but more modest. Two thousands nautical miles on the water against winds and tides, four and a half weeks at sea, with thirteen days forced stopover awaiting for good weather conditions, three hundreds and fifty hours of engine to support the sails, 1000 litres of diesel oil, multiple Corsican, Spanish and Portuguese wines bibs, to calm our nerves, A few packs of water to quench thirst, and hundreds of hours of testing the new features in development of… Weather4D Routage & Navigation !
Navionics Boating 9.0 update on what's new
Updated on 17 May, Navionics Boating presents some modifications, in presentation and functionalities.
First of all only subsist Navionics Boating for iPhone and "Boating HD" » for iPad. The old names have disappeared, happily because confusion was great. Version purchased with built-in charting has the name of the region, for example "Europe HD" for iPad. On the other hand, there is a free version called "Seas and Lakes" which allows to test then buy a chart of the area of choice, and additional options. Read more …
2016 Year of GALILEO
Since my first post on GALILEO end 2011 (¹), space Europe has made significant progress. Despite economic uncertainties and numerous budgetary restrictions, Course and schedule have been maintained thanks to a community political flawless. This is to be welcomed because many other areas of European action didn't have the scoop.
The year 2016 has already been dubbed "the year of GALILEO".. This was the clear message of the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit (²) early March. The Munich summit covered all GNSS systems, but the focus this year was squarely on Galileo. Read more …
Weather4D 2.0.11 A bunch of new features and improvements
Delivered in AppStore this morning after two weeks of revisions and contre-revisions of Apple services, Always more picky, The new version is finally available. On the menu and in bulk : AIS via internet with AISHub, direct access to Geogarage and cache memory chart management, new model of GRIB weather forecast from Meteo-France AROME HD for inshore races, Full-screen mode, advanced distance calculations, the most visible. Under the hood also a lot of optimization for routing and power consumption. Detailed review to follow… Read more …
The Miniplex-3Wi-N2K is finally available
We had been waiting for it for almost two years, hoped more, we despaired… but here it is in my hands. Alleluia ! Multiplexer Wi-Fi NMEA0183, gateway NMEA2000 and translator SeaTalk1 is available in France (¹).
The same size and light as its little brother, Miniplex-2Wi (²), its plug terminal is significantly neater : No need for screwdrivers, Connectors have spring clamps. The signage is also much more legible in color, and 4 LED lights allow at a glance to check the operation : strings scrolling NMEA2000 and/or NMEA0183, connection to a Wi-Fi device, and overflow if applicable.
But the apparent simplicity is misleading and the thing hides a real potential.
C-Map back to Europe
Yachtmen my friends, do you know Altor ? Of course not, don't look for, me either until this morning. Altor is an investor from northern Europe who presents himself as follows :
"Altor is a family of Private Equity Funds focused on investing in and developing and medium sized companies with’a Nordic origin. We want to create Sustainable values and make a real difference as a a valuable partner For Owners and managers in buiding to world class companies. We work with a Nordic team with extensive international experience in fields such as private equity, consulting, investment banking and various industrial sectors."
But why talk about it ? Read more …
Garmin and gadgets for geeks
In 2013 the world leader in leisure GPS has designed the Quatix®, a GPS watch waterproof allowing boaters to display on their wrist all data of their navigation devices, Garmin of course, equipped with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth owner hot-spot. This nice thing, provided with a 3-axis compass, a barometer and an altimeter, was particularly innovative. I do not know if it is all the rage among users of the brand devices, but the fact is that the concept was precursor - it was a time before the arrival of the Apple Watch - and that walk on his wrist in all location of the boat data from the instruments, with a neat graphic display and vibration alerts, can be reassuring. And more, the Quatix® gives the time !
Always stronger, Garmin is back in the range of connected objects by announcing the display Nautix™ In-view Display, comes featured a pair of glasses to display data on the edge of the glass. Not yet augmented reality, but we are getting closer.
Navily makes stopovers easier in just a few taps
In recent years, French startups have flourished in the world of recreational boating. Their common denominator is to use digital technology to implement an idea which intends to provide a unique service to boaters.. How many will survive ? Hard to say, but they all have the merit of dusting off dad's boating by addressing the younger generation of water sports enthusiasts.. Community sharing of information, co-location, « bla-bla-boat », so many responses to new attitudes in the practice of pleasure boating.
Among them, one particularly appealed to me, Deviated.
Buy nautical charts on Geogarage
Weather4D Routage & Navigation offers a choice of raster charts from many international hydrographic services . Charts folders are available for application on the French web server Geogarage. Charts are subject to an annual subscription by Publisher directly on Geogarage website after creating an account there. After subscribing to a publisher, the entry in Weather4D 2.0 credentials created in Geogarage activate display of subscribed folder , ready to download. Procedure step-by-step :