New chartplotter charts

[Gavin Y]

Hi All,

Just after a bit of advice please. I'm installing a Garmin GPS MAP 723xsv and need to add the compatible charts. I'm leaning towards the Garmin Navionics+. My choice now rests between the UK & Ireland Lakes and Rivers - Inland Marine Charts or the UK South Coast Marine Charts. Both would cover my more immediate use by the looks of their coverage, noting that I live on the South Coast, but have ambition to do some trailer sailing around the wider UK in the next few years. Would appreciate any advice from someone who has faced a similar choice in the recent past. Thanks.

[Graham W]

Gavin,

You don't mention which flavour of Swallow you have but I'm guessing from the size of your Garmin 723xsv, combined with your intention to go trailer-sailing that you've upgraded to a BC23 rather than a BC26.  If so, then you probably don't intend to stray outside of coastal waters very often.

Did the Garmin not come with charts already installed, as in the good old days?  My elderly 557xs included UK & Ireland BlueChart G3 charts.   Or have they and their subsidiary Navionics found another way to gouge their chartplotter customers?  Rhetorical questions!  And here's another one - am I alone in finding the Garmin website, with its multiplicity of plotter and transducer models, utterly confusing?

Back to the matter in hand, the choice between UK & Ireland Lakes and Rivers - Inland Marine Charts and the UK South Coast version looks like a no-brainer.  The latter's coverage appears to be a substantially chopped down version of the former, plus the Scillies and a bit of northern France, with no difference in price.  You then need to make a choice between Navionics+ and the more expensive Vision+ version.  The extra cost gives you garish relief shading (see below), better satellite imagery of land-based features, 3D imagery and some aerial photos.  The price of both versions includes a one year's subscription to updates through the ActiveCaptain app, after which you have to renew if you want to continue to update.  More oligopolistic gouging.  For the initial purchase, go for the download version rather than the SD card.  If you lose or damage the card, you're stuffed.

My 557xs is not compatible with these new charts and is getting a bit long in the tooth, so I am facing some decisions.  I'll be posting on this in a month or two but the clue as to what comes next is in this thread https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,2005.0.html.

[Gavin Y]

Thanks Graham. You are correct, it it is for a BC23. I plumped for the UK + Ireland option in the end.

[Timothy W]

Graham, I look forward to your post on this. I sail a 2015 BR20 in the USA and am researching how to best add a GPS and depth finder unit.

[MarkDarley]

Gavin Y,
Did you find that your Garmin GPS MAP 723xsv was compatible with the Navionics + series, or did you have to go with the BlueChart G3 charts?
I dont think my GPSMAP 722XS will work with the Navionics+

[Graham W]

I dont think my GPSMAP 722XS will work with the Navionics+

Which is crazy as they're both owned by the same company and Navionics+ works with plenty of other brands.

[Gavin Y]

@mark darley. I hope so because research indicated that it was all going to be compatible. Will find out for sure later this month when I take delivery of the BC23.

[MarkDarley]

Gavin, let me know what you discover when you have celebrated delivery of your boat. 
By the way, allow plenty time in Wales if you want do do sea trials at the yard.  We had 3 days and still did not get the chance to launch her up there for a sail before taking her home, despite planning with Spring tides. a couple of things came up that would have been easier to solve at the yard....