Introduction to SeaClear, the FREE Windows chartplotter

Stop Press: One year onwards...We like SeaClear so much, we've made electronic charts for it...£29.50 for 800+ UK charts, legal, licensed and up to date. All on one disc for you to buy, keep and navigate on...yes these are licensed "FOR NAVIGATION" Find out more, click here.

Now something a little bit special for those who like playing with computers and also going sailing. I discovered this program yesterday and have been having great fun with it ever since.

The SeaClear chart plotter is a fully featured navigation program that will enable you to use your laptop as a fully functional navigation system. The most interesting thing about it is that you can scan and use your own paper charts within it. Many of us feel unhappy about navigating without the paper charts on board, and this system allows you to use your paper charts as the basis of the electronic navigation system.

Therefore the first advantage of this is that it is inexpensive. The program is free and you can download it here and now. The second advantage is that you will be using charts that you are already familiar with... your own paper charts. Thirdly should there be any problems you will always have your paper charts to hand.

Many of you won't have the time or the inclination to play around with something like this, and for you there are any number of chandlers who will be willing to sell you expensive and inflexible systems, which are basically plug and play. This article is not for you people.

From from my (so far limited) experimentations with SeaClear, it looks to be as fully featured as many of the systems you would pay a lot of money for. It accepts GPS input and plots you on the electronic charts (that it actually can make from your paper charts), waypoints, courses, ETA's, fuel consumption and a host of other things can be handled. If you have an AIS receiver, ship positions and data can be overlaid onto the current chart.

The best thing is you can build up your own comprehensive chart catalogue stored within it, and it automatically keeps your boat centre of the screen. It shifts charts up-and-down scale (depending on your available folio) as you move around.

It's easy to connect a GPS and even AIS to SeaClear...and we sell these items:

Compatible GPS for SeaClear AIS for SeaClear

This is a free program and it comes with no charts loaded (although it does have a couple of world area maps). You can either purchase electronic raster charts such as the BSB format and load them into it OR you can make your own electronic charts and calibrate them. This system does not work with the vector charts, rather it works directly with images that are then geo-referenced.

We also make a very popular UK/Irish waters chart package for SeaClear at £29.50

Charts for SeaClear.

To use your own paper charts you will have to get them scanned and converted into a large image (saved in specified formats). The small A4 desktop scanners WILL PROBABLY NOT BE SUFFICIENT to accomplish this. It would be best to take your charts to a commercial outfit with a large enough scanner to save them all in one go. Next these large images are put into a map calibrating program (that comes with the plotter), and you enter the latitude and longitude of various points on the chart image, normally the extreme right corner and the extreme bottom left corner. A couple of other details about the charts are entered including the scale, and the whole image is converted into a new format with the information embedded into it.

These geo-referenced images are stored and used by the SeaClear chart plotter, and you will find yourself navigating across your own familiar charts in real-time.

The way the system works, and the way that you can make use of chart and map scannings, provides the flexibility that you probably won't find with a commercial system. The downside is of course you have to make an effort, get your paper charts scanned, load and calibrate them etc.

For those that like to experiment this system is great fun... I especially like the way that it changes charts and moves up scale as you close in the coast. The program comes with full documentation, and you can download it here:

Get the standard version direct from the software author here:

http://www.sping.com/seaclear/

To give you something to experiment with, we've provided you with a free sample defaced chartlet that you can download here:

http://www.visitmyharbour.com/images/docs/sample-non-nav-chart.pdf

Basically you will have to lift the full resolution chartlet image off the PDF supplied, run it through the map calibrating system with the SeaClear program (using the coordinates you will find in the corners of the image), load it into the chart plotter in its special format... and then you can test it. Please note the chartlet has been defaced and is not for any kind of navigation. We provide this simply to give you an idea of how the calibration system works.

Once you see how relatively easy it is (after a few goes), you may well be tempted to scan a few of your own paper charts and load those up too, and then give the system a try at sea.

As far as I can see this represents a real alternative to commercial units, with the flexibility to customise your chart folios within it to suit your cruising grounds and boat. Hope you enjoy it.