Have heard several people say it's "great", "really good", "never leave home without it", etc so I bought a nice ruggedized tablet and loaded it up.

 

I had the trial, but a long run of sour weather prevented me from using it during the trial period so I bought a subscription. And not cheap at $90! 

 

Got to use it today, to navigate, and surely I must be doing something wrong as it's easily the worst navigation I've ever used. 

 

I simply put in 2 marinas several KMs apart. And....it plotted the route as the crow flies..more or less. Over breakwalls, through houses, a public park, and island etc. In all honesty, the route was on land more than water.

 

Surely it can't be this bad! 

 

I selected, ROUTE, Automatic, selected Start Point (Marina 1, my current position) and destination Marina 2.  I then hit GO. And ended up with the above.

 

What am I doing wrong??  Or is it really this useless? 

I have the tablet version - $90?  I pay $18 a year for the subscription.

 

Routing - ya, automatic is a bit flaky at times....if I want to plot a route, I do it manually beforehand.

 

Useless? Far from it - finding points/islands/humps, noting flats with close dropoffs, and the bottom-hardness overlay are things I use frequently. I've had the subscription for 5 years now, and will continue it even though I have a Echomap 93 with all the maps on Bass Trek now...the overlays are that useful.

13 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I have the tablet version - $90?  I pay $18 a year for the subscription.

 

Routing - ya, automatic is a bit flaky at times....if I want to plot a route, I do it manually beforehand.

 

Useless? Far from it - finding points/islands/humps, noting flats with close dropoffs, and the bottom-hardness overlay are things I use frequently. I've had the subscription for 5 years now, and will continue it even though I have a Echomap 93 with all the maps on Bass Trek now...the overlays are that useful.

It's called "Navionics" and is sold as a navigational aid, and if it can't navigate, it is useless in that regard.

 

And yes, $90.

 

Which is why it's hugely disappointing. I'm holding out hope there's perhaps a setting that can rectify this.

30 minutes ago, RRocket said:

And yes, $90.

Okay - my last renew was last June and US only was $18. This is the new schedule posted on the Gamin site

Boating app: Price Adjustment

Posted: September 21, 2023

To continue delivering the best possible cartography to our Boating app customers, we will be adjusting our prices for the following coverage areas. The new prices will go into effect on October 25, 2023.

New Prices

• US & Canada $ 49.99

If you had to pay $90 - you got ripped someplace. I'll probably continue to use it even at the $50 price...the overlays are just too useful to me.

2 hours ago, RRocket said:

It's called "Navionics" and is sold as a navigational aid, and if it can't navigate, it is useless in that regard.

I’ve had Lakemaster, Insight Pro, and Navionics on my graphs. None of them actually do the navigating for you. If you punch in a waypoint, it takes you there. The fastest, most direct route possible. That includes over land “as the crow flies.”

 

If you’re looking for one that actually navigates for you, good luck finding one.

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I’ve had Lakemaster, Insight Pro, and Navionics on my graphs. None of them actually do the navigating for you. If you punch in a waypoint, it takes you there. The fastest, most direct route possible. That includes over land “as the crow flies.”

 

If you’re looking for one that actually navigates for you, good luck finding one.

So their claim of "Dock to Dock" navigation is BS then? 

5 minutes ago, RRocket said:

So their claim of "Dock to Dock" navigation is BS then? 

It will - long as you plan the route out manually as I said earlier.

12 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

It will - long as you plan the route out manually as I said earlier.

Understood.

 

But that's definitely not what they are advertising. If that's the case, it's been a long time since I've seen a company lie so blatantly about their product.

 

On their official channel:

 

 

24 minutes ago, RRocket said:

Understood.

 

But that's definitely not what they are advertising. If that's the case, it's been a long time since I've seen a company lie so blatantly about their product.

 

On their official channel:

 

Hmm...just tried it on my Galaxy Tab A7 Lite running Android 14...auto-route seems to work fine for me.

33 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Hmm...just tried it on my Galaxy Tab A7 Lite running Android 14...auto-route seems to work fine for me.

 

I'm jealous! 

 

Apparently it thinks my boat is a hovercraft! 

I've deleted everything....

 

Will do a fresh install and report back.

Fresh install done.

 

The navigation part works now! But I've lost some interesting functionality that was present before.

Very perplexing.

 

Before, after it calculated the route, it would give a "guesstimate" of how long the trip would take and how much fuel would be used based on your boat parameters. This doesn't pop up now.

 

Also, when making a route, it used to allow me to do it from "current location". That no longer pops up.

 

Might have to call tech support.