Accurate, up-to-date charts are the lifeblood of navigation. The best chart plotter in the world isn’t much use without quality cartography, so it’s no surprise that as charting companies are acquired or merge with competitors, other companies sometimes take drastic measures to ensure access to charts for the navigation equipment and software they produce.
The marine electronics industry is full of tangled relationships in which competitors are also suppliers and customers. Ever since Garmin completed the acquisition of Navionics and previous corporate sibling C-MAP was brought under Navico, charts have provided a confusing web of supplier, customer and competitor relationships.
Garmin completed its acquisition of Navionics in 2017, while Navico and C-MAP merged in 2018, shortly before Brunswick Corp.’s acquisition of the combined company. At the time of this consolidation, Furuno, Navico and Raymarine all offered plotters capable of displaying charts from C-MAP and Navionics. Ironically, the only company not to utilize either cartography source was Garmin, which at the time relied on its internally developed BlueCharts.
After completing the acquisition and merger, Garmin and Navico stated that it would be business as usual for customers of their respective chart brands. Over the course of several years, though, I’ve come to understand that while the charts are still available, previous discounts extended to partners have been eliminated, new products have been held back, and restrictions have been placed on how the data is distributed.
Since this consolidation, we have seen a proliferation of charts introduced not only by such electronics manufacturers as Furuno, Raymarine and Si-Tex, but also by navigation software providers, including Argo, Orca, Savvy Navvy and Wavve. These companies, to control the future of their core products, need to invest in developing their own charts.
Chart publishers rely on government hydrographic offices for their base cartography. In some countries, the hydrographic offices charge for access to that data, while in others, including the United States, the data is provided for free. The differentiation and value in commercial charts comes from the corrections, additions and extra data that chart publishers collect and incorporate into their products. Navionics, for example, collects bathymetric data from users of its charts and navigation app to build a crowdsourced data set. That data set underlies SonarCharts and can, especially in heavily traveled areas, provide detailed charts and updates.
Although the underlying data comes from government hydrographic offices, the task of collecting and distributing the data is large and challenging. Additionally, the best charts weave in corrections and additional data from many sources, including the companies surveying waters themselves. Providing worldwide cartography coverage means negotiating with hundreds of hydrographic offices, receiving data from them and then formatting that data for a company’s chart plotter or app.
Navionics Mobile Marine was an early entrant into mobile navigation. With chart regions available for just $10, in perpetuity, it brought the cost of access to Navionics’ charts down dramatically. I suspect that when the app was introduced, no one at Navionics considered the notion that mobile devices would challenge purpose-built hardware. As a result, the app pricing didn’t square with the cost of charts for a plotter.
Fast forward many years later, and this pricing discrepancy still exists. A few years ago, Navionics’ Boating app moved to an annual subscription instead of one-time licensing fees for charts. At that time, the app with charts covering the United States and Canada cost $24.99 per year. Most other countries, or in some cases groups of countries, also cost $24.99 per year, with a few outliers where government hydrographic offices charge for chart data. Recently, the cost of the app doubled, with most countries now carrying a $49.99 annual subscription based on hydrographic office licensing costs.
As long as Navionics was making changes, it also made one more major one. Its web chart viewer has long been a go-to planning tool for many cruisers. It offered a near duplicate of the app’s user interface, route-planning features, access to user data and more.
You may have noticed the past tense verbiage I’m using. The Navionics chart viewer as we knew it has been retired. It’s been replaced with a basic viewer that seems to serve primarily as a catalog showing regions, coverage and purchase options.
Garmin’s leadership told me they felt the usage of the web-based chart viewer wasn’t high enough to justify the resources required to maintain the functionality. Ironically, in a conversation with C-MAP, they explained that they were working on making a web-based planning tool available to leverage their latest X-generation charts.
C-MAP’s X-generation charts were introduced alongside the Simrad NSX. These updated charts offer a sleek, modern presentation along with high-resolution bathymetry data, shaded relief and satellite overlay. C-MAP says it is committed to making X-generation charts available to some third parties in the future, but the priority is on Navico hardware brands such as B&G, Lowrance and Simrad. Hence, at launch, X charts were exclusive to Navico hardware. And although C-MAP mentioned availability to third parties, the charts may not be available to all parties.
C-MAP also touched on its intent to target users without electronics, and potentially even without boats, via mobile apps. Additionally, C-MAP plans to differentiate pricing for multifunction displays and mobile apps based on target usage.
When Navionics and C-MAP were both independent publishers, many plotters and apps supported charts from both companies, some in-house charts and often specialty charting providers. With both chart providers now part of larger marine electronics companies, some of those options are dwindling. For C-MAP, none of Navico’s competitors currently have access to X-generation charts. Additionally, Furuno is no longer able to offer Navionics’ charts on its plotters because the charts previously were reformatted by MapMedia. Under Garmin’s ownership, that reformatting is no longer permitted.
Changes to the charting landscape have spurred investment in cartography options. With the introduction of TZTouchXL series multifunction displays, Furuno and Timezero also introduced TZ Maps. It offers vector and raster charts, high-resolution bathymetry, satellite overlays, and community contributions and edits.
In addition to Furuno’s new chart format, Raymarine has significantly enhanced its LightHouse charts with a new chart engine, revised chart format and greater capabilities, including numerous presentation options and content from Mapbox, Marinas.com and Waterway Guide. LightHouse charts are now the only bundled chart option across its product line.
The proliferation of chart options presents the boating public with an opportunity, but also additional complexity. While it is good to see quality charts from many competitors, consumers have to make tough choices. There is a real chance a boater may prefer the user interface and features of one navigation option, but have reservations about the quality and coverage of that brand’s charts in the waters they transit.
In short, after industry consolidation, it seems that no company dependent on charts for any navigation product is content to take a passive role in publishing those charts. Overall, that seems a sound decision based on the critical nature of those charts.
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue.
