[PhilG57]

Hi. I'm looking for experienced thoughts on 'free' vs. 'fee' charts such as the NOAA and Jeppesen or Navionics charts. The NOAA charts seem pretty good and I'm wondering if the commercial packages are justified. The chart packages would be running on Furuno Navnet3D MFD8 and MFD12 units on a boat in the Great Lakes.
Thanks.

[sunchaserv]

I have two MFD 12s. Last year I took them both to a Furuno dealer and they downloaded new charts and the latest programming upgrades. Then they made sure both units were working properly as slave and master whihc can be an MFD issue. Cost was about $350 and piece of mind priceless. My cruising grounds are PNW both Canada and USA so lots more to consider than saving a few bucks. Won't you be in Canada too?

[PropBet]

We use both, and both are different. The paid charts, while not cheep, I *think* are updated more frequently. However we haven't found anything wrong per say with the NOAA charts. That is the NOAA ENC charts, not their Raster charts.

Obviously NOAA charts are going to be limited primarily to US waters.