The full name for this high-end $1,200 PC navigation package, Jeppesen Marine’s Nobeltec Admiral 9.0, has become a mouthful—and its $490 little brother, Jep…tec Visual Navigator Suite (VNS) 9, even worse—but I dare say that the similarly long list of “choice” new features, and especially new Plus Pack options, will be much appreciated. The left screen here shows how either package will now let you overlay generic GRIB file weather data and also choose to display numbers, even new strip charts, in a highly customizable “Nav Info Panel.” GRIBs, incidentally, are available from many sources worldwide, but Admiral 9 also includes an easy interface to OCENS WeatherNet, possibly the premier source. Another weather choice, illustrated in the middle screen, is the $300 XM Plus Pack, which can bring all the wonders of live satellite weather into Admiral or VNS (hardware and monthly service extra).
Then there’s the $1,500 Tender Tracker Plus Pack, which in conjunction with Seetrac hardware can track up 99 auxiliary craft within a 20-mile radius of the mother mega. Get this: A tender, perhaps exploring a tricky anchorage or hunting for special fishing/diving structure, can optionally send back depth information which, if Admiral is also accessorized with the Bathy Generator Plus Pack introduced last year, will rebuild 3D screens as fast as the tender collects data.
Jeppesen Marine
(800) 946-2877
This article originally appeared in the December 2006 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
