Neptune's Passage Planner software is so good that the company allows you to download it free in demonstration mode for ten days - confident that you will find it so useful that at the end of that trial period you will pay up for the unlock codes to go on using it.
It's good value for money, in that unlike many navigational software packages this one can be tailored - and priced - to your own requirements. If your sailing is confined to a relatively small area, you may only need one chart pack. If you are going further afield, you can add more as needed. And the software is available in different editions, at different price points, too.
Outline Passage Planner
The “basic” version, Outline Passage Planner, is the easiest bit of marine software to get started on I have yet come across. And yet this is not because it lacks sophistication. It provides all the tools and information that most navigators would ask for.
It calculates course to steer, course over the ground and optimised departure time from inbuilt tidal data. You can overlay forecast wind conditions, and it will help you adjust your route to avoid too much upwind work.
Although the software is called Passage Planner, and its main aim is to help with just that: planning, you can also attach a GPS to the computer and it becomes a basic plotter - enabling you to keep revising your plan from where you actually are, not where you thought you would be before you started.
Using the software is simplicity itself: set up a single leg with two mouse clicks on the chart, and then click on the Calculate menu. Tell it when you want to start, how fast you expect to go, and what the wind will be, if you wish, and it will produce a course to steer, with a vector plot - it draws in the tides for you, so that you can check it against your own calculations - and a course to steer.
Then you can use the Tide Roll buttons to see if there is a better time to depart - they will show how the course to steer changes with the tide, at half hour intervals.
You can also create a multi-leg route. You can enter waypoints either by clicking on the chart, or creating a directory, entering them by lat and long and name etc. Again there is plenty of opportunity for editing and revising the route and adjusting your plan in the light of the information shown up by the programme.
And if you want to use the software's capabilities to the full, once you have fed in the wind information, and information about your boat, it can estimate changes in speed on different points of sailing from a polar plot.
Furthermore, you can use the programme to create a SOLAS passage plan, using a blank document supplied, which can be modified and edited as required, or your own preferred format.
The only real limitation to Outline Passage Planner is that first word: “Outline.” The chart packs supplied are just that: outlines. This has the advantage of making them very affordable, but the disadvantage that the programme needs to be used alongside more detailed charts, either digital or paper, to make sure that your suggested passage plan steers clear of any dangers: rocks, sandbanks, TSSs and so on.
But as the programme costs just £65 including one charted area (additional chart packs cost £25), this doesn't alter the fact that it is an extremely useful and intuitive piece of software, widely acclaimed in the yachting press.
Neptune C-Map Planner
If you have a bit more money to spend, and a C-Map plotter on board, Neptune C-Map Planner does all the same things as Outline Passage Planner - but puts the information directly on to C-Map charts, providing more accuracy, detail and updates.
This software integrates with C-Map NT+ and Max formats, and costs £135, plus C-Map charts (from £163 each, or you can buy a USB card reader for £76.50 plus postage, to use the charts from your onboard plotter).
Neptune C-Map Planner PLUS
Released this month, the latest addition to of Neptune's Passage Planner range offers additional features, including AIS compatibility, customised colour and font sizes, the facility to import Proudman Tidal Atlas, and enhanced on-screen editing. It costs £165 plus C-Map charts.
Pocket PC Planner
If you don't want to take a laptop aboard, there's also a version for use on a PDA. Incorporating all the course calculations and tidal data of Neptune Outline Planner, this could be the most useful solution of all, as well as the least expensive, at £55 including one charted area. (Additional portfolios £25 as for Outline Passage Planner)
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Like all navigational software, Neptune Passage Planner comes with the warning that it should not be used as a substitute for doing your own calculations. I have double checked its against my own calculations and find it hard to fault. It is easy to use, genuinely useful, and good value for money. And you can't say that about too much computer software! So why not download the free trial version, and see for yourself?
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For more information visit www.neptune-navigation.com
