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Rose Point Navigation Systems
Coastal Explorer is a sophisticated and full-featured,
yet very easy to use navigation software package designed specifically
for the pleasure boater.
With support for official raster
and vector charts from almost every major hydrographic agency
in the world, route planning features with multi-level undo capability,
integrated gazetteer and Coast Pilot books, virtual instrument
display, and obstacle alerts, Rose Point Coastal Explorer
will help you make your next cruise safer and more enjoyable.
"Stable, well-crafted,
and loaded with fresh ideas."
-- Ben Ellison, Power & Motoryacht
Click here for the Specification Sheet
Click here for a What's New overview
RSTMarine Price: $369.00 Buy Online
What's New in Coastal Explorer 2.0
Coastal Explorer 2.0 includes many improvements to Coastal Explorer's already legendary usability, performance and reliability as well as some very exciting and exclusive new features.
Coastal Explorer Network
The Coastal Explorer Network is a new on-line service that provides users with their own space on the Internet that includes:
- A "Blog Book" for sharing their experiences with friends, family, and other Coastal Explorer Network users
- A community provided Cruising Guide and Vessel Registry which is tightly integrated with the Coastal Explorer software
- An automatic US chart update service
Coastal Explorer 2.0 also includes a new Synchronization Tool which make makes it easy to get program, data, and chart updates to your computers that do not have direct access to the Internet. This tool is also used to retrieve tracks and log entries from your boat computer in order to save them on your home computer or send them to the Coastal Explorer Network.
Route Timeline Planning Tool
Coastal Explorer 2.0 includes a new way of planning routes that makes it easy to plan a departure time based on a desired arrival time. The new Route Timeline Planning Tool even takes tidal current predictions into account when estimating your cruising time!
The timeline tool plots your route on a time scale, lets you move any waypoint to the time you want to be at its location, and automatically adjusts the times of all the other waypoints in the route. It has never been easier to determine the right time to start cruising!
More Customization
Coastal Explorer 2.0 provides many more customization options including the ability to create new operational modes which are customized arrangements of different types of views (such as charts, radar, and video) and instrument panels. These operational modes can be used to provide exactly the information you want, in the format you want, for various tasks such as cruising, entering a harbor, fishing, docking, or anchoring.
Video Cameras
Coastal Explorer 2.0 can display video from any Windows® compatible video camera. Now you can monitor your engine room, swim platform, or aft view on the same display you use for your charts.
Radar
Rose Point offers a variety of radar sensors that work with Coastal Explorer 2.0 to provide radar images overlaid on the chart as well as in a side-by-side radar and chart display.
More about Coastal Explorer Radar Sensors.
World Wide Chart Coverage
We are also working on providing world-wide chart coverage by adding support for Navionics® charts. This functionality will be made available later this year as an update to Coastal Explorer 2.0.
Pricing and Availability
The final pricing of Coastal Explorer 2.0 has not been determined yet, but it will be provided as a free upgrade to all registered Coastal Explorer 1.1 users!
All information on this page is preliminary and subject to change!
Key Features
Superior Charting
- Includes a Complete Set of US
Charts
- Fast and Clear Raster Chart Drawing
- Elegant Vector Chart Presentation
- Integrated Gazetteer, Coast Pilot®
and Sailing Directions
- Compatible with Many Electronic
Chart Formats
- Quilt Vector, Raster, and Photo
Charts Together Seamlessly
More About Charts
Superior Planning
- Multi-level Undo and Redo
- Powerful Searching
- ETA Calculator
- Route Obstacle Checking
- Integrated Weather Forecasts (version
1.1)
- Tide Level and Tidal Current Predictions
- Import Routes Created with Other
Programs
More About Planning
Superior Navigation
- Compatible with most GPS Receivers
and Auto Pilots
- Full-Screen Cruising Mode
- Virtual Instrument Displays
- Voice Alerts
- Charted Obstacle Detection
- AIS and MARPA Target Display
- Day, Twilight, and Night Modes
More About Navigation
Click here for the Reviewer's Guide
Click
here for Screen Shots (large file, loads slowly)
Click here for the
Minimum System Requirements
Rose Point Navigation
Systems Coastal Explorer
Current Version
RSTMarine Price: $369.00 Buy Online
Charts
Coastal Explorer lets you choose
the types of charts you want to use. You can even quilt several
types of charts together!
VECTOR CHARTS
Coastal Explorer uses S-57 ENC vector charts which are the only
official vector charts produced by NOAA and the hydrographic
offices in most of the rest of the world. Charts for most US
waters are available free of charge from the NOAA and US Army
Corps of Engineers websites and Coastal Explorer makes it very
easy to download and install these charts. |
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RASTER CHARTS
If you prefer to use the older "raster" charts, or
vector charts are not yet available for some of your favorite
cruising spots, Coastal Explorer will also let you use raster
charts in most popular formats, including the new BSB4 format
from Maptech and NDI. Coastal Explorer includes Chart Kit / MAPTECH
Region 1 - United States Planning Charts - a $199.95 value! |
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PHOTO CHARTS
Photo charts are not intended for navigation, but can be a very
handy to supplement your charts. Coastal Explorer supports photo
charts from Maptech, SoftChart International, and even GeoTIFF
format images you can download from the Internet. |
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TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS
Topographic maps are not suitable for navigation either, but
are very handy for hiking around that island you just anchored
near! Coastal Explorer can use the topographic maps that are
included in many of Maptech's ChartKits as well as the original
USGS DRG files which are found in the GeoTIFF format. |
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Electronic Chart Manufacturers
Coastal Explorer can use charts and maps from these agencies
and manufacturers:
NOAA ENC®
These vector charts are available for free and cover much
of the US coast. |
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U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers Inland ENC
These vector charts are available for free and cover major U.S.
rivers. |
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U.S. Geological
Survey
The USGS produces "DRG" topographic maps as well as
"DOQ" photo charts the the GeoTIFF format which may
be used with Coastal Explorer. |
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Maptech Digital Charts
Maptech is the official distributor for NOAA raster charts. They
also offer raster charts for many other parts of the world, including
the Carribean, Central and South America, Europe, and the Mediterranian. |
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Nautical
Data International, Inc.
NDI distributes the official charts of the Canadian Hydrographic
Offices under the digital ocean® brand name. Both raster
and vector charts are available from NDI. |
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Planning Mode
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Coastal Explorer makes it easy to plan your next cruising
adventure with features like chart quilting, multi-level undo,
a super-integrated gazetteer, a completly geo-referenced Coast
Pilot, and route obstacle detection.
With chart quilting, there's no need to figure out
which charts to open. Just zoom in and out and scroll around
and the right charts will appear seamlessly quilted together.
Don't worry about making mistakes as you modify your route
plan since you can always undo!
The gazetteer includes millions of places in the US,
Canada, and Mexico and more countries are available. You can
find any of these places by simply entering a name in the box
on the toolbar!
The US Coast Pilot is tightly integrated into Coastal
Explorer's charts. Just click somewhere and find out what the
Coast Pilot has to say!
Obstacles along your route are pointed out to you as
you are planning to help you plan a safe trip.
You can also maintain a separate collection of waypoints,
routes, tracks, and boundaries for each trip (if you like). Coastal
Explorer uses documents instead of a hidden database to keep
track of all of your Navigation Objects so you can organize them
however you want. You can even share them with your friends using
e-mail, floppy disks, or USB Flash Drives! |
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Navigation & Cruising Mode
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Cruising is made easier with Coastal Explorer's full-screen
Cruise Mode which replaces the standard Windows menus
and toolbars with big fat buttons that are much easier to use
while underway.
Choose from the usual automatic scrolling modes such as Follow
Boat and Look Ahead, or use Coastal Explorer's exclusive
Follow Leg-Line mode which will fill the screen with your
boat and the active leg-line automatically scrolling and zooming
as necessary.
Split the screen into two or three charts with a single
key or button press. There's no need to resize or rearrange windows;
Coastal Explorer takes care of it for you!
Orient the chart with North Up, Heading Up, or Course
Up.
Voice Alerts are used to warn you of waypoint arrivals,
depths out of range, and even charted obstacles along your path!
Virtual Instrument Panels show you information from
your instruments in large, easy to see displays. Coastal Explorer
includes an analog compass with waypoint arrow, analog wind,
cross track error, and rudder angle displays, depth and temperature
graphs, and many digital display options.
Coatal Explorer can use and display information from your
GPS, heading sensor, depth sounder, autopilot, water speed and
temperature sensors, wind speed and direction instruments, RADAR,
and AIS receiver. |
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Virtual Instrument Panels
Coastal Explorer can be configured to show you the information that you want to see in the way that you want to see it! Here are just some of the Virtual Instrument Panels that are available:
 
Some of these panels require additional hardware; Coastal Explorer can only tell you the depth if a depth sounder is connected to the PC!
AIS
If you have an AIS Transponder or Receiver connected to your PC, Coastal Explorer will use it to display other vessels right on the chart and track their progress in real-time! It will even calculate whether or not you are on a collision course and tell you (on the screen and with a voice alert) how much time you have to change course.
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Other AIS features include:
- Graphical display of AIS vessel orientation and past track
- Dynamic sortable list of all known AIS vessels including their MMSI number, name, position, closest point of approach (CPA) and the time to CPA, speed, course, heading, range, bearing, destination, ETA, and navigational status
- Each vessel may be assigned its own icon and track colors
- Search for other vessels by name
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Coastal Explorer Radar Sensor Options
These products have not yet been released. All information is preliminary and subject to change without notice.
Add a Radar Sensor to your Coastal Explorer system for unsurpassed situational awareness and the enhanced safety provided by high definition radar displays and chart overlay capabilities.
With antenna options ranging from a two-foot radome to a nine-foot open array, Rose Point has a radar that will fit your needs.
Features
- Radar-only Display Mode
- Combined Radar and Chart Display Mode
- Standard Radar Tools, including Range Rings, two Variable Range Markers, two Electronic Bearing Lines, two Guard Zones, Parallel Lines, Waypoint Lollypop, Heading and Stern Lines
- Standard Radar Controls, including Range, Gain, Sea, Rain, Tuning, Pulse Width, Target Expansion, Interference Rejection
- Automatic Tuning, Gain, Sea, and Rain Controls
- Automatic Range Selection when radar is combined with a chart
- Use North Up, Heading Up, or Course Up orientation
- AIS Target Display
- Mini Advanced Radar Plotting Aid (MARPA) option
- Easy to use controls with mouse, touch pad, touch screen, keyboard, or keypad
- Optional High-Speed Mode
- Dual Range Capability
Radar Sensor Configurations
Requires Rose Point Navigation Coastal Explorer Version 2.0 or above, sold separately
(specifications and prices subject to change without notice)
| Model |
Maximum
Range |
Horizontal
Beam Width |
Vertical
Beam Width |
| 4kW, 25" Radome |
36 NM |
3.9° |
25° |
$3,195.00 Buy Online |
| 4kW, 3.5' Open Array |
48 NM |
2.5° |
22° |
$4,595.00 Buy Online |
| 4kW, 4.5' Open Array |
48 NM |
1.8° |
22° |
$4,795.00 Buy Online |
| 6kW, 4.5' Open Array |
64 NM |
1.8° |
22° |
$6,695.00 Buy Online |
| 6kW, 6.5' Open Array |
64 NM |
1.2° |
22° |
$6,995.00 Buy Online |
| 12kW, 4.5' Open Array |
72 NM |
1.8° |
22° |
$7,595.00 Buy Online |
| 12kW, 6.5' Open Array |
72 NM |
1.2° |
22° |
$7,995.00 Buy Online |
Screen Shots
Click an image for a full-size view.
Side-by-Side Display Mode
Combined Chart and Radar Display Mode
Radar Display Mode

Minimum System Requirements
In order to load Coastal Explorer
on your PC, your computer must meet the following minimum system
requirements.
Minimum System Requirements
A PC with Pentium 350 MHz
or higher processor, Pentium III or higher
recommended
Microsoft Windows 2000,
Windows XP or higher operating system
128 MB of RAM or above.
More is recommended, especially when using
raster charts
500 MB of available hard-disk
space (requirements depend on installation
options)
Super VGA (800x600) or higher
resolution monitor. 1024x768 or higher is
recommended
A GPS with appropriate PC
interface
Available serial port or
USB for GPS connection*
12x or higher CD-ROM drive
Mouse or other pointing
device
* If you do not have an available
serial port, a USB
to serial adapter
may be purchased separately,
requiring only
an available USB port.

©
2005-
RST Unlimited, Inc.
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