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IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FUGAWI MARINE ENC NOW SUPPORTS WEATHER (GRIB) OVERLAY Popular Navigation Software Adds Free Weather Capabilities to Vast Feature Set TORONTO — Northport Systems, Inc., a leader in GPS mapping software and innovative GPS applications, announced today the addition of NOAA Gridded Binary data files (GRIB) support to its popular navigation software, Fugawi Marine ENC Version 4. GRIB files, which contain data produced by computer generated forecasting models, are available with worldwide coverage, and contain a wide variety of daily and weekly forecasts for barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, wave heights and more. They are available to the public free of charge. With the incorporation of GRIB support, the Fugawi Marine ENC software is the first and only product available on the market to allow boaters to take advantage of powerful weather forecasting data in addition to 3D perspectives, marine services, superimposed streets, place name data, and over 500 up-to-date and free-of-charge NOAA ENC® coastal water and iENC inland waterway vector charts of U.S. waters and over 1000 NOAA RNC™ raster charts. Designed to empower recreational boaters with useful weather information for added safety on the water, GRIB information integrates quickly and easily with Fugawi navigation software. In order to acquire and display weather data, Fugawi Marine ENC uses a free email service. Boaters simply ‘drag’ over the area of the charts for which they require data, and select the desired forecast period, 12 hours, 24 hours, or (up to) 5 days. Fugawi Marine ENC produces a preformatted email request to SailDocs, where a very small GRIB file is generated within a minute. The files, typically 2-5 kilobytes, are ideal for receiving over low bandwidth Internet connections (e.g. satellite phone or radio email services like SailMail www.sailmail.com). The weather forecast is then returned by email and easily overlaid on the Fugawi navigation chart screen. All that is required is Fugawi Marine ENC Version 4 software and an email connection. “Mother Nature is the biggest threat to all recreational and commercial boaters,” said Robin Martel, president of Northport Systems. “Until now, detailed forecast information was only available to boaters at their expense, and required the purchase and installation of additional hardware. Our Marine ENC software allows boaters to select areas of interest, and seamlessly integrate valuable weather information. The forecast overlays display conditions right on top of the charts, and are completely free.” Existing capabilities of the powerful Fugawi Marine ENC include a number of unique and innovative features such as 3D Chart Visualization and Navigation, Fugawi Street Overlay, 1.8 Million Points Of Interest, 25,000 Marine Services, an intuitive Chart Management Wizard and support for the Automatic Identification System (AIS). In addition to NOAA ENC coastal water and iENC inland waterway vector charts, Fugawi Marine ENC supports traditional BSB 4 or earlier charts from MAPTECH® and NDI Digital Ocean® as well as SoftChart and user-scanned paper charts. Whether used as a primary charting solution or as a secondary backup, Fugawi Marine ENC continues to deliver the navigation features boaters need at an unbeatable price. Availability: About
Northport Systems, Inc.: GRIB
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