Developer Manual

Dave Register, a programmer, and Kathi began full time cruising in 2000 aboard m/v Dyad]. Dave wasn’t satisfied with the commercial chart plotters available. He began to develop his own and named it OpenCPN. For years, OpenCPN was their own personal chart plotter. It reliably got them to wherever they were headed; from Newfoundland to the Bahamas. The public wasn’t even aware of it at the time.

Dave began sharing the program with other cruisers here and there, which planted the idea to put it out publicly for anyone to download as open source. It’s first online presence was on Dave’s website, bigdumboat.com. OpenCPN.org was created in 2009.

The program now has a worldwide following, and a team of brilliant volunteer developers.

The OpenCPN Community Thanks Dave for OpenCPN. Cruiser’s Forum Thank Dave which includes Dave’s Thankyou’s too..it’s a polite Community.

On January 22, 2018 the OCC announced that Dave Register is the recipient of the OCC Award. "I’m honored and humbled. But I’m only the tip of an iceberg. This award and recognition would not be possible without the help and support of the worldwide OpenCPN team. Thank you."

OpenCPN is chart plotter and navigational planning software developed by a team of active sailors using real world conditions for program testing and refinement. Their motto: “We’re boaters. We’re coders. …​A network of more than forty volunteer software coders now work to improve the product, update it and expand its capabilities. Dave continues to co-ordinate this work from his floating home, Dyad, the Big Dumb Boat. See https://www.bigdumboat.com/ …​Open CPN has made a magnificent contribution to the enjoyment and safety of sailors cruising in small boats, and Dave deserves every bit of recognition for his invention and his ongoing efforts." by Daria Blackwell, January 1, 2018//