Admiralty Leisure folios

[Dougie_the_Mate]

I have just ordered the updated Sailing Directions for the Clyde and while online I saw the ad for Admiralty Charts. I bought the Clyde folio when we acquired the boat in 2004. Is there any merit in up-dating them or would I be better using the money for something else.

 

[Searush]

I have just ordered the updated Sailing Directions for the Clyde and while online I saw the ad for Admiralty Charts. I bought the Clyde folio when we acquired the boat in 2004. Is there any merit in up-dating them or would I be better using the money for something else.

Your choice. Rocks don't move much but sandbanks & harbours do change as do lights & bouys from time to time. How well do you know the area? Have you used the ANtoM to update your existing copies?

What else do you NEED to buy?

I have some very old charts but I probably wouldn't bother changing them cos I don't go to thise places very often. Even if I needed to use old charts I wouldn't stress, just be aware that stuff changes & use my eyes, brain & echo sounder. On t eother hand, if that would seriously stress you, buying new charts would make life easier.

Your call innit?

 

[Dougie_the_Mate]

I am not that stressed - I just wondered if it was worth the bother. The sailing directions were updated last year and there have been several changes to facilities in the area since we started sailing there in 2005 so I thought it was worth the money to update, but most of our sailing is pilotage rather than navigation and we really just use the charts to check odd things and to decide where we might go next.

Thanks

Dougie

 

[Boo2]

Speaking of Admiralty Leisure Folios...

... when are they going to produce one for the north of Scotland, does anybody know ?

AIUI, they have already ceased production of the individual Leisure Series maps so now, in theory at least it is not possible to buy the top part of our great country except in full size sheets ?

Boo2

 

[NormanS]

... when are they going to produce one for the north of Scotland, does anybody know ?

AIUI, they have already ceased production of the individual Leisure Series maps so now, in theory at least it is not possible to buy the top part of our great country except in full size sheets ?

Boo2

Yes, and some parts of the aforementioned area are charted at very small scale,
E.g. 1:200,000. On them you get about one sounding per mile, and lots are still at old outdated datums. Do you think I've got a bee in my bunnet?

 

[Seajet]

Charts are sometimes based on 200 year old surveys by sailing ships with lead lines armed with tallow, " By the fathom four and shell bottom Sir ! "

Go by your sensors like depthsounders, binoculars / radar, eyesight and other senses, with an eye on the chart as well but check the date of the chart, the same goes for electronic jobs on plotters.

 

[awol]

Apart from outfalls and the like I don't think there has been any new survey details but the navigation marks and their light characteristics may have changed as possibly may the special areas round Coulport etc. (though I think they are unchanged).
Your 2004 issue is newer than mine and I haven't had any problems.

 

[Searush]

My Irish Sea chart is in Black & white with depths in fathoms, but it still works. I haven't managed to spot any of the lightships shown on it yet . . .

No, that's untrue, one of them is in the Albert Dock.

 

[blackbeard]

Given that most of the changes tend to be in and near harbours, one view might be that the best solution is to supplement the charts with an up-to-date almanac which gives chartlets of harbours and approaches to same; any change to buoyage and lights, and sandbanks etc, should then be apparent. (Bearing in mind that the almanac will be printed during the previous year so can be a year or so out of date when you come to use it; the almanac itself can be corrected which in theory makes it correct to the previous month. How many people do this?)

The charts themselves have a built-in out-of-dateness, the issue which you buy in a chandlery could well have been an edition released a couple of years before, and I doubt if many people update a chart which they have just bought. AFAIK leisure folios are not updated by the chandler. Many of the corrections are irrelevant; do I really care if the depth over a wreck, charted as 10 m, is now measured as 12 m?

Does anyone replace e-charts on chart plotters every year?

 

[dunedin]

Personally I haven't bothered to update Clyde folio. Unlike some other areas not aware of any significant sand banks that tend to move in the Clyde area - and most times once left harbour can stay in more than 10m (with few exceptions like Kyles) unless really cutting the corners.

 

[Seven Spades]

I my experience it is impossible to keep up with the changes, I must have more then 40 charts. You need to be time-rich i.e. retired. I haves not tried recently but when I did try to update them a few years ago they only posted recent changes so if you missed some they were gone for ever. The logical way to update charts would be to be able to input the chart number and date/version and then down load all changes to that chart since printed.

Personally, I don't bother I buy a new Almanac each year and then use that when I get close enough.

 

[Boo2]

... when are they going to produce one for the north of Scotland, does anybody know ?

Well, I asked UKHO whether they have any intentions of producing a leisure folio for the North of Scotland and for the Orkney and Shetland Isles and got the following reply :

There are no plans to produce chart folios for the North of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The UKHO stopped producing individual leisure charts some time ago and now only produces the folios shown on the our website.

So that would seem to be that.

Boo2

 

[Fascadale]

My Irish Sea chart is in Black & white with depths in fathoms, but it still works. I haven't managed to spot any of the lightships shown on it yet . . .

No, that's untrue, one of them is in the Albert Dock.

Has this one gone then? It was there when I went past in 2007

 

[oldbilbo]

May I enter a plea that more of us use Admiralty Chart Agents when we buy our charts - on a 'use them or lose them' basis? The several I know put a great deal of customer service into what they do, and go the extra mile, for very modest return.

They provide reliable advice, good tech resources, and bang-up-to-date charts, in contrast to the chandlery outlets I've seen.

At no added cost....

 

[Malish]

Out of date charts sounds like a very useful way for an insurance company to avoid a payout should the worst happen (and they find the evidence) - has anyone had this bad experience?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Personally I haven't bothered to update Clyde folio. Unlike some other areas not aware of any significant sand banks that tend to move in the Clyde area - and most times once left harbour can stay in more than 10m (with few exceptions like Kyles) unless really cutting the corners.

Well, the place where there are sand-banks (East of the Tail of the Bank, opposite Greenock) doesn't give much confidence in the charts anyway - there is a nice diagonal line across the banks with the notation that it was impossible to reconcile different surveys, and the pattern of depths on either side of it don't match. I don't intend to try and sail across those banks - not when there's a nice dredged channel to use - but if I did, I doubt the chart would be much help!

However, elsewhere I agree that the chances of anything changing that affects me is pretty slim. In the Clyde the buoyage is for the benefit of the Navy and commercial shipping, and has little relevance to small-craft except in a very small number of places.

 

[Quandary]

Has this one gone then? It was there when I went past in 2007

Nice to see it in daylight after being sent round it in the dark several times every year. Shame if it is gone, where else can the yacht clubs send you on the way to Ailsa Craig. The keepers used to come out and ask for the boats name as you rounded it. Very dodgy coast inside it in poor visibility so I presume there is a buoy there at least.

Edit, Got the chart out, there is a buoy there now, not sure since when?