Almanacs - "Hard Bound" or "Loose Leaf"

cliff

cliff

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Looking at buying a new almanac - been many years since the last one however does anyone have any opinions as to the differences between the hard bound type vs the loose leaf type - are the contents the same?

What are the pros and cons of the different bindings?
 
I've had both.

The paperback is of much smaller dimensions and stows easier on my boat.

Hardcover looseleaf pages lie flat and are better for reading.

Someone gave me a tip. He removes the relevant pages for his trip and leaves the unwanted bulk at home.

I dunno about current costs; check Amazon or similar.
 
I've had both.

Loose leaf: can choose to keep only relevant pages on boat. Nominally cheaper. Hard cover is very tough, but the pages you ise quickly tear off the holes, even if you put reinforcements.

Paperback: smaller overall, all information always there. The cover can get worn afetr heavy use, especially if there is any water around. I always reinforce it with duck tape at the beginning of the season.

I am sticking to the paperback version for now.
 
Looseleaf pages are easyier to remove for photocopying tidal curves etc but I wouldn't buy one again. Pages tear out too easily and it's more difficult to flip to the right page and open.

Looseleaf= pain in the A*se

One plus is that we don't intende coming back for a while so we could at least chuck away most of UK, France and W Spain as we went, it's quite thin now!
 
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I bought a loose leaf year before last.Never again. It gots used a lot had to put reinforcing rings on which becomes impossible too may pages to do ... less than halfway through year half the pages were falling out and getting mixed up . A big load of cr%ap.

Constructive criticism:- Would be better if they used a standard 4 ring binder. Sections could then be moved to different binders but unless they quadruple the strength of the pages will not buy one again.
 
As others have said the looseleaf version is best avoided - pages too thin and tear easily, binder too cumbersome, bursting open and pages everywhere if dropped.
I find the regional versions good ie, Channel Almanac, wire binding so folds flat, easier to handle.
 
Also never again. So thick it needs a massive binder or several smaller ones.

They come pre-punched for 3-hole binders (or did in 2003). Fine if you work for an American firm and can nick technical manuals from them but a PITA for the rest of us.
 
snowleopard said:
Also never again. So thick it needs a massive binder or several smaller ones.

They come pre-punched for 3-hole binders (or did in 2003). Fine if you work for an American firm and can nick technical manuals from them but a PITA for the rest of us.
Click to expand...

We used a loose leaf almanac for 4 months on board during the summer. Didn't have any problems with it. Bought the binder for a few pounds off ebay rather than pay Reeds an extortionate amount. The binder must be a good money earner for them as we couldn't get them at any local or national stationers.
 
I bought the loose leaf one, took out the required pages and kept them in a plastic 'display folder' from the newsagents.
This kept them clean, dry and they also stay open on the chart table without having to wade through reams of irrelevant info. We sailed around the UK last year and simply updated the sections that we required as we went, worked a treat.
 
We joined the never again flotilla in 2004 after suggesting to reeds that they made the pages stronger and bound them in a standard A4 folder. The nice people at reeds said there were problems with moving the holes and making the paper thicker/stronger because of the amount of information on the page vs page size and the folder was a standard size - in america, fine, but for a UK almanac? As others have said reinforcing the paper is not a viable option.

So it should come as no great shock to Reeds customer focued marketing department to learn that we are no longer customers!!!!
 
I've tried all three formats - mainly as a result of my price resistance to the ever increasing cost of the bound version.

The loose-leaf update version was good value - and not too bulky once weeded of the sections we wouldn't use. I made up some stiff covers and some clear plastic leaves to insert around and help protect the pages in current use, and held it together with 3 single rings. This worked quite well.

Latterly I've been using the spiral bound local editions for my area. Originally these did not have all the data contained in the full versions, but I think there's not much if any difference in the most recent editions. I did find that the most used pages tended to get damaged - and I couldn't do anything extra to protect them like I did for the loose-leaf. Only an option if the area covered suits your sailing plans

For next year I've reverted to a full bound version again - it was well discounted at SBS.
 
Looks like it will be a full bound version then - or maybe I,ll keep using the "old" one for another season or two......

Thanks for all the input
 
I agree with your last comment. We used our hardbound one from last year. We downloaded the Wiley online almanac for tides and up to date gen on ports. For tides down to the Vendee the Brest tides are +- 30 mins all the way down to La Rochelle. Camaret marina will give a free tide table booklet for tides, if asked. We didn't miss having a new paper almanac and thought of all the trees that we have saved!
 
I purchase the full (bound) Almanac every other year from RYA @ SIBS (£25 for 09) and alternate with the Channel version, which saves a few pounds.
 
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