Charts

[mrbenwaller]

So, for a med season and then a trip across the atlantic and a season in the caribbean is it fair to assume that it will cost in the region of £4000 million pounds for charts and pilots and that a second boat will be needed to carry the weight in paper?

Is there no other way other than charts and charts and charts?

I know a good chart is a lovely thing indeed but I need to know what sort of debt my dad is going to have to get himself in to.

Thanks,

 

[Sea Devil]

tides end - bellingdon charts in the USA sell excellent 3/4 scale US Navy charts at very reasonable prices and as they are photocopies they weigh very little - you can tow them astern in the dinghy!

The Med needs very few charts - maybe 10 or 12.. only dodgy area is Greece and maybe more detailed ones for that area. (6 of the 10 mentioned)

The answer lays in pilot books - give the approaches and plans of all the ports and anchorages and you only need a very few......

When you actually start real cruising somebody will give you the world wide version of C-Map... which is really useful.

 

[charles_reed]

I totally sympathise

if you're travelling long-distances paper charts (whatever the diehards say) just aren't feasible.

So I've taken to using electronic charts, pilot books (for anchorages & ports) and large-scale charts (for planning and open-sea passages).

Which electronic charts are the question, I chose Navionics in the early days of raster vs vector charts. The former are now virtually obsolescent.

The Admiralty prices are other worldly, C-Map are easily the most common, Garmin have decided to adopt the ex-Tsunami system (Theirs are IMHO the best all-round GPS models) and Lowrance (now in the spun-off Simrad yacht equipment arm) have decided to introduce their own chart system.

Navionics charts are a mixed bag, frequently out-of-date, occasionally grievously erroneous. I suspect, rather than the database entries, the errors were in the original paper charts. However, with C-Map NT, they have a world-wide coverage.

The only suggestion I would make, is to choose your plotter AFTER deciding which charting system you prefer.

 

[wayneA]

I totally agree

Charles, I totally agree. we follow very much the same methodology as yourself, but use c-map NT+ where we can carry over 2000 charts on a cartridge.

As for Admiralty/imray paper charts, last year for only small scale - '...get me to a safe port when the sky falls in...' set of charts for the med, cost me £300! I've recently been turned onto the photocopied US charts - supplied by 'tides-end' as mentioned above - by an American friend and the quality, although B/W is very good for back-up paper charts.

Why the Admiralty is not forced to go 'public domain' as the US, I really don't know - but lets not start on that one....

Cheers

Wayne

PS: I think we met on the pontoons at Msida a month back?

 

[BobnLesley]

We work on the basis of cheap charts and expensive/latest edition Pilot books. Marine Chart Services in Corby (www.chartsales.com) have supplied us with most of our charts either secondhand or cancelled at very reasonable cost; whereafter we've updated them as far back as possible with the yachtie applicable notices posted on the HMSO website. We are aware that there is an element of risk in not having the latest charts, but we passage plan accordingly and rely on the Pilot books/CA updates for navigating into harbours/anchorages - it's worked fine so far. www.chartsales.com

 

[KellysEye]

We use old charts and latest pilot books where available, or pilotage info from cruisers who have already been there and have produced written notes. We stopped updating charts because once out of Europe a small but significant percentage of lights/buoys either don't work, or work intermittently or are aren't there, whatever the latest chart updates say.

Using paper only isn't a problem for long distances, you can usually sell (to those going where you've been) and buy (from those who have been where you are going). We normally have about 200 on board.

 

[AndrewB]

Buying old & cheap is really the only way. You cannot have too many charts. There are places like Marine Chart Services (http://www.chartsales.co.uk) where you can get cheap recently cancelled charts may be not more than a few years old.

To you purists who believe that only this year's chart is good enough - get real. We recently spent three weeks cruising around Grenada with an Admiralty chart dated 1937: it proved more detailed than the modern chart of the island, and both are based on the same, C19th surveys. Meanwhile, here in the Dominican Republic, I've just used a bang up to date chart (swapped with another yacht going the other way) to get into a marina at Boca Chico, which completely omits a long and very dangerous reef across the harbour entrance facing the marina that locals tell me formed 15 years ago.

 

[silver-fox]

Re: I totally sympathise

[ QUOTE ]


Which electronic charts are the question, I chose Navionics in the early days of raster vs vector charts. The former are now virtually obsolescent.



[/ QUOTE ]

I spent the boat show checking out raster and vector charts. What is it about raster charts that makes them "virtually obsolete"?

I saw raster demos where you zoomed in and flipped "almost" seamlessly to the appropriate larger scale chart or onto its near neighbour as appropriate.

The raster charts seemed eminently usable. I realise that they use more storage space and can't readily be displayed as any other format than "North up" and are probably a transitional technology but isn't dismissing them as obsolete a bit harsh?

I only ask the question because I am about to invest and want to get it right..

Whilst on the subject I was going to use a laptop plus gps with a waterproof repeater in the cockpit rather than a plotter which seemed poor value for money - or is this misguided too?/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[charles_reed]

Note the use of

obsolescent NOT obsolete, in my post - which you appear to agree with -



<<The raster charts seemed eminently usable. I realise that they use more storage space and can't readily be displayed as any other format than "North up" and are probably a transitional technology but isn't dismissing them as obsolete a bit harsh?>>

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Re: Note the use of

see my ad' in For Sale for Med' charts.
thanks
S.

 

[AndrewB]

Re: Note the use of

Please do not reopen zombie threads for the purpose of advertising. People (I include myself) may not like being held to opinions that were valid 12 years ago but are now obsolete.

I think you will find that most of us looking for charts will visit the "For Sale" section, it is unnecessary to double-post.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Hi Andrew, dooooh!!
Apologies I had not read the posting correctly and had thought it a very up to date one.
S.