do you update your charts?

[Guest]

as i understand it, recent solas changes to rule 34 mean that all vessels going to sea (ie into non categorised waters outside estuaries, harbours, ports etc) must have up to date charts.

i can only find one of my sailing friends (a YM instructor and ex copper so its no surprise) who does update his charts, let alone carry a lights list, sailing directions etc as the new law requires.

problem is, of course, that the rule is entirely theoretical until something horrible happens when it could then be used to prove all sort of nasty accusations in a court of non sailors.

and it will be interesting to see what the Hydrographic office do in the face of such an obvious commercial opportunity

do you keep your charts up to date? what are your views on this law?

 

[snowleopard]

go away...

and stop making me feel guilty. i know i should do it but i never get round to it.

it's all too easy to rely on gps for position and assume the rocks don't move, then avoid relying on buoys. trouble is, when you see a light that isn't on the chart it can be v worrying.

 

[LadyInBed]

I try not to worry . . .

I look through the notices in PBO and make a note of anything major in my sailing area, but in general:
If I expect to see a buoy of the flavour expected, but it's not quite where my GPS says it should be on the chart. I accept that the buoy might have been moved. Pre GPS/Decca I would have accepted that it was where the chart said it should be, and congratulate myself for finding it!
If I come across a buoy that I am not expecting, I accept that it is a new buoy and act according to it's shape.
Now the tricky one, a buoy that I am expecting, but is not there. I double check my course and position, satisfy myself that I am where I think I am, have a good look around to see if it has been moved, if I can't see it, then assume it's been removed.
As I don’t normally sail in areas of shifting sand banks, that is a source of trouble I rarely encounter.
The only causes of aggravation for me are pot buoys. Not on the chart, not easy to see and a lot of the time just under the water.

 

[Viking]

Over here rocks dont move, but lights and marks sometimes do.
Up-dating charts is a good job to do over these long winter nights when you dream about being on the water.

 

[whisper]

Yes I do, via Imray's quarterly bulletins. Luckily I enjoy looking at charts, otherwise if you have a lot of them to do it can be tiresome
PS Neither YM instructor nor Mr Plod am I - I'm a tax inspector.
(no, not really, honest!)

 

[dickh]

I do, but I use Stanfords charts and you can get the updates from their website. I only do the important ones, unfortunately there are usually a lot in the Thames Estuary due to the moving sandbanks.

dickh
I'd rather be sailing...

 

[Cornishman]

I thought everyone does(sic).
Try the UKHO website for ANTMs if you really insist.
In the good old days when the Island Cruising Club had a fleet of 5 large cruising yachts (smallest 55 feet) each skipper was responsible for keeping the charts up to date, and collected his ANTMs whenever in Salcombe. We also made good use of Lists of Lights, The Channel Pilot (NP 27) as well as Reeds and whatever other pilot books we had such as Adlard Coles, Shell Pilot, etc. We didn't find it irksome, probably because we had a deep seated interest in the subject as we didn't have GPS or even Decca until the latter days.

 

[VMALLOWS]

Re: go away...

Only time I was ever worried by a 'strange light' was aproaching St Vaast in the dark.......dredger showing nothing but deck lights nearly in the entrance. Was certainly glad of DECCA (in those days) to find place to anchor.

 

[davidwf]

UKHO NM a pain for SC Portfolios

I try to but I find the UKHO way of listing changes for the small craft portfolio a complete pain. All I want to do is get a list for each portfolio but instead I have to get the charts and look to see what large chart they were derived from and then look up the notices for them.

I've had it with UKHO and will be switching to Imray next time I change charts, they list all the changes against portfolio number. Not hard to do so why cannot the UKHO do the same.

 

[Vasco]

I don't correct charts , allthough full proof safety requires one to do so.Not only I don't correct them but I have used a 1915 chart to get to an anchorage in St.Vincent once.I believe even a 50 year old chart will show accurately enough the coastline and offlying rocks.I believe in keeping eyes wide open when closing the shore , and watching the sounder like a hawk.Obviously places like estuaries are trickier , for the sands and silt shift regularly, but anyway those alterations are seldom on the Notices to Mariners.
I can be completely wrong , but I won't go through the trouble of getting all Notices and correcting all charts for the sake of a buoy that's moved half a cable or changed the light in some place I won't be even near....

 

[Cornishman]

Re: UKHO NM a pain for SC Portfolios

Have you asked them?

Cornishmen Get Tin Deeper

 

[Cornishman]

I have found a changed light characteristic a bit confusing at a moment when I could have done without confusion. The fact that rocks don't go walkabout is not quite what chart alterations is all about, is it?

Cornishmen Get Tin Deeper

 

[Miker]

I do. There might not be moveable rocks in the Irish Sea but the gas fields and pipelines sprout like mushrooms.