Does everyone just buy all the digital charts??

For North Atlantic Circuit I used paper charts on the way out (Folio Bristol Channel, English Channel, Brittany and someone sold me the whole of Western Spain and Portugal charts cheaply. I had a big Ocean chart for noon fixes and the HO folios of windward and leeward islands. Also, the Atlantic Island charts. Now I would use openCPN plus OENC or VMH charts for most of that bar the ocean one; they are so cheap comparatively.

What I found was that there is usually someone coming the other way so you can swap charts fairly easily.
 
sailor211 said:
The ocean is not in fact empty. When I crossed the northern great circle Route there were a couple of weather buoys that were not that far from my position. It would be a PITA to hit one.
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How fixed are they? I presume they move somewhat around their charted position, as I don't suppose they are anchored in several thousand metres of water!
 
See if you can get hold of a second hand yeoman plotter then you can use any chart , any scale for any part of the world and find your position in an instant. Plus enter waypoints into your gps as well as find bearings etc. Do not need digital charts at all then and you get a better overall picture of where you are on a decent chart without double purchases
Fantastic piece of kit.
 
Sandy said:
I'm a few years behind you with an Atlantic crossing. I don't intend to do it having miles of empty ocean on the chart plotter; I'll be using it as a data collector.

On a pre Covid visit to The Sea Chest in Plymouth they recommended NV Charts, I'm playing with their paper and electronic versions for the south west, they do the Atlantic Islands that will get me to the Azores in 2022, Covid allowing.

The good news is The Sea Chest is open again and they are incredibly knowledgeable.
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I use NV charts. Yes i use electronic charts but the NV books(Charts) are cheap and very good. I wish they did a west coat of Scotland book but they dont. I started with charts before gps and still am stuck in the habit of using them combined with GPS. I think in the end you wont be able to get paper charts of any sort
 

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Ningaloo said:
I don't know where you are buying your charts from but my C-Map continental chart … I got it "free" with a B&G Vulcan plotter (this offer seems to run every spring) which itself was only £500, but a chart cartridge shouldn't be much over £200. Take a look at svb-24.
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B&G run an offer every spring, whereby you get a free C-Map chart with every Vulcan chartplotter, but the offer has varied over the years.

At one time (2017 or 2018?) you could choose from 3 or 4 regions, more recently British buyers only got the option of the UK & baltic chart (EN050) and could not choose the chart covering the south coast to Spain (EW060).
 
half tonner said:
See if you can get hold of a second hand yeoman plotter then you can use any chart , any scale for any part of the world and find your position in an instant. Plus enter waypoints into your gps as well as find bearings etc. Do not need digital charts at all then and you get a better overall picture of where you are on a decent chart without double purchases
Fantastic piece of kit.
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I loved my Yeoman but each chart and or chartlet has to be referenced to it and when needing to change in a hurry to a large scale harbour chart not so good as a zoomable plotter. I found this out when stupidly followed a large trawler out of Concarneau one dark night, they took a shortcut, no problems, but my 'count' of buoys was lost and they vanished ahead. I thought I was in the midst of a rocky area when actually already clear out of the harbour channel and free to go to next waypoint. It took some frantic plotting of bearings to confirm safe water all round but my red face at least was invisible in the dark. It was a harbour entry that I knew very well and I thought it was etched in my brain and no need to have other than the next passage chart on the table or pre-referenced and folded to fit the Yeoman. I saw a plotter on sale at SIBS a few weeks later and the rot started there.

None of which is relevant mid-Pond.
 
dulls said:
I use NV charts. Yes i use electronic charts but the NV books(Charts) are cheap and very good. I wish they did a west coat of Scotland book but they dont. I started with charts before gps and still am stuck in the habit of using them combined with GPS. I think in the end you wont be able to get paper charts of any sort
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The lovely people at The Sea Chest tell me NV are working on the entire UK coast. I'm planning a circumnavigation of the UK in 2021. Fingers crossed that they will have them out by then.

The younger sailor just works off electronic charts, personally I like to look at a bit bit of paper and consider the options.
 
Sandy said:
The lovely people at The Sea Chest tell me NV are working on the entire UK coast. I'm planning a circumnavigation of the UK in 2021. Fingers crossed that they will have them out by then.

The younger sailor just works off electronic charts, personally I like to look at a bit bit of paper and consider the options.
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Good i asked them about doing the Scottish section about 6 months ago and they said no so something must have changed. I like to see my whole passage on the chart. It makes me feel safer to see the whole thing from beginning to end. I love the folios. Also when i am talking to the wife she comprehends everything about the passage from the chart in away a plotter cant do. Maybe people like us asking all the time makes them think it is worth doing.
I agree i think you see more options on the chart. The nv charts are clear and uncluttered. I have no link to them other than i buy their charts.
 

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Hallo again. I'm not sure if you want any extra info, but I spent two years in the Windward Islands working as a skipper for several different charter companies and the last half year as liveaboard skipper on a large steel schooner, so I came to know the area quite well. I used only two nav aids apart from the compass ; Chris Doyle's superb sailing guide, and a large scale Imray chart of the whole area. Both of these were to be found aboard every one of the many charter boats which I sailed. If I were going back to what must be one of the best sailing grounds in the world, I'd buy them both again beforehand, and know that I would need nothing else for cruising there, not even GPS ! The Windwards are directly downwind from Barbados which is most people's point of arrival, so after you've 'unwound' its an easy 90nm or so sail to lovely Admiralty Bay on Bequia ("Bekwee") island. For main shopping, hop across to St Vincent on the ferry. Sadly, I see that the lovely old wooden sailing schooner Admiral is no longer used as a ferry but has become a day-trip boat. Oh well, progress marches on.
I envy you, you'll have a marvellous time there !
Rob
 
Scott_Stevens said:
Thanks everyone, really helpful to know what people think.

I'm going to upgrade and get a new chartplotter (probably a Raymarine Axiom) and continue to use Navionics on that and a tablet. By far seems the most cost effective, unlike C-Map wanting £270 per region.

I only plan on one crossing, so my Indiana Jones style paper chart will go up on the wall after :D
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If you are going Raymarine, have a look at the raster charts that you can get from them. The Imray charts are tons cheaper than Navionics, and you can get a lot of charts for across the other side free.
 
I crossed last year landing Martinique been to loads of islands so far and now sitting in Curacao. I've not bought a chart since mine ran out in the Canaries.

I used Openseamap on my Simrad chartplotter for basic overview of the land (it's not to be used for navigation), then I have Opencpn on a pi feeding a touchscreen in the cockpit. On this I have the CM93 charts (old but mostly accurate for here), satilite image overviews, and navionics overviews. To top it off, I have a 'certain' navionics version for android that I can download any chart for.

Anyone that wants links to anything, just let send me a private message.
 
When I sailed to the Caribbean from UK, I didn't have a chart plotter. Just used paper charts I find them best for the job. In the Caribbean I discovered NV charts. You get the best of both worlds, paper and a CD or download for a tablet. Not a fan of Imray charts I find they lack enough detail. Crossing the and cruising in the Pacific I heard of and saw several boats who replying on cart plotters had put themselves on on the reefs. I would never put all my trust in just a chart plotter.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
I was replying to Rupertw, who said that because most people consider it unsafe to cross the Channel without AIS, ergo paper charts are obsolete.
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Ah, gotcha. I was trying to say that people have moved on past plain chartplotters to enhanced systems(including AIS) making paper chart use further and further into the past for most posters on this forum.

Personally I have neither a cockpit chart plotter (just iPad navionics on the chart table ) not AIS but even I take out the back up paper charts less and less.
 
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