Electronic or paper charts

We left Holland almost ten years ago with a full set of paper charts to take us into the Med, and a 10 inch plotter with the same charts digitally. We found we used the paper charts less and less. In French Med waters we swapped our Atlantic charts for ones to take us most of the way to southern Italy but some of them were never referred to. Entering Greece we bought folios for the Ionian and western Aegean and used them rarely. Now in the Eastern Aegean we have no paper charts of the area but have Navionics on iPad as a back-up.
 
I, too, no longer look at paper charts. We have a chartplotter at the hlem for pilotage and another linked at the chart table for planning. Plus an iPhone and iPad plotter as back up

The last time I used paper in earnest was planning a trip up the Norwegian coast and really didn't use them once we there and haven't missed them since.

Regarding the analogy with TomTom, I use this virtually every day for car journeys and with its smart routing I enjoy being sent to places that I would never have dreamed of routing myself.
 
Eric79 said:
Thanks for all the advise, I'll carry on with the paper charts then take a look at ploters when or if I pass my course.
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You'll pass the DS theory - the RYA policy used to be that no one who turned up and did the work should be failed. In a way the pass doesnt matter - what matters is that you do the learning and the exercises.

As for the chart choice, you need to know the basics of chart work to understand what the plotter is telling you. But most people end up using a plotter once they have one including me. The paper charts are worth having to give perspective as someone has put it so I always have them on board.
 
wotayottie said:
You'll pass the DS theory - the RYA policy used to be that no one who turned up and did the work should be failed. In a way the pass doesnt matter - what matters is that you do the learning and the exercises.

As for the chart choice, you need to know the basics of chart work to understand what the plotter is telling you. But most people end up using a plotter once they have one including me. The paper charts are worth having to give perspective as someone has put it so I always have them on board.
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Thats good to hear thanks for the tip
 
Personally I prefer paper charts but if you start travelling a bit, the simple logistics and storage make them impossible to use on a small boat.
I now only use paper for planning purposes.
I've got 176 redundant paper charts here at home, Admiralty and SHOM mainly. Son 1 has several as wall-decoration in his pad in Jyvaskala.
Spanish and Italian charts are rubbish and the best I've come across are the US ones.
Harbour plans in Pilots (if treated with due suspicion) are valuable.

The oft repeated "backup" argument is, IMHO, nonsense - I've always got two alternates in plotters, with separate power supplies.
 
charles_reed said:
Personally I prefer paper charts but if you start travelling a bit, the simple logistics and storage make them impossible to use on a small boat.
I now only use paper for planning purposes.
I've got 176 redundant paper charts here at home, Admiralty and SHOM mainly. Son 1 has several as wall-decoration in his pad in Jyvaskala.
Spanish and Italian charts are rubbish and the best I've come across are the US ones.
Harbour plans in Pilots (if treated with due suspicion) are valuable.

The oft repeated "backup" argument is, IMHO, nonsense - I've always got two alternates in plotters, with separate power supplies.
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I think the backup argument has related more to a backup against the failure (or switch off) of the GPS system as a whole more than the local failure for a long time. A hand-held GPS receiver has been pretty cheap for a long time and most of us also have navigation capable phones and tablets as well. With the Russian and Chinese systems being made available, this requirement for backup is reduced a lot - my Android based phone and tablet are now showing a sky full of satellites with some having very high numbers - not sure which constellation they are from...
 
maby said:
I think the backup argument has related more to a backup against the failure (or switch off) of the GPS system as a whole more than the local failure for a long time. A hand-held GPS receiver has been pretty cheap for a long time and most of us also have navigation capable phones and tablets as well. With the Russian and Chinese systems being made available, this requirement for backup is reduced a lot - my Android based phone and tablet are now showing a sky full of satellites with some having very high numbers - not sure which constellation they are from...
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Yep, the backup argument isn't to hot (hh GPs in metal box along with smart phone) but do you not find it easier to absorb detail from a paper chart? ok my chart plotter screen is tiny but even using open cpn at home I just don't seem to take as much in. Analogy - you read a book but you look at a pdf on the computer.
 
charles_reed said:
The oft repeated "backup" argument is, IMHO, nonsense - I've always got two alternates in plotters, with separate power supplies.
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My job involves working with large numbers of industrial computers. What I've noticed is that it's not that unusual for multiple things to fail close together.

Similar electronics used in similar ways kept in a similar environment will sometimes tend to behave in a similar manner.

Then there's the fact that with a backup in an anti-lightning metal box there is the temptation for it to stay there and not be regularly tested, in which case when your primary fails you may realise your secondary failed some time ago.

IMHO it's better to have a very different kind of backup. Something with different failure modes less likely to occur coincidentally. Paper...
 
aslabend said:
Yep, the backup argument isn't to hot (hh GPs in metal box along with smart phone) but do you not find it easier to absorb detail from a paper chart? ok my chart plotter screen is tiny but even using open cpn at home I just don't seem to take as much in. Analogy - you read a book but you look at a pdf on the computer.
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Certainly so - no argument. I will always use paper charts for planning and when outside familiar waters I keep detailed log book records in order to permit a fallback to paper if necessary. My original point was that with so many navigation capable devices on most boats these days, the thing we are really backing up against is the loss of the satellite network, not the electronics on the boat.
 
When the makers produce a navigation system that will work without electrical power and will withstand being stepped on I 'might' consider going to sea without paper, but I doubt it somehow.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
I have plotter down below with repeater in the cockpit. As a back up I have OpenCPN on laptop and Navionics on the phone and tablet. However I always plan routes on the paper charts. One reason is that some hazards do not show on the plotter until you zoom in and it is all too easy to plot a route on the plotter via a hazard.

I also make a plot of our position on the chart every hour. Good practice but also helps novices on board get a feel for navigation. Also breaks the boredom when motor sailing or at night. I also agree that it is much easier to discuss routing possibilities with the chart open on the saloon table

When getting close to our destination, that is when I get plotter dependant

So off to Adriatic in the Spring, and will be investing a set of Imray charts.

TudorSailor
 
Plasticised paper charts I can understand but plain paper charts to me are the first item to fail on a yacht. By law I carry a paper chart of my local area in a plastic folder stowed safely out of the way in the chart table to be produced when demanded. For navigation its a laptop with Seaclear and the back up is a handheld GPS.

Even cruise ships have stopped using paper charts.
 
fishermantwo said:
Even cruise ships have stopped using paper charts.
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1-14-12-Italian-cruise-ship-sinking_full_600.jpg
 
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