New leisure charts - Admiralty, Imray, or...

MikeBz

MikeBz

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Since my charts are now 10 years old I reckon it's probably time to treat myself to some new ones. I really like the cockpit-user-friendly Admiralty Tough Chart format (spiral bound) but sadly they're no longer produced. At this stage I'm only interested coverage of the Kent/Essex/Suffolk rivers and general Thames Estuary area. So is it just a choice between Admiralty and Imray Leisure charts, and if so which do people prefer and why?

Mike
 
I have both - only in order to do my NtM service. Had East Coast Sailing still been going I reckon your question would be worth an article. For what it's worth I'll run through what I have:

UKHO

5605 - Chichester to Ostend - 15 Charts including good harbour charts of Ramsgit and its Eastern approaches, Dover, Shoreham, Newhaven, Littlehampton, Folkestone and Brighton, Ostend, Dunkirk, Gravelines, Niewpoort and Calais. UKHO symbols on the revers of one chart plus tidal streams for all charts on the back of another. Nice scale for some particular the Goodwins, Calais to Dunkirk and Rasmgate to Calais - plus of course the southern England coast to Chichester.

5606 - Thames Estuary South down to Dover Strait - 15 charts. Southern (very southern) North Sea passage planning chart, useful Thames Estuary South, Goodwins in one chart so not as good as 5605 but probably ok, Ramsgit and North Kent coast in a good scale, ditto covering the West Swin. 5 charts covering the Thames to Tower Bridge and 3 covering the Medway and Swale. Harbour chart for Ramsgate and the eastern approaches. Symbols and tide data.

5607 - Orford Ness to Ostend and Thames Estuary North. 14 charts. Southern North Sea passage planning if you want to do Orford Ness to Ostend but nothing south west of Ostend. Thames Estuary North ok but if you wanted to cross Ramsgit to Essex Rivers you would this folio and the previous. Excellent Detail of the Essex and Suffolk Rivers.

5614 - Orford Ness to Whitby (some I will never trouble with pencil there!) 25 charts. Good detail as you would expect all the way up the coast, 3 good scale charts covering the Wash, 6 on the Humber and lots of Harbour charts included.

Paper on UKHO is ok. Seems slightly shiny but is easy to annotate NtM. Most of these I keep at home to do the NtM service but those on board have worn well - not that my chart table is vulnerable to water - well not since I replaced the deck. :D

Imray

2100 - Thames Estuary South - 8 charts - a main Thames Estuary South which is good and clear, 1 each on the Medway and Swale (UKHO would have you using several charts), Thames only as far as Hole Haven (Imray of course have chart C2 to cover the Thames), Goodwins, Ramsgate Approaches and Harbour on one chart, Dover Strait which is a pretty useful Dover to Ramsgate and Boulogne to Nieupoort area with good clarity with a detailed inset of all those Rad de Dunkirk buoys, and then two charts covering Nab Tower to Dover and over to Boulogne.

2000 - Suffolk and Essex Coasts - 10 charts - as main Thames Estuary North going from the Bench Head to Orford Ness and down to Fisherman's and Fulljer's. Fit for purpose but like the UKHO you will need the other folio for a Estuary crossing. You would fall over the edge of both Folios if you wanted to do Harwich to Ramsgit! Rivers Ore and Alde fine, ditto Walton Backwaters (UKHO does a much large Backwaters but it probably is deeply in Backwaters Anorak territory such is the detail). Offshore (Wallet etc) to Orford Ness is fine, Stour and Orwell fine, ditto Blackwater and Crouch and Colne. Also has a chart from Orford to Lowestoft plus harbour and harbour approaches.

Imray paper is pretty tough with a sort of shiny plasticiky finish. I would think they would stand a good soaking - not that I've tried but you have to be careful to let ink dry if doing corrections :rolleyes:

I think Imray's are very practical on a small yacht. You can go a long way on one chart, still with sufficient detail whereas with the UKHO you will have moved over two or three in the course of a day's sail. The UKHO will fill any desire you have for detail; Imray have probably done more thinking about what a yachtsman or woman really needs.

It's a tough choice!
 
TG's point about Imrays' paper is worth noting, I had a sheet end up in the drink in the upper reaches of the Mudway once (don't ask...) and it was sailing along merrily probably for 5 minutes before we fished it out. It was (and still is ) perfectly OK.
 
Last year I bought tough charts for the Thames estuary and harbours off e-bay. They were not corrected but are of some use.
It may be worth watching e-bay. (None of the tough charts currently on e-bay are for the Thames area)
 
Fire99 said:
I know I'm not always abreast of what's going on, but has East Coast Sailing ceased then?
Click to expand...

Whoops. It might not have been for me to say. The web site is still there but we have run into problems with finding the time to keep up what we hoped was quality. It's really for Colin to say since this was his excellent idea and his skills that created and designed the magazines. But there just hasn't been the time because of other commitments for the 4 of us to produce any more magazines.
 
tillergirl said:
Whoops. It might not have been for me to say. The web site is still there but we have run into problems with finding the time to keep up what we hoped was quality. It's really for Colin to say since this was his excellent idea and his skills that created and designed the magazines. But there just hasn't been the time because of other commitments for the 4 of us to produce any more magazines.
Click to expand...

:-( That's a real shame. I feel a magazine (online or otherwise) dedicated to our humble waters has been a real asset. Is there no way it could continue with additional support from others?

(Sorry if this is a bit of a thread drift)
 
Not sure how to answer that because my role was pretty basic and it is perhaps for the others to say what they want to say. There really are two issues; getting material and certainly support from others is very valuable there but the other issue was that producing the magazines to the quality you saw is very time consuming and time was becoming increasingly an issue.
 
Thanks for all the input folks, very useful. I might go with Imray leisure for the rivers and Admiralty for a Thames Estuary overview.
 
tillergirl said:
Whoops. It might not have been for me to say. The web site is still there but we have run into problems with finding the time to keep up what we hoped was quality. It's really for Colin to say since this was his excellent idea and his skills that created and designed the magazines. But there just hasn't been the time because of other commitments for the 4 of us to produce any more magazines.
Click to expand...

Very sad to see East Coast sailing go.
Though understand the reasons for its demise.
Thanks for all the effort put in by all concerned.
 
tillergirl said:
The UKHO will fill any desire you have for detail; Imray have probably done more thinking about what a yachtsman or woman really needs.
Click to expand...

Agree.
Started out with all Admiralty charts (as a naval type person it was what I grew up with).
The latest charts I have bought have all been Imray. Can't fault them.
Think I will stick with Imray for the near future.
 
Does anyone know how frequently they update? I notice that the latest Imray charts are from 2011. It occurred to me that I might hold off if an update is imminent any time soon.
 
Notices to Mariners are published regularly. If you go to my links page you can get access to them http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/page38.html

The UKHO Notices are up to date now - last one added is week 26 and there has been nothing relevant since then if my memory is correct. Imray are similarly pretty quick in updating their notices but I haven't really measured how quick but I think they add NtM as relevant pretty 'soon as'.

When either of them re-issue particular charts is hard to say as it is a commercial decision based upon the extent of change. It's not a regular process. Take the Wind Farm issue for example - all existing Wind Farms in the Estuary are shown on current Folios but most I think as 'Under Construction' whereas a number have or are just about complete. The outline of the Wind Farm under construction matches the outline of when it is complete so the tendency (it seems to me) is for the UKHO to issue a replacement block rather than reissue the chart. Of course when the chart is re-issued all the NtM it includes are deleted from the PDFs. You can get access of course by going to my old lists of NtM. That's a bit of a fag so that is why I have duplicated the notices by area.

Frequency of replacing such charts is a bit difficult. I have been annotating my folios now for three plus years and frankly there is very little that would get you into trouble if you stuck to the main channels in good vis and used common sense. For example the Black Deep buoy has been moved half a dozen times in the last three years so if you had an old folio and no corrections you would find it moved but in the scale of the folios you would probably not notice it had moved and you would still know it's red, can shaped and marks the nasty edge of the Long Sand Head so you would keep away - wouldn't you. There are of course other things such as the Rock Berm on the Kentish Flats where the wind farm cables cross. Now that is a hazard to leisure craft but if you did not know about that by following NtM, one hopes (in good vis) that the 4 buoys surrounding it would provide a clue! But in bad vis? That's really why we should all take some notice of NtMs - which of course is easy to say but difficult to do when the majority are of little consequence to us.
 
The Imray charts are designed for yachtsmen; the UKHO charts for ships' navigators. Imray removes unnecessary data before printing, which helps clarity. Imray prints on water resistant, tear resistant paper. Imray charts are, in the long run, better at deflecting deck drips from a bunk than UKHO ones, which do eventually go mushy. Believe me, I know from experience.
 
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