official USA chart site-useful for planning USA sailing...

[Lizzie_B]

and it's free. www.nauticalcharts.gov/bookletcharts/ Wouldn't it be nice to think that one day the UK government might want to offer a similar service to taxpayers (or am I being unfair and they already do it). Not big enough for boat use, but I suppose they could be enlarged with a good copier!

The entire US Coast Pilot books are also available for free download from the NOAA website.

 

[Ships_Cat]

Hi Lizzie_B

For many years now here in NZ both hydrographic data and the land equivalent have been regarded as part of the public good (in the same way as the cost of many other things judged to be economically important) and the official charts and maps resulting from that are available at the cost of production plus the retailer's margin (USA is somewhat similar).

That means for the official electronic charts (where the cost of production is very small) the whole official set retails at a cost less than the equivalent of 20 UK pounds. That set also includes the charts for the Pacific Islands that NZ has international charting responsibilities for as well as the small scale international charts for the whole of the Pacific Ocean. Paper charts do not have such a big saving due to the higher production costs and the costs of holding and keeping stocks corrected, but much cheaper than most places.

Available on the internet free are the same charts (not sure if all, haven't checked recently, but certainly most) as high resolution GIF files, although the images are not kept corrected and are "not to be used for navigation." However, they work perfectly well in charting applications such as SeaClear and for a number of years that is what I did.

An important difference though here compared to the UKHO, of course, is that the UKHO does provide charts for much of the world (although much af the data is now sourced from other nations). It would be interesting to know how much NZ charges UKHO for NZ hydrographic information (while it has been many years since I have looked at a UKHO version of a NZ chart, I think they are the same charts in fact (same for Oz) just alot dearer - maybe someone can clarify).

John

 

[Talbot]

If you have a laptop programme capable of using S-57 charts, then there is a much better resource http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm

I understand that Fugawi (abt $200) will work with these charts, but dont know of any others.

 

[AndrewB]

One reason NOAA charts for North America are easily available is that they are not copyrighted. This means for example it is OK to photocopy them. UKHO has been very resistant to the idea that they might folow suit.

 

[srm]

If you go to the UKHO website you will find this statement:

"The UKHO is a government Trading Fund and part of the Ministry of Defence".

Presumably they have to balance the books, if not make a profit for their political masters, so little chance of free use of their products - though Easytide with 7 days free predictions is a very good service.