Pilot Guides & Almanac use in decline?

[Bristolfashion]

We are avid readers & users of these things. However, on our cruise this year we've met people who don't know they exist, people that don't use 'em and those that seem to just turn up and do as they fancy without calling in when required and so on.

Does anyone else find this? Is it a tendency to expect free info on t'internet rather than paying for guidance? I'd be loathe to lose the carefully edited and illustrated guides in favour of some bloke on YouTube!

 

[Praxinoscope]

We always have the relative Pilot books for the areas we sail in + a relatively up to date loose leaf Nautical almanac.

 

[dunedin]

I guess it may depend where you sail. Almost everybody I meet in Scotland use the superb CCC / Imray pilot guides (incorporating Martin Lawrence's) pilot contents.

Don't carry an almanac, as most seem to be a bizarre mix of static information (but binned annually), not detailed enough pilotage information, and tide tables I can get on my phone

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Always use pilot books for for the little helpful sketches of harbour, tide/current charts plus details of harbour masters vhf channel.

I carry an out of date Reeds to give me tidal differences from primary port, and such useful nav information as may be had from them if chart plotter fails etc. Much of Reeds seems adverts, and though marinas might come and go, buoys change slowly and rocks not at all.

The last significant change I noticed in the Bristol Channel was the building of 2nd Severn Crossing - which made no difference except improved buoyage in the Shoots and the building of Cardiff Barrage and locks.

 

[Habebty]

Always like a pilot book, but giving up on almanacs annually, as stated above tides readily available on apps. Will probably get an almanac every 3-4 years now.

 

[capnsensible]

I suppose that with the amount of information available on plotters now, it's inevitable the use of paper will decline.

However, you can't take your plotter home to do planning!

Tides? Well yeah, phone internet access makes it simple to look.

But just Mebbe, look but not understand.....?

 

[lustyd]

I always have a copy of the Reeds Almanac on board, not always in date but I carry it mainly for the huge section at the beginning rather than the harbour info which I may consult before a trip to somewhere new. I gave up on pilots a long time ago, that info is often out of date, plain wrong, or available elsewhere in more consumable ways, and the pilot books always seemed to have just enough information to justify printing a book and nothing more. The days of relying on a sketch in a book to make safe entry to a harbour are long gone with decent plotters in the cockpit showing the desired track against your actual position. If I want to go somewhere now I'm better off with a Google search where I'll likely find a sailing blog detailing the entry and harbour facilities, or more commonly a video of the whole experience so detailed I feel like I've been there before. If the industry had any sense they'd start a YouTube channel and website and start creating modern content available for free online, getting profit from the various sources in the process. Even Tom Cunliffe is starting to see the sense in this approach, with his various new sponsorships in video format. Unforunately he's a fish out of water, but there will be a new generation to replace him with any luck.

 

[lustyd]

carefully edited

That's far from my experience in the various books I've invested in. Many of the errors cross editions too, as I found when comparing my Scillies pilot with one two editions newer on a trip last year.

 

[Wing Mark]

I have been wondering about this, for the sailing I intend to do, there is a lot of information in Reeds, but most of it is duplicated, and often better presented elsewhere.
Unless you are going away for a long time without internet, there really is no need to use it for tide tables?
I think I will collect the relevant HW times ashore before going away for a week or less.

Tide stream chartlets are valuable, but exist in other books.

Passage planning info, there is much more detail in a pilot book.

The port info with up to date buoyage plans etc are useful, especially if your charts might be a little dated.

I'm thinking I might get the 2022 one.
It's good to know all the essentials can be found in that one book.
But once I have a season of checking out other sources under the keel, I probably won't buy another.

 

[Gary Fox]

I prefer to use all available sources of printed info, before turning to the iPad.
It suits my inclinations, and is more seamanlike, to always plan from all possible sources; a Reeds almanac, any available pilot guides, plus if possible a big blue Admiralty pilot, old but authoritative. Ordnance Survey maps are excellent for pilotage.
(If using Ordnance Survey maps for transits etc, remember the datum is not WGS84...)
I don't use a moving-map chart plotter, just basic GPS.
Pilot books can be gold dust, for example: Neville Featherstone's timings for the Chenal du Four and the Raz were inspired and saved me a lot of hassle.
If you rely on the internet for info, you are missing out and your skills are shrivelling from lack of use. You might need them some time.

 

[capnsensible]

I always have a copy of the Reeds Almanac on board, not always in date but I carry it mainly for the huge section at the beginning rather than the harbour info which I may consult before a trip to somewhere new. I gave up on pilots a long time ago, that info is often out of date, plain wrong, or available elsewhere in more consumable ways, and the pilot books always seemed to have just enough information to justify printing a book and nothing more. The days of relying on a sketch in a book to make safe entry to a harbour are long gone with decent plotters in the cockpit showing the desired track against your actual position. If I want to go somewhere now I'm better off with a Google search where I'll likely find a sailing blog detailing the entry and harbour facilities, or more commonly a video of the whole experience so detailed I feel like I've been there before. If the industry had any sense they'd start a YouTube channel and website and start creating modern content available for free online, getting profit from the various sources in the process. Even Tom Cunliffe is starting to see the sense in this approach, with his various new sponsorships in video format. Unforunately he's a fish out of water, but there will be a new generation to replace him with any luck.

Good idea. Why don't you do it?

A friend of mine wrote a pilot for the Straits of Gibraltar that I ended up writing the amendments to and my wife organised the publishing and distribution. Even after we moved on, we used to get many requests for it but it was hard yakka getting all the advertising done that made it profitable. At the time, we often considered an e version but didn't do it.

Beware if you do, you will get lots of complaints, often trivial, but to be credible you will need to be polite with your response. And advertisers will drive you up the bulkhead!

 

[capnsensible]

I've had a brief look online for YouTube pilot guides to the Canary Islands. No luck, anyone found anything before?

 

[capnsensible]

Found this for the 2015 edition of our pilot.

The Straits Sailing Handbook 2015

I took that picture!

 

[Gary Fox]

I've had a brief look online for YouTube pilot guides to the Canary Islands. No luck, anyone found anything before?

No idea, but the book type pilots, eg the RCC one,cover 'Atlantic Islands' so that might be a useful alternative search term.

 

[franksingleton]

I suppose that with the amount of information available on plotters now, it's inevitable the use of paper will decline.

However, you can't take your plotter home to do planning!

Tides? Well yeah, phone internet access makes it simple to look.

But just Mebbe, look but not understand.....?

For eyesight reasons, I am a confirmed iPad man. I have two large ones so that I can have one in use and one on charge. I use iSailor as the charts are excellent. It could not be easier to use. It is linked wirelessly to my DY AIS GPS. I can do planning at home. My backup is an iPhone, also with iSailor, this receives GPS independently of the AIS.
In the same way that books are less used, so is terrestrial radio - at least for the vast majority of us for whom a 3 or 4 day passage is the absolute max. In our case, in our late 80s, 24 hours is the max. Use of iPad navigation and the internet has meant that we can still sail to and from France although our daughter tries to accompany us for cross Channel passages. We still carry paper charts and almanacs although my wife has to read them - or I photo on the iPad. I like to be able to refer to an almanac so that a soft copy version would be useful. For tides, I take screenshots for ports and periods as necessary. As I usually err well on the safe side, I am rarely doing detailed secondary port type calculations. Rule of 12ths plus a safety margin is quite adequate. Hence my comment earlier about RYA exam type questions.

 

[Lightwave395]

I carry slightly out of date Reeds and Bloc Marine for fine detail, just download tide tables for the areas and months I'm sailing. I have a another older Reeds at home which is used for planning along with Navionics web-based program

 

[Bristolfashion]

A word for the excellent East Coast Pilot which sets the standard imho. Tom's Channel pilot provides both illumination and entertainment. The RNYC sailing directions are also good. Reeds almanac & the CA almanac both have good info.

Whilst I often use the 'net for tides, if you want to look at the pattern of tides over time, I find the CA tides almanac useful.

The CA streams info, shown off most ports are simple to use - rather than trying to interpret various arrows, the N. -05.00, S +01.00 (referring to Dover HW) style is simplicity itself.

I don't really mind if the info is delivered in print or electronically, it's the editing, consistency, presentation & quality that count - and for that, we have to pay.

 

[lustyd]

Why don't you do it?

Many reasons, the main one of which is that I have a pretty good career elsewhere. Another being I'm not destined to be a YouTube star or even a content creator. I do have a popular channel but popular here is in the context of big data analytics, so it's an easier, more forgiving audience who don't expect much in the way of storytelling

YouTube pilot guides

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. The Internet can't be treated like a book so your approach needs to change. You're not looking for a pilot guide on YouTube, you're looking for videos of people sailing in the Canaries. In those videos you'll see entrances and anchorages, and get comments on local knowledge as well as being shown facilities. You might need to look around a bit and get used to making quick decisions about whether content will be useful. Until someone creates a replacement organisation for the likes of Adlard Coles or Lorie Norie and whatsit to bring the content into a single place it'll be a bit harder to find. At this point I don't hold much hope of the book people understanding the new media platforms so my expectation is that they will die off along with the magazines (sorry YBW!) and new organisations will be born. Unfortunately it's a build it and they will come situation so someone needs to make a bunch of content before they'll start to make money. The potential money is certainly a pot worth chasing though!

 

[Sandy]

I buy a copy of Reads every seven years, just print off a copy of the Dover Tide Tables in other years. I much prefer paper Pilot Guides, but supplement that with the InterWeb. Eyemouth, Arbroath and Brighton were all being dredged this summer there is no way that was in a pilot guide.

I did have a laugh when a 'rather keen racing boat' attempted to leave Brighton when the dredgers were moving and got five blasts. Quickly followed by the marina reminding everybody that when the dredges were moving not to pass them.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Reeds for me. My current copy is year 2020 which is the most recent I've owned for some years.

Long may the publication continue .

Local : Crossing the Thames Estuary . A must have if going that way and for other stuff too.