Where are you, and where exactly do you expect to race. You’d be welcome to my Cowes Week stuff, but it may be simpler to order on line. The charts are called Buoy Racer. Solent Buoy Racer Guide 2025 The positions ate pretty constant but sponsors come and go, so the marks get new names from time to time. The same 2 character designation though. You should get the name and the 2 letters when given a course.
Very helpful on a bigger boat…. We have that on our Dragonfly, but the OPs ‘small boat’ may well not even have a depth sounder. We completely rely on those laminated ones on the XOD, as does about 2/3 of the Cowes Week entries. The skill is finding your quickest route in the complex tides and variable winds of the central Solent without a computer to tell you where the tide is going, or what the wind is doing a mile away.
Absolutely. We use that in addition to electronics, plus of course on the instrument free experience. The half hour pages and the extra detail are so much better than the ‘other one’. (Bruce) Though I have that on my bedside cabinet, for reference at home.
We don't race, just cruise so my only tide compensation is to go to the edges before the turn as it seems to change there. Must look out for a second hand copy of above book as it's a little bit expensive for a non racer.
Isn’t there a free chart in one of the links given above - eg https://www.scra.org.uk/assets/documents/central-chart-ccca.pdf
The name changing really means a new set every year. But we race in the Solent especially the central area many times in a year so it doesn’t seem so bad.
