The end of paper charts is nigh!

[Chiara’s slave]

I use the boathook for that, as my boat floats on damp seaweed.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Same old. Not everyone owns their own boat. And not everyone stuffs it full of gadgets. Nothing wrong with that if you do, but doing yacht deliveries gives you all sorts of insights into how other people operate their boats.

Some tides ago I was with my wife on our own yacht entering a bay on the island of Culebra in the American Virgin Islands. The echo sounder had thrown its legs in the air so we sounded our way into a very pleasant anchorage using the lead line. As you do.

I sailed on a 12000 ton cargo ship that had a lead line and associated gear although we never used it in anger. Also a Walker log which we did use on ocean passages. It used to amuse the Albatross for hours!

 

[capnsensible]

I use the boathook for that, as my boat floats on damp seaweed.

An old John Goode tip was to tie a set length of line and the lead to the end of the boathook. Hey presto, forward looking echo sounder.

 

[capnsensible]

I sailed on a 12000 ton cargo ship that had a lead line and associated gear although we never used it in anger. Also a Walker log which we did use on ocean passages. It used to amuse the Albatross for hours!

My favourite boat job as a kid was to recover the log then put it back into the oggin in reverse to unwind the twist.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

An old John Goode tip was to tie a set length of line and the lead to the end of the boathook. Hey presto, forward looking echo sounder.

I hadn’t thought of that. Though I tend do perform my probing from the front beam, and in that depth, I can generally see the bottom. Still, looking can be very deceptive. Nothing like a lead line. Or a stick. We use bamboo plant supports in the XOD class.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

My favourite boat job as a kid was to recover the log then put it back into the oggin in reverse to unwind the twist.

And as soon as the Pilot left , out went the Walker.

 

[Scomber]

mmmmm bit out of date there methinks .............. various countries produce chips now .... the only problem is the base materials supply to factories has dwindled ....

bbc news 2 days ago
The island is where some of the world’s biggest technology companies go to get semiconductors made.Taiwan dominates the market for chip foundries, or outsourced semiconductor manufacturing.
Last year, the country’s contract semiconductor makers accounted for more than 60% of the world’s total chip foundry revenue.
And setting up chip manufacturing plants is no simple task – it takes time, a skilled workforce and money.
For example, at the end of last year Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) - which dominates the global market and has tech giants including Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia as customers - said it would open a new factory in Phoenix, Arizona.
However, the plant is not expected to start operations until 2024 and will cost around $12bn(£9.8bn)

 

[Refueler]

bbc news 2 days ago
The island is where some of the world’s biggest technology companies go to get semiconductors made.Taiwan dominates the market for chip foundries, or outsourced semiconductor manufacturing.
Last year, the country’s contract semiconductor makers accounted for more than 60% of the world’s total chip foundry revenue.
And setting up chip manufacturing plants is no simple task – it takes time, a skilled workforce and money.
For example, at the end of last year Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) - which dominates the global market and has tech giants including Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia as customers - said it would open a new factory in Phoenix, Arizona.
However, the plant is not expected to start operations until 2024 and will cost around $12bn(£9.8bn)

Does not change fact that various countries do produce chips ... I NEVER said anything about market share ...

 

[Refueler]

I sailed on a 12000 ton cargo ship that had a lead line and associated gear although we never used it in anger. Also a Walker log which we did use on ocean passages. It used to amuse the Albatross for hours!

Admiralty Seamanship Manuals till very recent still had pictures and info in about the Sounding Machine .... capable of sounding to 100 fthms ....... a formidable machine.

 

[lustyd]

The island is where some of the world’s biggest technology companies go to get semiconductors made

It certainly was. Intel, IBM and others have fabs ready to go in other countries. Pure luck that they managed to get them ready in time for the Chinese invasion, mind you, nobody could see that coming or planned carefully to maximise profit from it.

 

[Kukri]

I have used a lead line from a 69,000gt container ship, in good earnest, in darkest Felixstowe. We were meant to be alongside, but we weren’t… build up of mud at the berth. We needed evidence, to get Hutchison Ports to pull their finger out.

The lead line was long enough but reading it was the very devil!

 

[newtothis]

to get Hutchison Ports to pull their finger out.

How'd that work out for you?

 

[Kukri]

How'd that work out for you?

We are a big customer.

 

[newtothis]

We are a big customer.

I've covered two industries where the ultimate shareholder of one of the major players has been Li Ka-shing .
Not the easiest of companies to get along with.

 

[Kukri]

I've covered two industries where the ultimate shareholder of one of the major players has been Li Ka-shing .
Not the easiest of companies to get along with.

His businesses have a distinct and uniform style. I’ve twice worked in 50/50 JVs with companies that he owns. Where else would a management team who brought in a profit four times above FYF be rebuked for it? (Hong Kong Salvage and Towage, regularly!) My advice is to let them do the accounting; they are enthusiastic, meticulous and honest about it. They do have some Vogon - type qualities, but unlike some shipping companies that we can both name, they are not actually bad people.

 

[Imray]

Charts produced by national HOs will adhere to a standard set of chart symbols and colours. That's the real advantage of the Admiralty range - they are the same as the charts available from HOs world-wide, so you can get charts of the same appearance anywhere in the world. Imray charts, while excellent, have two drawbacks - first, they are a second-generation product, as Imray don't do their own survey. Second, they don't adhere to the international standard for the presentation of charts, so if you go to an area not covered by them, you may well have to learn a new set of symbols and colours, which may or may not be intuitive - and switching between them has the potential for misreading one or the other.

Hello. Sorry to nitpick but the fact that we don't do our own surveys is no drawback and has no bearing on the quality of Imray charts. We use exactly the same data supplied by the UKHO from their surveys both to their own cartographers and to all of the electronic chart providers. We also have a network of other data suppliers, and enhance the UKHO data with additional survey data where no UKHO data is available. We edit out irrelevant shipping-related data to best serve small craft with clear charts.

Imray charts DO adhere to the International Hydrographic Organisation standards for the presentation of charts. Our symbols are those used by the IHO. In instances where the IHO don't have a symbol, because they mainly serve the commercial sector, we adopt other recognised cartographic symbols. Agreed that our colours are different to many official charts, but there is no recognised international standard there. Imray were publishing leisure charts long before any hydrographic office, in response to customer need and feedback, so it could be argued that our intuitive colours (green for land, deep blue for deep water, paler blue for shallow, etc) are actually more logical!

 

[grumpy_o_g]

They’ve managed in aircraft for quite a few years!

Just about all the pilots I know still carry ICAO half-mils for key sectors. Very few of them have used them in anger for a long time though (apart from the light a/c brigade)

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Just about all the pilots I know still carry ICAO half-mils for key sectors. Very few of them have used them in anger for a long time though (apart from the light a/c brigade)

Our pilots in Antarctica wanted paper charts in the cockpit with them; they used them for planning. We produced new ones to their requirements every year.

 

[requiem]

Regarding software, OpenCPN (at least the drawing plugin) seems to offer some features that would allow for marking off areas, adding clearing bearings, etc. Personally I find it too kludgy to be practical, but the functionality is there.

My preferred app (SEAiq) allows any number of EBLs and VRMs, as well as marking out areas and lines when adding annotations. For me it's far quicker compared to OpenCPN, and doing something like a 3-point fix requires merely dropping three EBLs, putting one end of each on the planned targets, and then dragging the other ends once you've taken bearings. Multiple EBLs also work for calculating course to steer, etc.

I haven't yet played with it, but Rose Point's Coastal Explorer also claims to allow unlimited range/bearing lines and unlimited boundary circles, lines, and areas with alarms, along with a dead reckoning mode.

Yes, the method of using legs on a route is possible, but to me it's stretching things a bit much and asking for error.

 

[clyst]

It had to happen, although we got old charts on board , all our navigation is now done with Digital charts .
Someone said not long ago ,BUT what happen when the power goes down ,
Well the worst that can happen is GPS for some reason stop even then I could do a EP and work out COG , as far as power going down , with 2 iPads an Samsung and a chart plotter , it would mean 4 different power source would have to crash .

........ unless of course the Americans turn off their military sat nav .