UKHO want to drop small craft folio charts

Seajet said:
I agree it does sound alarming - and stupid, maybe they're trying to drum up more customers for the beleaugured RNLI...
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The information will still be available on standard charts.

I suspect this proposal has been bought about by more and more folk using (and totally relying on) chart plotting devices leading to the reduction in sales of the folios.
 
The short survey cantata posts requires no personal info so there's no reason to not complete this if you have an opinion.

I presume the "changing requirements of users" is a switch to digital and only a minority of yachties ever updating paper charts. We may say "we still have imray" but if paper chart use declines further, why would a commercial company carry on producing them?

We're encouraged to carry paper charts as a matter of responsible seamanship. Without the folios they would not be cost effective and more people would go digital-only. It would be a shame if this were left to the commercial market.
 
Considering that you can buy a digital version of every single Admiralty Chart of British waters for £25, is it any surprise that paper charts are not being bought?
 
Yes, this is encouraging poor seamanship and relying on digital, the RYA should be kicking up a serious fuss seeing as their afiliated schools generally say paper charts are a good idea, relying on digital as we know will wnd in tears one way or another.
 
Don't IMRAY small craft folios offer an alternative? Not sure of their coverage, but they are a reasonable second best.
Interesting if it's really caused by ubiquitous reliance on chart plotters, because I thought people were meant to carry (and know how to use) paper charts in reserve anyway...

I seem to remember SHOM offering small craft folios, are they going to consider dropping them as well?
What about all the fantastic Norwegian and Swedish folios, are those authorities going to stop printing them? Of course not. They are not that misguided.
 
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Giblets said:
The information will still be available on standard charts.

I suspect this proposal has been bought about by more and more folk using (and totally relying on) chart plotting devices leading to the reduction in sales of the folios.
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Agreed, so why not do as the USA do & offer free electronic charts. Free as they are paid for from public funds in the first place
 
Seajet said:
Yes, this is encouraging poor seamanship and relying on digital, the RYA should be kicking up a serious fuss seeing as their afiliated schools generally say paper charts are a good idea, relying on digital as we know will wnd in tears one way or another.
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The whole commercial shipping sector "rely" on enc charting, why are we any different
 
I would be sorry to see them go, but I have to say that I don't remember the last time I opened a paper chart. When we took delivery of our new boat a couple of years ago, I realised that I had left all our paper charts on the old boat which we had traded in. I popped along to the chandlery to buy paper charts for the area that we were going to be sailing - I found them unopened in the chart table a couple of weeks ago.

Now, I know that we are not "serious sailors" - we seldom venture out of sight of the shore and we know the areas where we sail pretty well - but as far as I can see, the vast majority of boat owners are in the same camp. I can well believe that the market for paper charts is now becoming too small to justify keeping the presses running. Perhaps the answer is for the UKHO to sell them in digital format with software that will allow you to print them off in a variety of formats? We recently purchased a very decent colour laser printer for less than £200. Ink jets are close to disposable these days.
 
Old Harry said:
The whole commercial shipping sector "rely" on enc charting, why are we any different
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Perhaps the commercial shipping requirements to use ENC are far greater than the leisure boater would be prepared to comply with such as duplicate systems/redundancy/backups. Maybe Minn, Antarctic Pilot, etc could enlighten us on the requirements.
 
Very unfortunate as all small craft should carry paper charts as unlike the big boys they will not have have duplicate navigational and electrical systems. The folias were an economic and sizewise manageable alternative to the large charts which I have always struggled with in my smallish yachts.

However I prefer Imray presentation so not directly affecting me yet, but a sign of things to come
 
I use The Admiralty paper charts for planning all the time. If I relied on just my plotter I have no doubt I would have run onto a rock by now as the plotter information is sometimes insignificant to see or just plain wrong. I do hope they keep these charts going.
 
Ohlin Karcher said:
Yes because paper charts should be carried in reserve anyway.
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You've got it the wrong way round. Charts should be primary, and plotters, as their instructions say, be used as aids, even if for most of us the plotter is our first point of reference.

Personally, I prefer Amiralty charts to Imray, and find it easier to stick to the one. I have never quite considered Imray to carry the authority of the Admiralty charts, and don't generally need the additional information given, which I have from other sources such as Reeds. For many of us, the folios are the best way of covering a cruising area, such as the Channel Islands, but Imray will at least be a lot better than nothing.
 
oldmanofthehills said:
Very unfortunate as all small craft should carry paper charts as unlike the big boys they will not have have duplicate navigational and electrical systems. ...
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The cost of modern plotters, smart phones, tablets and laptops is so low these days that there really is no excuse for not having duplicate electronic navigation capability. In addition to the Garmin plotter, we generally have at least two GPS enabled smartphones plus a Garmin hand-held GPS. We will also be carrying three or four tablets with some level of electronic charting on them, albeit not GPS enabled, but the marine VHF handie is a DSC unit with its own internal GPS - we could, somewhat tediuosly, use that to get our coordinates and transfer them into any of the non-GPS enabled tablets.
 
johnalison said:
You've got it the wrong way round. Charts should be primary, and plotters, as their instructions say, be used as aids, even if for most of us the plotter is our first point of reference.

Personally, I prefer Amiralty charts to Imray, and find it easier to stick to the one. I have never quite considered Imray to carry the authority of the Admiralty charts, and don't generally need the additional information given, which I have from other sources such as Reeds. For many of us, the folios are the best way of covering a cruising area, such as the Channel Islands, but Imray will at least be a lot better than nothing.
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Yes what I meant was, those people who use plotters as their main way of navigating should carry paper charts in reserve.
Personally I use paper charts for everything, helped by GPS.
 
mainsail1 said:
I use The Admiralty paper charts for planning all the time. If I relied on just my plotter I have no doubt I would have run onto a rock by now as the plotter information is sometimes insignificant to see or just plain wrong. I do hope they keep these charts going.
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Does your plotter not have a 'route check' facility?
To say that the plotter information is just plain wrong suggests that it is derived from a different source, which it isn't. If the information is wrong on the electronic chart then it will be wrong on the paper chart!
 
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