What is the minimum amount of charts and books that I need for going around Scotland?

[Thresher]

I've sailed around Ireland with just 4 large scale maps and Reed's almanac and found that it almost entirely suited my needs.
Searching through old threads on this forum and trying to find what I need for going around Scotland it seems that I'll need 6 or 7 Imray charts at £20 each and it seems that the Clyde Cruising Club sailing directions are essential, 4 or 5 books at £35 each. It's all going to add up to over £200.
The only Pilot book that I have ever bought was the East Coast Pilot book and although it was nice to read it didn't tell me anything that I needed to know that wasn't in the almanac.
Do I really need to spend all of that money especially now that I also have Navionics on a tablet?

 

[Alan S]

How do you go round Scotland without going round England and Wales?

 

[dunedin]

It all depend on what you mean by “going round Scotland”.

If you are going to do long motor-sails between marinas (like some do on round bits of Britain trips) then a CA Almanac and Navionics on an iPhone will get you there.

However, if you want to spend time in the lovely anchorages then I would recommend:
- all the CCC / Imray Pilot Guides for the areas you are visiting - they are a great winter read before you go, as well;
- Antares Detail charts - which are electronic, so probably want MemoryMap to run them
- having done so, buy the full set of electronic UK Admiralty Charts for Memory Map as well
Personally I carry the relevant Admiralty Small Craft Folios, as useful for passage planning and go to a decent detail.

Personally I find Imray wide area C series charts only useful for the motoring between marinas types, but that is just IMHO.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I've sailed around Ireland with just 4 large scale maps and Reed's almanac and found that it almost entirely suited my needs.
Searching through old threads on this forum and trying to find what I need for going around Scotland it seems that I'll need 6 or 7 Imray charts at £20 each and it seems that the Clyde Cruising Club sailing directions are essential, 4 or 5 books at £35 each. It's all going to add up to over £200.
The only Pilot book that I have ever bought was the East Coast Pilot book and although it was nice to read it didn't tell me anything that I needed to know that wasn't in the almanac.
Do I really need to spend all of that money especially now that I also have Navionics on a tablet?

In many places, you'll want to stop at an anchorage or mooring buoy rather than a harbour or marina, and the anchorages and buoys aren't in the Almanac! That said, there is an excellent free publication that gives a lot of the regular locations (see Welcome Anchorages). Navionics should be sufficient chart-wise, but there are several leisure folios that cover the West Coast and which are helpful.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

A full set of Charts for the West Coast, about 60, will cost about £1500, and about £700 for the East Coast of Scotland. A look at the online catalogue will allow you to decide which ones you need. Alternatively, Memory Map and the the UK Marine Charts Card, over 850 charts, can be purchased for about £45 and a low cost laptop can be purchased for about £200. The choice is yours.

 

[dunedin]

In many places, you'll want to stop at an anchorage or mooring buoy rather than a harbour or marina, and the anchorages and buoys aren't in the Almanac! That said, there is an excellent free publication that gives a lot of the regular locations (see Welcome Anchorages). Navionics should be sufficient chart-wise, but there are several leisure folios that cover the West Coast and which are helpful.

Whilst “Welcome Anchorages” is a useful free booklet, other than a couple of exceptions it only lists marinas, visitor pontoons and visitor mooring buoys. It doesn’t actually show 99% of anchorages.

 

[dunedin]

A full set of Charts for the West Coast, about 60, will cost about £1500, and about £700 for the East Coast of Scotland. A look at the online catalogue will allow you to decide which ones you need. Alternatively, Memory Map and the the UK Marine Charts Card, over 850 charts, can be purchased for about £45 and a low cost laptop can be purchased for about £200. The choice is yours.

But depending on where planning to go, 80% of the West Coast (up to the Shiants) is covered by two Admiralty Small Craft Folios at about £45 each (plus another £45 for the Clyde).
Most of the East is hardly worth bothering with (says an East coaster who keeps his boat on the West ;-)

 

[JumbleDuck]

It all depends how often you want to stop and what sort of places you want to visit . If a quick whizz past visiting only marinas, pontoons and other popular places suits you - and why not? - then the Imray charts should do almost everything. If you want to explore anywhere in more detail then yes, the CCC book for that area is more-or-less essential.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Whilst “Welcome Anchorages” is a useful free booklet, other than a couple of exceptions it only lists marinas, visitor pontoons and visitor mooring buoys. It doesn’t actually show 99% of anchorages.

True, but if the OP found the Almanac sufficient elsewhere, I suspect that "Welcome Anchorages" will suffice, and it does cover material not to be found in almanacs. I entirely agree that it doesn't present anything like a comprehensive view of anchorages! But for those, the Leisure folios are probably the lowest cost resource; after all. you can anchor anywhere where there is shelter and a reasonable bottom. Navionics should keep you away from fish farms.

 

[Minchsailor]

I go with @JumbleDuck. For a first time visit to the west and northwest the Imray charts, with their insets of the most popular ports and 'difficult bits' (Sound of Luing?) are probably adequate. After that it all depends how much time you wan to spend in the area.

CCC pilot books are essential if you want to get the best of the area, but recent used ones second hand will be adequate and much less than the cost of new. Essential for places such as Arisaig. Things don't change that much.

Exception is the Northern Isles pilot if you get that far - there were considerable changes for the 2016 edition (I had a hand in editing it).

Antares charts - don't cost much and are useful addition.

Small craft portfolios - very useful, and gives as much information as the full size charts, but coverage stops a bit north of Skye. Some really fun bits further north, on both the mainland and Outer Hebrides, for which you might want the admiralty charts (1794 - Minch Southern part, and 1785 - Minch Northern part will get you around).

North coast of Scotland - to be honest there is not much up there. 1954 (at a scale of 1:200,00) will get you from Cape Wrath to Wick and includes the whole of the Orkney Isles. But if you want to explore the Orkney Isles you will want some more detail the and Tidal Atlas - Orkney tidal streams are vicious.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Small craft portfolios - very useful, and gives as much information as the full size charts, but coverage stops a bit north of Skye.

I have about five of them, mainly because they fit nicely in my fold-down chart table. They are OK, but have two related disavantages. First, you don't get a useful large area (Is that large or small scale? I can never remember) one for planning a trip. Secondly, there is rarely any overlap at all between sheets, which can be a bit of a pain.

I cope by using Imray for the bigger picture and the SC sets for detail. I also carry a lot of genuine admiralty charts which I acquired for my old boat. Most live permanently under the forecabin cushions, but some are in constant use. For example, 1906 "Kyles of Bute" and 1907 "Little Cumbrae to Cloch Point" cover my local haunts on the Clyde while 2168 "Approaches to the Sound of Jura" and 2169 "Approaches to the Firth of Lorne" neatly cover all the fun stuff near Crinan, from Gigha to Iona.

 

[dunedin]

I have about five of them, mainly because they fit nicely in my fold-down chart table. They are OK, but have two related disavantages. First, you don't get a useful large area (Is that large or small scale?.

They may have changed, but all the Small Craft Folios I have do include a small scale planning chart covering the entire area. One of these planning charts covers most of the West Coast, which is very handy.
On one Folio only, the planning chart is only half sheet (with a chunk of SW Mull sharing the sheet), which is annoying and was hoping they would have fixed that in a later version, but not sure if they ever did.

 

[Alicatt]

It all depend on what you mean by “going round Scotland”.

If you are going to do long motor-sails between marinas (like some do on round bits of Britain trips) then a CA Almanac and Navionics on an iPhone will get you there.

However, if you want to spend time in the lovely anchorages then I would recommend:
- all the CCC / Imray Pilot Guides for the areas you are visiting - they are a great winter read before you go, as well;
- Antares Detail charts - which are electronic, so probably want MemoryMap to run them
- having done so, buy the full set of electronic UK Admiralty Charts for Memory Map as well
Personally I carry the relevant Admiralty Small Craft Folios, as useful for passage planning and go to a decent detail.

Personally I find Imray wide area C series charts only useful for the motoring between marinas types, but that is just IMHO.

Enjoy your trip.

The Antares charts and the UK Admiralty charts were/are on special offer just now on Memory Map

 

[Alicatt]

I go with @JumbleDuck. For a first time visit to the west and northwest the Imray charts, with their insets of the most popular ports and 'difficult bits' (Sound of Luing?) are probably adequate. After that it all depends how much time you wan to spend in the area.


North coast of Scotland - to be honest there is not much up there. 1954 (at a scale of 1:200,00) will get you from Cape Wrath to Wick and includes the whole of the Orkney Isles. But if you want to explore the Orkney Isles you will want some more detail the and Tidal Atlas - Orkney tidal streams are vicious.

Aye that they are, The Merry Men of Mey are not what you want to see through your cockpit window
Even in an Offshore 105 with 450hp it was unnerving going through the Firth for the first time, and I have lost friends with that tidal race too.

A French canoeist was doing a round Britain tour stopping off at small harbours around the coast, he planned on taking a week to explore the north coast, he got the tide wrong and it took him 1 day to go from Cape Wrath to Dunnet Head. When he managed to get ashore he said he was terrified, he could not get out of the tidal stream and it was only that he got caught in an eddy at Dunnet that he managed to get in and ashore. The tides up there can really catch out the unwary.

Edit:

Tidal races[edit]
The Firth is well known for the strength of its tides, which are among the fastest in the world, a speed of 30 kilometres per hour (16 kn) being reported close west of Pentland Skerries. The force of the tides gives rise to overfalls and tidal races which can occur at different stages of the tide. Combined with gale force winds, they often give rise to extremely violent sea conditions, which have caused accidents such as the 2015 sinking of the cargo ship MV Cemfjord that resulted in the death of eight crew members.[8]

Some of the principal tidal races are:


Map of the Pentland Firth and associated lands

• ‘The Merry Men of Mey’. Forms off St John’s point in the west-going stream and extends as the tide increases NNW across the firth to Tor Ness. The worst part is over a sand wave field about 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) west of Stroma. The waves formed by this race form a natural breakwater with relatively calm water to the east of it, particularly noticeable when a westerly swell is running. Tides in this area can exceed 19 km/h (10 kn).

From here: Pentland Firth - Wikipedia

 

[Concerto]

I am finding this thread very interesting as I am planning to sail this area in a couple of years time. Just did some research in to the Pentland Firth tides and they certainly should be respected. The peak flow tidal map shows the worst areas and tidal atlas (Visit My Harbour) showing the strengths over the tidal cycle.

Marine Scotland - National Marine Plan Interactive

Hourly tidal streams around the Pentland Firth : by VisitMyHarbour [Tidal Streams] - VisitMyHarbour articles (Full screen available if you are a member).

 

[Kelpie]

If I was forced to choose, I would get pilot books rather than charts. The extra information is invaluable, and at a pinch you can get by in terms of charts using a variety of other means. There is no substitute for a pilot book.

Charts don't have to cost the earth. Antares chartlets are about £12, Navionics is free if you have web access, and OpenCPN can be paired with free charts (questionable legality/vintage). We've also used Google Earth, with a lot of caution and a good depth sounder, when investigating anchorages.

Obviously it's best to have everything. Leisure folios are affordable, and it's always worth asking for a loan of a few charts of you're not expecting to need them for more than one season.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

An old netbook running Linux Lite, say £50.
USB GPS puck, about a tenner.
qtVlm and the entire Uk & Ireland charts from Visitmyharbour.com, £15.95.
Clyde Cruising Club blue book or up-to-date equivalent.
Tide tables.
Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlas for the UK.
Imray charts or Leisure Portfolios in case netbook gets wet.
A book of road maps, because you’ll anchor off places and wonder how the hell people get there by road.
Two mobile phones on different networks, or a dual sim phone, if you want to stay in touch.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Lots of good sound advice, but I’m a little bemused by some of the comments on ‘anchorages’. To paraphrase Antarctic Pilot, an anchorage is anywhere that’s sheltered with a bottom you can anchor in. There are tens of thousands of such places around Scotland (depending on where the weather is coming from.) One really good reason for having good charting is to be able to pick a decent spot to drop the hook for the night. The pilot books etc just describe the obvious and popular ones. I enjoy picking my own spots too.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Charts don't have to cost the earth. Antares chartlets are about £12, Navionics is free if you have web access, and OpenCPN can be paired with free charts (questionable legality/vintage).

O-charts charts for OpenCPN are legal, detailed, cheap and regularly updated. Why use the old illegal ones?

o-charts | Charts for OpenCPN

 

[AngusMcDoon]

The pilot books etc just describe the obvious and popular ones.

And some of the unobvious ones too, like Loch Shark for example.