What's happened to PBO chart corrections?

Dazedkipper

Dazedkipper

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I've just re-subscribed to PBO after a lapse to the dark side for a while. Taking a quick flick through the February edition (that has just arrived in December!) I can't see the corrections - have they been discontinued? I always though they were a really useful feature.
 
I vaguely remember them announcing that they planned to end this. Reasons being that corrections are available online nowadays, and the pages in the magazine were more useful for other purposes. Not mentioned, but apparently also true from what I read on these forums, is that hardly anybody seems to bother updating their charts anyway (I do).

Pete
 
Dazedkipper said:
I've just re-subscribed to PBO after a lapse to the dark side for a while. Taking a quick flick through the February edition (that has just arrived in December!) I can't see the corrections - have they been discontinued? I always though they were a really useful feature.
Click to expand...

Nobody (to a first approximation) uses charts any more and of those who do nobody (to a first approximation) bothers to update them. Well, that's the argument, I think.
 
ghostlymoron said:
How do you update electronic charts?
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They finally seem to be addressing that one. My new Navionics card came with a year's update subscription; you plug it into a USB adapter and it updates from their Web site. Obviously there is a cost involved after the first year, whereas paper corrections remain free for as long as the chart itself is valid.

On Kindred Spirit my policy was to keep the charts up to date but allow the plotter card to age gracefully, but on Ariam I expect to use the plotter more because it will be permanently mounted in the cockpit whereas KS's was portable and usually left stowed below. So I should probably fork out to keep that up to date.

Pete
 
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JumbleDuck said:
Nobody (to a first approximation) uses charts any more and of those who do nobody (to a first approximation) bothers to update them. Well, that's the argument, I think.
Click to expand...

Utter scribble Sir! Might apply where rocks don't change much but in other parts of the UK, things change more frequently.
 
prv said:
They finally seem to be addressing that one. My new Navionics card came with a year's update subscription; you plug it into a USB adapter and it updates from their Web site. Obviously there is a cost involved after the first year, whereas paper corrections remain free for as long as the chart itself is valid.

On Kindred Spirit my policy was to keep the charts up to date but allow the plotter card to age gracefully, but on Ariam I expect to use the plotter more because it will be permanently mounted in the cockpit whereas KS's was portable and usually left stowed below. So I should probably fork out to keep that up to date.

Pete
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Pete,

may I ask how much your navionics card / subscription was and where you got it ?

I have Navionics Gold which cost me £200 on top of the plotter ( I knew about it but still a blooming liberty ) - that was probably 6 years ago, and having seen the recent mentions of some Navionics being out of position it would be nice if they offered a proper update service, a very obvious requirement - but if another £200 maybe not !
 
ghostlymoron said:
Every sailor should carry paper charts in case of electronic failure. How do you update electronic charts?
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A recent article in YM advised that almost no ships carry paper charts nowadays. We went much of the way from Holland to Greece without any. We have digital charts on three totally separate systems, for which it is difficult to imagine a total failure.
 
vyv_cox said:
A recent article in YM advised that almost no ships carry paper charts nowadays. We went much of the way from Holland to Greece without any. We have digital charts on three totally separate systems, for which it is difficult to imagine a total failure.
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do they all have different battery systems then, cos it is water in the bilges shorting out your batteries that is probably the big single risk.
 
vyv_cox said:
A recent article in YM advised that almost no ships carry paper charts nowadays. We went much of the way from Holland to Greece without any. We have digital charts on three totally separate systems, for which it is difficult to imagine a total failure.
Click to expand...

Lightning strike or nearby strike could mess-up multiple systems.
 
Dazedkipper said:
I've just re-subscribed to PBO after a lapse to the dark side for a while. Taking a quick flick through the February edition (that has just arrived in December!) I can't see the corrections - have they been discontinued? I always though they were a really useful feature.
Click to expand...
If you are based in Woodbridge and only sail the East Coast and across to France/Belgium/Holland, then between us at our website, Tillergirl with his excellent NtM service, and East Coast Sailing, we should have it all covered anyway. PBO never sifted out the vast majority that talked about vast depth changes e.g. from 55m to 53m, so you had to read reams of them just to spot anything relevant.
 
Seajet said:
Pete,

may I ask how much your navionics card / subscription was and where you got it ?

I have Navionics Gold which cost me £200 on top of the plotter ( I knew about it but still a blooming liberty ) - that was probably 6 years ago, and having seen the recent mentions of some Navionics being out of position it would be nice if they offered a proper update service, a very obvious requirement - but if another £200 maybe not !
Click to expand...

Just did straight 'swap' for up to date card (at any Navionics dealer) for the bargain price of £99!!! This does include their new 'refresh' option for 12 months to keep the card to date. I do carry paper charts - just in case - and use them for passage planning and longer passages but no longer update them on the premise that, if I regularly update the card, my chartplotter gives me the most usable and up to date information in the cockpit where I need it.
 
It strikes me that whether you use a plotter or paper charts or both is generally just a matter of choice. It is dead easy to come up with a scenario where paper is essential (all power has failed including back-up devices) or where a plotter would be really critical (you are tired, wet, crew disabled so you are single handed and need a quick fix to start pilotage) or where you should have both, but not paying attention to NtM is kind of daft. For example in the Thames Estuary over the last year and a bit, the East Last channel has gone and the Copperas 'opened up', a rock berm has been created on the Kentish Flats with only 0.9m over it, new buoyage has been put in the Black Deep, buoyage has gone from the Knob Channel (ok that's more than a year ago), extra buoyage has gone in Fisherman's Gat and so on. I know most of those won't mean anything to South Coast sailors but to those messing around in the Thames Estuary they are kind of important. On a nice clear blue sky day with good vis and a kind wind, a sensible chap or lady could work out the changes but if the vis closed down as frequently it does and you come across two new buoys that don't match your chart or plotter, well...... I suppose you can say with the plotter, the icon is telling me where I am so that's ok. But then you have that nasty little spot on the plotter that says 3.7m of water at CD and you haven't monitored the amendment that says 'less water reported' (cos it now dries 0.5m), and you have gone 'donk' on some rock hard sand and the lifeboat is coming cos they know when the tide turns you are going to pound badly before you float clear. Fact is from having monitored the NtM for the Thames Estuary and environs for the past 3 years that 60% min won't affect us. But 30% are probably worth knowing and 10% in the wrong conditions could change a pleasant day into a character forming day. You makes your own choice......
 
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