Fletcher500
Guru
I know several people who drive around 1,000 ft. long ships for a living. They don't carry paper charts on their personal boats.
Also, using an electronic calculator to do your sight reduction is kinda cheating, isn't it?
I know several people who drive around 1,000 ft. long ships for a living. They don't carry paper charts on their personal boats.
I know several people who drive around 1,000 ft. long ships for a living. They don't carry paper charts on their personal boats.
There are a lot of people who do a lot of things on their boats, doesn't make it right.
There are a lot of people who do a lot of things on their boats, doesn't make it right.
There's a big difference whether we are talking large commercial ships vs. a small recreational boat with a single helm and single GPS. OK sure, I could pull out my cell phone and assuming I have a signal it can be an electronic backup. But I could argue whether a 5" phone screen is superior to a D size paper chart especially in unfamiliar waters.
There's a big difference whether we are talking large commercial ships vs. a small recreational boat with a single helm and single GPS. OK sure, I could pull out my cell phone and assuming I have a signal it can be an electronic backup. But I could argue whether a 5" phone screen is superior to a D size paper chart especially in unfamiliar waters.
OK mybe I'm too out of date. On my boat, I have a single Garmin GPS. I have a cell phone, no tablet, sometimes a laptop that needs wifi by cell or other source. So I still carry paper charts. And in my particular example on my new to me boat after not boating for many years, when my Garmin died in unfamiliar waters, the quickest and best solution for me at the time was to pull out a chart book. Took less than 30 secs to find my position on the chart and navigate to our intended destination. If I had experience with using phone apps, maybe that would have worked but even though I had them on my phone, I had no real experience using them. Keep in mind, I'm a recreational boater on a rather small boat, so I don't travel thousands of miles a year like many of you do. For the near future at least, there will still be chart books with me on my boat.
There are a lot of people who do a lot of things on their boats, doesn't make it right.
My point is that the lack of a GPS signal only renders the position info disabled...not the charting function depending on the plotter.
So the people worried about electronic charts and problems with the GPS system obviously don't understand the connection between the two.
If the system goes down...everyone reverts to position plotting manually...whether on electronic charts or paper ones. And some of us with laptop nav can plot just as easily on an electronic chart as they can on a paper one.
or wrong.There are a lot of people who do a lot of things on their boats, doesn't make it right.
Yes as long as you know where you are on the chart. One reason I plot my position on paper or my cell notes. Also, we had the mfd light fail so gps signal does not have to go down to lose its utility.
FYI, the raster charts are no longer being updated in some areas of the US. Maybe all areas; I haven't really been following the notices.
To me, this is a far bigger change than paper to electronic. We're abandoning centuries of work by professional cartographers who actually visited the places they were charting.
In some cases, aren't electronic charts derived from the paper charts? I find the same inaccuracies in both at times. One area I sometimes boat in says there should be 2-3' of water and yet it's consistently 30' over a large area. It's not an area that is dredged as far as I know.
Interesting read. The bottom line is paper charts are going away. Existing paper charts will, over time, become more and more outdated (inaccurate), more quickly is some places such as the ICW. Still, I like them for their ability to show a much broader view of a waterway but, for navigation, they are clearly inferior. All this hoohah about electronics failure goes in the same bin as worrying about a lightning strike. Having a backup leaves no worry at all. And, as one poster observed, even if GPS crapped out, the chart is still there but, as opposed to the same paper chart, will be more accurate. ENC charts are updated weekly. Paper charts in hand, never.I don't recall anyone posting this link:
https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/farewell-to-traditional-nautical-charts.html
Good FAQ found on page.
In some cases, aren't electronic charts derived from the paper charts? I find the same inaccuracies in both at times. One area I sometimes boat in says there should be 2-3' of water and yet it's consistently 30' over a large area. It's not an area that is dredged as far as I know.
There was and may still be a tight relationship between raster and paper charts produced by NOAA. They look the same to me. As most of us already know the paper / raster vs vector debate will be moot in the US in just over 3 yrs. I'll miss them, especially the electronic raster charts. https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-raster-charts.html
I like using both, but neither is just relegated to being a backup.
Neither paper nor electronic are mutually exclusive. For voyaging a good compromise is to keep wide area (coastal) paper charts for seeing the big picture and then rely on electronics for details in harbors, rivers, channels, etc.
Plus for those of us who are romanticists, it’s wonderful to lean over a big chart with dividers and a parallel rule, drawing a course with a pencil, teaching traditions to your kids.