I initially was dismayed at the discontinuation of printed charts. I have a couple of hundred of them covering most of the coast from Penobscott Bay to Florida. I have them segregated by state or area for access. But as I thought about it, that’s a lot to store on the boat (I use a large diameter PVC tube for each state/area – about 6 of them – with the charts for the state I’m in under the chart table). I also use mostly the small scale harbor charts on a regular basis, and rely on a chartbook for day-to-day planning and to provide a “Large view” not offered by a chart plotter screen available in the cockpit. And many of my charts are older and not updated by the NTMs.
On balance, my reliance on paper charts has been pretty limited over the past few years. Besides, NOAA has tried to clarify the ability of paper charts by publicizing that full sized print-on-demand are still available when needed or desired. Here is a link to NOAAs Print on Demand page: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/pod/POD.htm One alternative to full size charts that probably would work well for most of us is the Booklet Chart that you can download as needed and print at home. They are PDF and formatted to be an 8 ½ x 11 booklet. Since most of us use a chart plotter for actual sailing, these are good for reference or for trip planning. And they are a lot easier to store than full sized charts. Following is a link to the charts and a description from the NOAA website: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html The NOAA BookletChart™ is a product that you can print at home for free. BookletCharts are made to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water. The BookletChart is reduced in scale and divided into pages for convenience, but otherwise contains all the information of the full-scale nautical chart. Bar scales are also reduced in scale, but are accurate when used to measure distances in a BookletChart. Excerpts from the United States Coast Pilot are included. Most chart notes are consolidated on a single page for easy reference. Emergency information for the charted area is printed on the back cover. BookletCharts are updated every week with Notices to Mariners. Rick Brass Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Indigo Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 2:01 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: Stus-List NOAA Navigation Charts -- For Free I thought I read that you could continue to go to private shops (Westmarine??) to buy on-demand printed charts. It's just the pre-printed ones that are no longer available - but why would you buy these anyway as you then have to manually apply any updates post print date?
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