Paper charts.
Everyone says they have them, or plan on getting them. I’d be willing to bet that half of those people don’t really have them, and/or never get them. Or, if they actually do have them they are horribly out of date.
I’m solidly in the out of date category myself. But to be honest, computer navigation systems are getting so friggin reliable, robust, AND cheap. Paper charts are becoming more and more backups for your backups.
You could go with a dedicated navigation system like Garmin, or Simrad (Installing this on our boat now), or anyone of the other options available. You could save a bunch of money and go the iPad route and install Navionics. Or do like we did for years and run some version of Navigation software on your laptop, plugged into a handheld GPS. The possibilities are almost endless.
All that being said, stuff on boats get wet. Electrical stuff getting wet, does not equal awesome. So back-up paper charts are still a good idea. One of the major drawbacks to paper charts though is the freakin’ cost. Which probably contributes to why a lot of boaters either don’t have paper charts or “plan” on getting them someday. It sucks paying a few hundred dollars for something you will most likely never use, or are out of date, or you don’t even know how to use properly.
Which brings us to the reason for this post. I was poking around NOAA’s website the other day and found they have an experimental program going on. Check it out here. The booklet format is experimental, not the charts. :)
Quote from the website:
The NOAA BookletChartâ„¢ is an experimental product that you can print at home for free. They are made to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water.
The Booklet Chart 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.
Printable charts from NOAA are not a new thing. What is new is the booklet format. Click the region and sub regions you want, download them as .pdfs and print them out at home or work. Or go to something like Fedex.com’s online printing have it printed out and bound for around $30 per booklet. Which is a lot cheaper than than buying all those charts the old school way. And they will be up to date.
The really nice bit, is that in this format, each edge of the map is marked so you know which page to flip to.
Being a bit of map geek. I prefer to plot/navigate on the old school, large charts. But having these booklets on board as a back up is great/cheap alternative to spending tons of cash on charts for regions you are just passing through.