Noaa to stop printing nautical charts

True, but that idea isn't stupid, thus our government would ignore it. Maybe in Sweden politician have IQ's, but not in the US.

Well, Bluewater Books and Charts has been printing the NOAA charts on demand while you wait for it. I don't see this as an issue because they can print any NOAA chart, versus the local store being out of the chart you need. I think large chains will fill the gaps and print and ship them as you buy them.....(hopefully).......

Incredible how private company can make a profit printing charts but the almighty government can't....

I have much more faith in Bluewater Books than the Federal Government, and I will have the charts FEDEXED because I have much more faith in FED EX than the Federal Govt's Post Office.
Best,
Maldwin

LOLOLOL as much as I hate to say it, I agree with you 100%

Per the article I read the FED sold the charts at cost.

I can't see the criticism here. Over recent years they've added many options plus there are many sources for the paper charts. Even with this announcement, they announced a full size PDF trial to be added. The demand for the actual paper chart they were printing had decreased tremendously. I look at the total availability of charts and charting in the U.S. compared to other places and it seems to me they deserve a lot of credit.

Lets see what we have:

-POD, Booklet charts, and RNC updated weekly.
-ENC Charts
-PDF charts updated weekly, two to eight weeks sooner than the old charts and in better resolution.
-Many remaining chart sellers for paper charts

All but the paper charts are free.

Jeffery Siegal of Active Captain wrote a very interesting piece in his newsletter about how dangerous paper charts are, principally because they're usually outdated. That would be the benefit of "Print on Demand" versus a print run that may be weeks old and not corrected to the latest Local Notices to Mariners. It's possible they had to toss out all the preprinted charts for the affected areas after Hurricane Sandy, and others. To read the well thought out editorial, it can be found at:
eboatcards(dot)com/the2ndmostdangerousthing
Irrespective of all of the viewpoints of paper vs no-paper, I have to wonder about what percentage of boaters out there can navigate without electronics. I'm sure all of the Yachtforums members can, so please don't take this as a personal challenge

Hi,

Chart Corrections are issued with the idea that they are applied to charts to keep them up to date.

NOAA Charts have never been popular with anyone have sailed with owing to their rather large size and their uselessness as gasket material when they reached the end of their life or the journey which was often the same time.

As new boaters, this is non-news to us. We've never owned one of their charts and had no plans to do so. In reading a lot of cruising stories, I have seen many boaters, especially loopers, who seemed addicted to these charts and all the notes they made each trip. Just not how we've been taught or are being taught. But then we're people who don't buy a traditional book if it's available on Kindle.

But don't the other available forms of paper charts allow you to do all that? I agree completely you want paper charts of some type for those situations. I've had enough car experience to be on my way somewhere new and UPS go out. We're not talking about having no paper available.

As a professional, you'll probably laugh at this. While we do have our Captains, we're trying to learn all we can. We love to print out charts for tomorrow's trip and even looking at them as we're in bed relaxing just to think of what's ahead. We also make notes to ourselves from other sources of sites we want to be sure to take in. We remind ourselves of bridges and schedules. The Captains put us through it all, but we enjoy doing some extra like that. I'm sure some of the novelty will wear off. We also have separate files we've started with tons of notes on everything. For instance, we just added a couple of days ago to avoid the train track side at Coinjack.

We just looked at then new PDF charts but don't have a printer with us to do them justice. We have printed the smaller POD's many times.

So, I'm not at all suggesting no paper as backup makes sense. I am suggesting that losing the NOAA paper charts isn't horrible and that what they do offer is pretty good.

You ask for directions? Oh my. I cannot let my wife read that.

I generally don't have anything in the car either, but I do sometimes print a map out in advance if it's planned and an area I have zero knowledge of. We also generally have secondary GPS, not by planning, but just phones differ from car. That does bring up something on the water. Phone, tablet, and laptop backup. We have charts loaded on everything so in most close areas would have some backup. Yes, we've been known to sit at Chili's eating dinner and looking at navigation charts on a tablet.

Arrrruh,
We'll just stop at any island and ask for directions....
Capt Ron

I used to buy a new charts for every delivery. Check off course / plot every couple of hours. all ships notes and log info was written on the back. Chart was left for the owner.
Always thought it would make a nice log and offer any data the owner or broker may be interested in. Also used it for a radio log when needed and left on the boat.

Last month we got a cold call. It took a while to understand what was getting asked until the caller mentioned he was comparing my notes from many years ago (on a chart back) to his latest observations making the same trek. Numbers were near dead on. He was the next (or next again) owner and was trying to thank us in a broken accent of unknown origin.

In regards to this post, I'll always try to obtain, have printed in wide format, or print myself somehow a latest rev chart and continue to record course/plot info and ships data on back. That one phone call paid for all my efforts so far.

I also carry my own laptop and gps. I'm not without spoils and use of modern technology. Our personal boat is loaded with electronic gizmos. Old paper has not been out on the personal boat in a long time,,,, but it's not far from reach, ever..

Oh
Unlike my cousin Ron, I've never been lost (not that I'd tell).
,Captain Ralph