Charts and Canadian Waters

rochepoint said:

By the way Conrad, nice photos of yours there!
Love the ones of the Enno's, I remember her........

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Thanks again Mike! You remember Dorian from her days in Sidney?

Russell Clifton said:

... I understand there is a chart store in Nanaimo that has every chart there is for BC. Take lots of money.

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This isn't getting enough love. The store is Nanaimo Maps and Charts. As well as selling charts with up to date NotMar corrections they sell a lot of esoteric marine books. The owner is the next best thing to a hydrographer if you're looking for something unusual.

Nanaimo Maps & Charts - 8 Church St, Nanaimo, BC

But yeah, bring money. If I ever win the lottery...

So this last weekend I talked to a Canadian official as they had a booth at the Seattle Boat show. I asked about the chart requirment. She asked me how many chart plotters I have. I states 2 with a computer back up. She told me that becuase I have at least one other chart plotter as a backup, then I am not required to purchase Canadian charts. However she did say I could download them for free.

Just went to the Canadian web site. No mention of downloading them for free. Unless it has changed very recently I don't think they are free.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

So this last weekend I talked to a Canadian official as they had a booth at the Seattle Boat show. I asked about the chart requirment. She asked me how many chart plotters I have. I states 2 with a computer back up. She told me that becuase I have at least one other chart plotter as a backup, then I am not required to purchase Canadian charts. However she did say I could download them for free.

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That's what we did on our last trip north.

I didn't and don't carry paper charts anymore.

I do carry a spare chart chip as well as you indicated a second plotter.

The Charts are $12, $15 and $18 and only available through dealers.

What kind of Canadian official? I believe you are still recurred to carry charts.

http://www.charts.gc.ca/charts-cartes/digital-electronique/index-eng.asp

If you have ENC charts with the very high end systems on large commercial ships, you don't need paper, however you might want to contact this email:

CHSInfo@dfo-mpo.gc.ca



Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

Charts and Nautical Publications Regulations, 1995

Now just like the US for boats required to carry them, then...

(3) The chart may be in electronic form only if
(a) it is displayed on an ECDIS or, in the case of failure of the ECDIS, on a back-up arrangement; and
(b) the ECDIS
(i) in waters for which an ENC is available, is operated using the ENC,
(ii) in waters for which an ENC is not available, is operated using an RNC,
(iii) when the ECDIS is operating in the RCDS mode, is used in conjunction with paper charts that meet the requirements of subsections (1) and (2), and
(iv) is accompanied by a back-up arrangement.

However...

(2) The master and owner of a ship of less than 100 tons are not required to have on board the charts, documents and publications referred to in subsection (1) if the person in charge of navigation has sufficient knowledge of the following information, such that safe and efficient navigation in the area where the ship is to be navigated is not compromised:
(a) the location and character of charted
(i) shipping routes,
(ii) lights, buoys and marks, and
(iii) navigational hazards; and
(b) the prevailing navigational conditions, taking into account such factors as tides, currents, ice and weather patterns.

C lectric said:

I'm going to add one more bug I have.

Total dependence on plotters and electronic charts.
.

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I agree. We have two full-size C-Map plotters (Echotec and Furuno) and a smaller, self-contained Standard Horizon C-Map plotter we can mount in a couple of places on the boat, and an iPad with a charting app that doesn't need connectivity to work and overlays the Active Captain data base.

(We don't believe in laptop based navigation for the simple reason that I use enough Microsoft systems at work to have long since learned there no way in hell am I going to trust our boat to an operating system the Microsoft Kids dreamed up.)

We also carry a full set of paper charts for everywhere we go or might go in Puget Sound/San Juans and BC. And we have the big chart books for the areas we go frequently. The paper charts stay rolled up in their container but the relevant chart book is always at the helm on a chart board.

We have all the navigation tools to use paper charts and in a pinch we could plot courses although we'd need to review the process first. We plotted some of the routes we use the most onto the charts in the chart books a long time ago so if we needed to follow them they're already there. We use the magnetic compass for holding our desired heading all the time anyway, so using the compass to follow a plotted course on a chart would be no big deal.

For books we carry a older Waggoner but don't use it other than as a reference for dock layouts in harbors. The guidebooks we use the most are the Douglas Guides and the Sailing Directions for US and Canadian waters. There is also a really nice book we found that covers anchorages and harbors in BC that we use a lot.

We carry several different current guides for US and BC waters and we use Ports and Passes for tides and current info for the passes. Our plotters all have tide and current info in their card databases and the Furuno and Standard Horizon depict current strengths in real time on the display, which comes in handy at times.

But while we use electronic navigation as our primary means of getting from Point A to Point B via Point C, we would not be without the paper charts, requirement or no requirement. The big map books in particular are very useful (as is the chart app in the iPad, which sits on top of the chartbook).

We do our cruise and route planning on the paper charts and/or chart books, although we are starting to do more planning with the iPad and Active Captain.

(We don't believe in laptop based navigation for the simple reason that I use enough Microsoft systems at work to have long since learned there no way in hell am I going to trust our boat to an operating system the Microsoft Kids dreamed up.)
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We continue to use it still, our old laptop, because we have the alternatives. I stripped absolutely everything out of it, all programs, photos other than what was absolutely necessry for it to run the chartware and charts. Even the WIFI card is out so it CANNOT connect to anything else, unless I hook up by cable connection.
It became amazingly reliable, not foolproof although no problem since, once that was done.

It will be replaced upon any hint of trouble.