Do you cruise without paper charts?

Between my Chartplotter and running Garmin Bluecharts on my ipad, I am starting to venture beyond my paper charts. I could buy more chartbooks for Southwest Florida, the keys and South East Florida but not sure if it is really needed. Just wondering if others chart electronically only?

Old School in me says its a No No.

John P

I use both. I use the electronic charts all the time. However when going into unfamiliar areas I find having both is handy for me. The paper charts give me a large surface to see the big picture. Can't do that on the smaller displays with my old man eyes. I guess that is the big reason I like having the paper charts. If my eyes were as good as they were when I was 30 I may be different.

Rogerh said:

I use both. I use the electronic charts all the time. However when going into unfamiliar areas I find having both is handy for me. The paper charts give me a large surface to see the big picture. Can't do that on the smaller displays with my old man eyes. I guess that is the big reason I like having the paper charts. If my eyes were as good as they were when I was 30 I may be different.

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I do agree it is nice to look at a paper chart to get the whole picture for planning and just checking out overall progress. It also gives others onboard an easy reference for the "are we there yet folks".

No paper charts.
I use openCPN on a pc on the boat, and installed that and some other charting apps on my Samsung phone. I used to buy paper charts.

There is no "need" for them......

Just your own desires and preferences.

There are some "what ifs" for both camps, but not anything that can't be overcome or ignored.

Probably a bigger discussion possible over raster or vector charts.

psneeld said:

There is no "need" for them......

Just your own desires and preferences.

There are some "what ifs" for both camps, but not anything that can't be overcome or ignored.

Probably a bigger discussion possible over raster or vector charts.

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I use vector charts. The detailed info is useful.
https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/learn_diffRNC_ENC.html

So far, no, but except for the delivery trip, I haven't ventured far from the local cruising grounds for which I have guides and charts.

On the delivery trip, we went offshore from Fort Pierce to Beaufort, NC, with paper charts, 2 GPS systems, AIS (with basic GPS display and lat/long readout), the Navionics app on my tablet, and GPS phones with various nav capabilities. GPS fixes were being used to track our progress on the paper charts by the "old timers." If they hadn't been along, the paper track wouldn't have been maintained. I didn't see value in the paper charts or the track beyond historical/sentimental.

We did lose one of the GPS systems near the Florida/Georgia border when a "new" satellite appeared in its view that it didn't know what to do with. (I later learned that updates were not available for that system, so I replaced it. That would have been nice to know before starting, but I can't count how many of those nice-to-know things I didn't know on that trip.) Had we lost all electronic nav capability, I'm not sure what good the paper charts would have been. Head west, find land. Once land was located, some paper would have been helpful to locate ourselves along the coast and find an inlet, but a guide covering the landing spot and surrounding area would have been preferred to paper charts.

Thinking back, the paper did give us insight into the offshore shipping lanes and the occasional lights and day shapes that we wouldn't have had without them or the electronics. Without paper and a known starting point, we couldn't have maintained a DR plot had we lost the electronics.

As I've learned and practice in my real job, deciding what you need when cruising can be framed as risk management. Evaluate the risks, mitigate them to the degree you determine acceptable, and be prepared to accept the residual. Having paper is a risk mitigation, but the value of that mitigation will vary significantly with the user's experience, confidence, and supporting tools.

I've always had a collection of paper charts so the simple answer is no, but the reality is if I cruise to a new area I will be guided by electronic charts. I really like the way coastal explorer has integrated the updates to mariners in their charts. Best of both worlds.

Oops wrong thread

You can have electronic charts downloaded on a computer and keep a running log of fixes and estimated set, drift and leeway.

RNC charts are pictures of paper charts so they contain the exact same info

There is no real difference except space and money for some.

I like paper for their ease sometimes too.....but on a smaller vessel....starting to make less and less sense to me.

OpenCpn on my 10 inch tablet. Amazing GPS accuracy. I found paper absolute.

We use OpenCPN on a laptop (and a backup), an iPad with Garmin Blue Charts and we just installed an MFD with Navionics. We also have cruising guides for each seasons destinations also. We haven't had paper charts in over 10 years.

I use raster charts on my laptop with a gps puck on my cruiser. On my sailboat I have a chartplotter. On both boats I have a chartbook for new england.

I seem to recall some jurisdictions where paper charts are a legal requirement. Last year some very informed navigators had an article in PMM on the paper yes/no subject with paper charts seemingly a good idea as electronic charting lapses occur.

A good set of charts in a large booklet is pretty cheap insurance. Me, I have big charts for the entire run from Seattle to Glacier Bay. Use them routinely laid out on the chart table as necessary. The Admiral insists on it as do many informed guests. i lack trust in Mexican charts and by extension plotter data for that country.

In all my years of driving, a safety belt has saved my life only once.

I always have paper charts to insure the electronic ones keep working.

Primary is garmin 5212 chart plotter. I use paper chart books for planning and the "big picture ". My wife follows our route on paper as we go. I also have updated blue chart mobile and navionics on my iPhone handy plus my laptop loaded with the updated raster charts.

Yes... Big picture of the area in a large format that is easy for two or three people to gather around.

Tom.B said:

Yes... Big picture of the area in a large format that is easy for two or three people to gather around.

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Seems most folks agree. Sitting around planning or looking at the big picture paper is nice. When really navigating electronic charting is the only way to go.

Not for everyone...but you could put it up on a TV screen...bigger than my chartbook and in my case, 2 steps away from lower nav station.

Just from NJ to FL and the Bahamas.....that's 4 cursing guides snd .4 chartbooks.

A lot of room on a 40 footer if you include the Coast Pilots and Tide Tables.

Electronic versions with multiple backups has a lot going for it for me.

I use both. I find paper gives me the redundancy I need when venturing in new waters. I update on paper every 15 minutes using my Garmin info, a really good pair of binoculars for landmarks and numbered channel markers and a good compass. I won't run my boat without a working depth sounder. I'm old school but it works for me.

I keep paper charts on board. I've been in a bunch of lightning storms and if I take a hit I figure I will lose all electronics.

Also, I find it quicker to get general ideas off the paper instead of moving things around a screen.

Necessary to keep paper? No. And I don't bother keeping them up to date. And in some areas I don't have anything in paper that is scaled to show all detail.

But what I have will stay on the boat.

bilge53 said:

I always have paper charts to insure the electronic ones keep working.

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Murphy does have a way of making you spend money on tools not needed.

The traditional view is to always carry paper charts as a backup and I still do, mostly based on the library I've collected over the years. But, no, I don't think you need them for navigation these days if you have suitable backup devices. I have two tablets with Navionics on them for redundancy.

As stated above, the real value of paper charts is for route planning and for a big , large scale look at areas of interest.

I too was a believer in paper charts as a backup until I read Jeff Siegel's newsletter in Active Captain about the subject.

His thesis was that we have lots of backups in today's iPhone, iPad, Android age and there are easy ways to protect them from a lighting strike.

In addition to our helm mounted chartplotter, we have three electronic backups on board: two iPads with nav software installed and even an old iPhone with Navimatics installed.

If we are in a heavy thunderstorm, we just pop one or two into the microwave which acts like a Faraday cage and protects the electronics from the EMF surge of a lightning strike.

And if all goes to hell, pull over to somewhere safe, drop the hook and get out the flares.

David

I don't use paper charts at all for navigation. Having backup navigation is what matters, and that can take many forms, not just paper. In our case it's a main computer, then a laptop as backup to that, then an iPad as backup to that.

We do have a handful of large scale charts that I printed at home from the NOAA pdfs, but we use those strictly for trip planning, not for navigation.

djmarchand said:

I too was a believer in paper charts as a backup until I read Jeff Siegel's newsletter about the subject.

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Jeff Siegel's newsletter about the subject? I'll have to look that up.

In an era when you can buy a 50" WiFi-ready LCD TV for $400 that runs comfortably on a converter, seeing the big picture with electronic chart apps seems quite simple. I can appreciate the value and retro feel of paper charts for a home area or someplace you'll spend a lot of time, but they don't seem practical any more for long distance cruising.

I have a chart set for the AICW but I haven't looked at it for years. I understand there's a chance my two plotters might fail but I have a backup app on my phone.


Mostly though, I am in sight of land and in well charted waters and not too far from a place to tie up and get things straightened out.

Electronic only. Raymarine nav suite. We have Polar Navy as a backup on a laptop, IPad, and our IPhones.

Garmin bit the dust due to corroded connector pin. IPad overheated in the sun. Pulled out trusty IPhone with Navionics. Battery life is an issue but then I can use my wifes IPhone or my laptop. Haven't run into any rocks yet.
Paper chartbooks onboard but haven't used them.

Siegel = https://activecaptain.com/newsletters/2013-10-23.php

We never purchase paper charts or use books of them. We do all our navigating by electronic. As psneeld noted above, if you want a bigger picture, just go to a bigger screen such as a television. Now, we do print paper charts occasionally when we just want something to hold and walk around with and talk about. When through with them, we throw them away, as if needed again, we'd print fresh ones, not use old ones. Navigation, serious trip planning, 100% electronic.

Whereas some long time paper users see electronic as toys, we see paper in that way. We've never had to navigate with paper. We know how, we could, but we learned electronic from the outset.