Are paper charts still relevant?

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GoneDiving

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When I bought my vessel the PO included numerous (ie several hundred) charts. I never use them (several redundant electronic options available) and there are too many to store on the vessel properly.

Has anyone scanned charts to have on hand "just in case"? Any other options?

Are there programs that can stitch the individual charts together to generate one large map?
 
They are very relevant on our boat. We always have paper charts in the pilothouse for where we are cruising.
 
This is a U.S. centric answer but NOAA is phasing out paper and raster electronic charts:

https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/farewell-to-traditional-nautical-charts.html

I'm sure there are very good reasons why but it is sad news to me. I prefer the look of both paper and the raster derivations of them. I also think that working with paper is the best way to learn navigation.

There are good programs for stitching together raster charts, OpenCPN is a good option for PC based navigation, I like MemoryMap for Android devices and I'm sure there are plenty bof other nice and more expensive options too.
 
There relevant if your chart plotter crashes

I you were days away from your destination and your chart plotter crashed, what would you do. I have an independent depth sounder not connected to my navigation package and charts, outdated charts, but rocks don't move.
 
If question is whether backup paper charts are needed for safety, answer is no. 20-yeaes ago when I was delivering, MFDs were a hi-end system and not standard on most boats. I carried a laptop with GPS puck. Failure of a laptop wasn't rare so I carried printouts of many harbor charts figuring I could dead reckon to the sea buoy if needed. These days I'd grab my cell phone with navionics before paper charts.

If question is whether paper charts provide useful information and have a place at my helm station, answer is emphatic yes for areas I am unfamiliar, especially in channels such as the ICW or Delta (SF Bay). I like the spiral bound chart packs. Why? Because you cannot over zoom a paper chart and it forces situational awareness. All information is always visible vs ENC where information changes depending on zoom level.

For cruisers who have come of age in the era MFD or Navionics and tend to navigate channels by carefully assuring your vessel is on the dashed line of the highway view (which is invariably an over-zoomed view), I think you'd be surprised how inaccurate depth can be in non-commercial channels. Crowd sourced bathymetric updates are improving accuracy quickly, but still, learning to read water and develop an understanding of ATONs and the cadence of their placement remains a useful seamanship skill and makes for a safer, more enjoyable journey.

Peter
 
I still hang on to hundreds of paper charts. However, most of them sit in a closet off the boat. I have a Raymarine MFD, I have a laptop with costal explorer & GPS puck, I have an iPad with navionics, I have a surface with costal explorer. It’s been a long time since I have used a paper chart.

On the other hand I down loaded many raster charts. I have been printing them out and turning them into art work.
 
"Are paper charts still relevant?" Not at all - until you need one.

I suppose I am dating myself here, but you just cannot have spent much time running boats without learning that electrical systems and electronics in general are capable of failure - especially on a boat. And if something on a boat can fail, it will.

Chartplotters, MFDs etc. are cool and they keep improving, but I always carry a paper chart of the area I am navigating in, if only as a backup.

Their value goes beyond serving as just a backup, though. As Peter / mvweebles explained, the fixed scale of the paper chart strengthens situational awareness. In congested or confined waters that I don't already know, I place the appropriate paper chart close at hand just to help re-orient myself whenever I feel the need. If the chart is out of date, it doesn't matter.

Some day my kids will have to figure out what to do with the accumulated decades worth of paper charts and chart kits that I have never pitched. Maybe they'll use them as gift wrap!
 
When I started boating, I bought paper charts for every trip to new places. As soon as I started getting duplicates, from others, or when I wanted a second set at home, etc, I found a place in my home to mount charts of the frequently visited areas. When I had a spare wall at my office I covered it with charts. Fortunately many charts are 1:40,000 scale, so a wall size display would cover eg, the whole of the Gulf Islands. By the time I bought my present boat I had a good collection of the charts from Victoria to Chatham Point memorized. I quickly built a chart cupboard, consisting of a teak box tall enough to hang 50 charts folded in half, with a stick on hanging edge (from a drafting shop) and located beside my "chart table". I mostly use my laptop with CHS charts loaded, but the paper charts are handy and familiar.
Here in SW BC, rocks don't move around, so updates are only necessary where new Navaids or dredging occurs.
Familiarity is the key, and whether yours comes from paper or Electronic charts will determine which you go to.
 
grahamdouglass said:
I you were days away from your destination and your chart plotter crashed, what would you do?
Click to expand...

I just did a head count onboard and quickly found 10 stand alone items that could be used to get me within sight of home if things were desperate. Everything from dedicated marine electronics to kids' tablets. It wouldn't be an ideal situation but I'd get home.

PS. I'm certainly not recommending putting total reliance upon one plotter.

Thanks.
 
I use my MFD (Ray e127+Navionics Platinum+) almost exclusively. I also have Navionics Europe app on my phone as a backup. BUT I never go anywhere without paper charts as a back up too. Having retired from an IT-related career, I know that there are too many things that can adversely affect a computer's behavior at the most inopportune times...hence, my preference for having paper around as the ultimate backup...even if some of it's "old" paper.

Interesting on this topic, for me at least, is that a couple of years ago, the Swedish coast guard (Kustbevakningen) started to phase out paper entirely in favor of multi-redundant systems. They feel that safety is enhanced, overall, due to receipt of up-to-the minute chart updates.
 
Citing incorrect use of chartplotters as a reason to keep paper charts makes no sense to me. Use your electronics correctly and all the info is there. Having one or more backups makes perfect sense, but we use multiple devices and chart sources for redundancy.

I’m just as likely to use a paper chart on the boat as I am to use a paper map in my car, which means never.
 
guy with a boat said:
Citing incorrect use of chartplotters as a reason to keep paper charts makes no sense to me. Use your electronics correctly and all the info is there. Having one or more backups makes perfect sense, but we use multiple devices and chart sources for redundancy.

I’m just as likely to use a paper chart on the boat as I am to use a paper map in my car, which means never.
Click to expand...

Agree....I too started out with a compass and a watch ( both boat and aviation)and learned to evolve as the tech did.

I was 60 miles from the ship in crappy weather in the North Pacific, lost almost all electronics and all nav gear. Had the ded reckoning going on in my head good enough that surprised the much newer copilot. Finally made it to the ship (only place to land), lucky we were able to recover some nav gear approching the ship.

Still I think paper is archaic and I know better than to build my boat/systems like a French helicopter....:D
 
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Agree with Peter and others there’s no need to achieve redundancy. We carry at least 3 (usually 6) independent systems. Laptop, iPad, MFDs. Any T storm the portables go into the faraday box(stove).
But when passage making a plotting chart is taped to a bulkhead for all to see. Find it’s good for the emotional health of crew. When doing a landfall anywhere out comes a chart book and a cruising guide(which usually contains small blowups of charts) and a iPad. That allows situational awareness of where you are, where you’re going and what issues may arise. Historically have done a DR and celestial results on paper charts. Still log the DR along side the gps coordinates at watch change. Lets you know when the paddle wheel isn’t spinning well and set when it is.
Like the admiral sitting next to me giving me instructions and telling me her read of the situation as she looks at paper and I look at pixels.
 
Gone Fishing, to get back to one of your questions…

There is no need to scan charts to get them into a pdf format.

The feds have all that worked out, you can download them from the NOAA chart site.

But it might be handier to get OpnCaptain nav program as once you down load the NOAA charts you want, you can check for and download updates very easily.
 
Though I primarily utilize OpenCPN the old me keeps a paper chart at all times. I make a pencil mark where I am every half hour or so. We used paper forever ago and I still do.

I find chartkits particularly helpful for Big Picture overview. The possibility of a catastrophic hardware failure (lightning strike?) for me necessitates paper charts. Thus paper is relevant aboard Seaweed.
 
I will never go anywhere without some kind of paper chart, even if it is only in a chartkit. The USCG still requires proficiency in plotting courses, set, drift, etc... in order to pass a Captains exam. That's one reason I still use them. In the real world, I navigate using my electronics but ALWAYS have some sort of paper chart open for the area on my Nav Station.
 
Twice last year off the Washington/Oregon coast I heard folks calling on channel 16 for assistance because they had lost electronic navigation and were lost. I carry charts on my boat and update my position periodically when I am out of sight of land or in unfamiliar waters. I do have a full suite of navigation gear and backup but it is easy, fun and a great fail safe.
 
Never leave to dock without them

We find paper charts to be extremely helpful and always have them at the helm we're captaining from. Great perspective vs chart plotter only.
 
Lightning is still potentially a terminal (no pun intended) experience for your navigational and communication electronics. Unless you have local knowledge of all the areas you intend to navigate, in my opinion, having paper charts as backup is essential.
 
All electronic aids rely on GPS which can be de-tuned by governments during conflicts or diddled with (as by US nuke sub bases) or shut down by solar storms or hostile action. Having multiple devices is no cure. Even with GPS available, the ship can go dark and devices run out of charge.
You don’t need a full set of paper charts, just ones at medium scale suitable for coastal navigation by plotting relative bearings. The other advantage of having them is that you can use your eCharts zoomed in and use the paper chart for the Big Picture.
I haven’t needed it in years, but when we head off there’s a plotting board with relevant charts on a table near the helm. Sure, odds are that the electronics will be fine. And odds are that the fire extinguishers are just dead weight, and that the bilge pumps, life raft, and flare kit won’t be needed. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth having onboard.
 
I too grew up with paper charts. I'll carry them again when I find room for this chart table on my sporty. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to use the new-fangled digital charting solutions.:rofl:

Brings back memories of the poor Navy quartermasters and radarmen making endless chart corrections from NTM's wherever the ship was heading. Thankfully I was an Airedale at the time.

It's so much easier now, right?

28566-191975.webp
 
CaptGary said:
I will never go anywhere without some kind of paper chart, even if it is only in a chartkit. The USCG still requires proficiency in plotting courses, set, drift, etc... in order to pass a Captains exam. That's one reason I still use them. In the real world, I navigate using my electronics but ALWAYS have some sort of paper chart open for the area on my Nav Station.
Click to expand...

Do you know you can practice or do plotting on electronic charts that are not on chartplotters but on laptops and tablets?

And use those same tools/charts if your gps/chartplotter fails?
 
Ric said:
Sure, odds are that the electronics will be fine. And odds are that the fire extinguishers are just dead weight, and that the bilge pumps, life raft, and flare kit won’t be needed. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth having onboard.
Click to expand...


For me, multiple electronic backups are the fire extinguishers. Paper charts are like carrying around a bucket of water because you don't trust your fire extinguishers.
 
Paper Chart - Training

I've found paper charts to be very helpful in helping young people understand spatial relationships, especially the estimated position of a vessel that may have been drifting for a few hours.

In my last program (all of this while we were underway in the area around Alligator Light in the Keys, not at the dock) the scouts were expected to learn how to plot their own ship's position, and the last known position of a vessel that (in our training exercise) was about 6 miles away. We would then give them an estimated set and drift for the subject vessel, and have them work out where it might be now.

After that, we'd have them estimate a bearing and time to intercept at our best speed, given that we were also subject to wind and tide.

It was a slow process at first, but it was awesome to see the "light come on" as they began to "see" the relationships on paper and work out the next steps.

I'm an old guy, but I'd want to pull out a paper chart and get to work if I heard a shore station announcement about a vessel that seemed to be in my area.

There's probably a cool piece of low-cost consumer electronics that factors in set and drift from the last known point of a subject vessel, that I just don't know about, so maybe I'm 30 years out of date...

Anyway, I really like paper charts for teaching people how to see the spatial relationships and for keeping the crew updated on progress as the hours and days go by.
 
It is prudent to have and to know how to use navigational charts. Electronics can fail. Think about the fact that the USN has reintroduced celestial navigation training just in case the GPS satellites fail.
 
The great thing about paper charts is that you can write on them. I've made numerous notes from trips up and down the AICW and find them a handy reference for anchoring, bridge info and the like. I guess I could keep the information elsewhere but it sure comes in handy when coming into an anchorage and know I'd been there before and all was well.
 
Relevant? Of course. For the same reason my boat (when I owned it) has a compass. So I know where I am and where I'm headed when (not if) my electronics crap out. I also always used mine. The state of the art Simrad equipment was used for the hear and now, and the paper flip charts sat right there, my "navi-nut" (patent pending) following right along. I could see the whole big picture on the charts, while the chart-plotter was in close.

I can't imagine only having one or the other, but if I was given a choice, It'd take the paper charts.
 
I can not believe how many still confuse electronic charts with chartplotting. :facepalm:

How the heck do you think the government stores charts till they print them on paper?

Displaying it on an electronic screen is NOT a chartplotter.... just a paper chart in digital format.
 
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