NOAA Kicks Off Transition To Electronic Charts

Nobody ever accused the Feds of operating with great haste! It's about time.

I think what it boiled down to is nobody wanted to be the one who stuck his neck out, made this decision years ago then had something go haywire. For years he'd always be known as "that guy who..."

I remember reading how paper charts were required because certain charts were not capable of certification with lesser chartplotters....and while that was for commercial vessels, some hesitation might have happened because of recreational boating.

I guess this means no more down loads of raster charts.

GFC said:

Nobody ever accused the Feds of operating with great haste! It's about time.

I think what it boiled down to is nobody wanted to be the one who stuck his neck out, made this decision years ago then had something go haywire. For years he'd always be known as "that guy who..."

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Interesting background on the strategy and process! It's been in the works for a few years now.

https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/publications/docs/national-charting-plan.pdf

So sad, I and others still use charts to record long passages, and where GPS is nice. What happens when you have a melt down with a fully intergrated system? Ask the navy, they are lost. They restored their celestial nav as part of their training again.

Maybe I'm old fashioned. My 2 MFD' computer systems operate independently, enabling me to pull up different charts and programmes when entering a harbour or anchorage. I also have the only intergrated which is my Furuno Radar, MFD, Echo sounder system. If all that fails I carry paper charts, which I maintain a plot during passages. I also carry sextant and tables as a last straw if all else fails. Over the years I've had a few instances in the open ocean, where things have not gone as planned. I for one would not go fully intergrated. But there again that's my choice.

You can still get printed charts on demand, or chartbooks. Just not from NOAA. I like having them because of the form factor and the ease of keeping a visual log.

Commercial ships have been using ECDIS for years now by the way.

I sat in on some seminars NOAA and the USCG gave the commercial community on "Precision Navigation" a month or two ago; pretty cool. Look it up. Things like embedding real time actual water heights and currents. Perhaps not so relevant to the recreational yachtsman, but cool nonetheless.

Wifey B: Only time we use paper is we print them out so our niece can draw where we are and have been. She's been doing that since the age of 3 or 4 and she's now 6 1/2. She really likes electronic charts though and looking at them. We'll convert her to keeping her travel history on her own laptop this summer.

Losing the updates to the NOAA raster charts is going to make me sad. I much prefer them for planning vs any vector / ENC chart I've used.

No reason why we shouldn't be able to print the ENCs. A vector-based image can be displayed on a screen or printed on paper, just the same as a raster image. Every time you print a document, you are printing a vector image.

rslifkin said:

Losing the updates to the NOAA raster charts is going to make me sad. I much prefer them for planning vs any vector / ENC chart I've used.

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Just curious.... is it the big printed paper you like instead of a TV screen? Or is it the "look" of a raster chart vs an ENC chart?

I admit to liking the raster look over vector, but some vector looks are way better than others.

That is a purely "like" over practical opinion though....hard to shake after falling in love with navigation 60 years ago and staring predominantly at raster (paper version mostly) and older, crappy vector for 2 careers using maritime navigation.

I still don't get the hesitation from dumping paper...and yes I have experience in total nav loss, heck, I have started flights with no real nav to begin with.

I still print out Raster Charts to use as art work.

I am an electronics geek and use them a whole lot when cruising.

I like the form factor of paper, particularly of chartbooks like Maptech.

1) Daylight viewable
2) Large
3) Portable
4) Easy to annotate
5) Requires no electricity except at night.
6) Easy to manually navigate with.

The raster format is something I am used to, that's all, and brings back many happy memories.

Well for those that plan via paper, I am sure you will still be able to get charts. I would not trust them to be accurate.

For those that still use paper do you still rely on Loran? Just say'n

I wonder how this will affect the navigation test on the USCG Captains exam. There were several intensive paper plotting exercises requiring knowledge of hand navigation tools and chart notations.

CaptGary said:

I wonder how this will affect the navigation test on the USCG Captains exam. There were several intensive paper plotting exercises requiring knowledge of hand navigation tools and chart notations.

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If the world has gone electronic, so should the exam. Even old school problems can still be done on a computer.

If they can teach school on computers to elementary school kids, it can be done. Whether the teaching is better may be debatable but testing knowledge on a computer shouldn't be the issue.

Didn't Chapman's cut back on old school nav years ago and expand the electronics chapter?

twistedtree said:

Just curious.... is it the big printed paper you like instead of a TV screen? Or is it the "look" of a raster chart vs an ENC chart?

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It's the look and feel. I haven't used a paper chart in a while, but I use the RNCs in digital form all the time. The ability to zoom out without losing detail is nice, and I just find them easier on the eyes and easier to read than at least the NOAA ENCs. The Navionics charts are fine readability wise, but I like to have a second, different chart pulled up as well when in unfamiliar waters (usually the RNCs).

Some time ago I down loaded all the NOAA Raster charts for the West Coast. Now I can print them out as I want. I can also print in various sizes from 8”x11” up to 8’ by 11’.

tiltrider1 said:

Some time ago I down loaded all the NOAA Raster charts for the West Coast. Now I can print them out as I want. I can also print in various sizes from 8”x11” up to 8’ by 11’.

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And they are also all outdated.

Oceangrafix prints charts on demand with the latest updates. They can make them up in about any format you like. Here's a great explanation as to why the conversion of the data to ENC is no big deal really.

https://oceangrafixblog.wordpress.com/?s=raster

Folks, remember back in the Carter administration, when attempting to go metric?
Big bucks were spent changing milage signs and gas pump, speedometer and and and. I think this effort lasted less than 8 years.
So now, NOAA, under the guidance of the Fed Govt, are talking about, promising we will go 'all electronic' charts.
I wonder just how long this effort will last.
If I have planned my life correct, I will be dead before we run out of current and corrected paper charts. LOL

twistedtree said:

Just curious.... is it the big printed paper you like instead of a TV screen? Or is it the "look" of a raster chart vs an ENC chart?

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I like the look of the hand drawn charts, and I believe (especially at large scale) they convey important information more clearly. A skilled cartographer will show a small but important hazard even on a large scale chart, which disappears in the decluttering algorithm of electronic charting. Electronic charts continue to get better at this but aren't there yet - especially NOAAs but even the best of them.

BandB said:

And they are also all outdated.

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Most of the rocks are still where they were 200 year ago.

DDW said:

I like the look of the hand drawn charts, and I believe (especially at large scale) they convey important information more clearly. A skilled cartographer will show a small but important hazard even on a large scale chart, which disappears in the decluttering algorithm of electronic charting. Electronic charts continue to get better at this but aren't there yet - especially NOAAs but even the best of them.


Most of the rocks are still where they were 200 year ago.

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But the shoals and bars are not.

BandB said:

But the shoals and bars are not.

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Ha! Good come back. True very true.....

BandB said:

But the shoals and bars are not.

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That's a problem in Florida, not so much in Maine or the PNW.

And, the shoals and bars in Florida can change far faster than an electronic chart gets updated. The only hope for that (if you are meaning to proceed blindly) is the crowd sourced efforts like Navionics. The typical Army Corp survey every few decades doesn't do it.

DDW said:

That's a problem in Florida, not so much in Maine or the PNW.

And, the shoals and bars in Florida can change far faster than an electronic chart gets updated. The only hope for that (if you are meaning to proceed blindly) is the crowd sourced efforts like Navionics. The typical Army Corp survey every few decades doesn't do it.

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Not sure what that has to do with ENC's or raster charts. That has always been a local knowledge issue that no chart can help with. That's where crowd source comes in handy, like active captain, talking to locals, etc.

DDW said:

That's a problem in Florida, not so much in Maine or the PNW.

And, the shoals and bars in Florida can change far faster than an electronic chart gets updated. The only hope for that (if you are meaning to proceed blindly) is the crowd sourced efforts like Navionics. The typical Army Corp survey every few decades doesn't do it.

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Actually it's an issue for the PNW with all the bars along the coast and shifting there plus other areas. For Maine, an issue for inlets. The point is you're best off with the most current information you can find which is typically current electronic charts supplemented by other resources.

Now for those who don't regularly update their electronic charts, that's an issue too.

Are we saying hand drawn charts are paper charts which are what electronic raster charts are just a photo of?

Actually, in most trafficked areas with shoals and bars, the USACE does very regular quite detailed surveys, and you can access them immediately on their various district websites, even before they incorporated into NOAA charts as deemed appropriate. For instance:

https://www.saw.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Hydrographic-Surveys/

Coupled with the LNMs, you can update your paper charts yourself if you like. Or let folks like Oceangrafix or Williams and Heinz do it for you. Or like what the electronic chart folks like Garmin or Navionics do with the NOAA data base info.

caltexflanc said:

Actually, in most trafficked areas with shoals and bars, the USACE does very regular quite detailed surveys, and you can access them immediately on their various district websites, even before they incorporated into NOAA charts as deemed appropriate. For instance:

https://www.saw.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Hydrographic-Surveys/

Coupled with the LNMs, you can update your paper charts yourself if you like. Or let folks like Oceangrafix or Williams and Heinz do it for you. Or like what the electronic chart folks like Garmin or Navionics do with the NOAA data base info.

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Love LNMs. Get them once a week.