Alaskan Sea-Duction
Guru
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2012
- Messages
- 8,062
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Alaskan Sea-Duction
- Vessel Make
- 1988 M/Y Camargue YachtFisher
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..."
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.
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.
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?
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’.
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.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?
Most of the rocks are still where they were 200 year ago.And they are also all outdated.
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.
Ha! Good come back. True very true.....But the shoals and bars are not.
But the shoals and bars are not.
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.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.
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.
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.