Paper Charts

[Tayana]

I use Navionics for charts and navigation as my primary but, as many suggest, believe it’s prudent to have paper charts handy.
My question is about sailing in unfamiliar areas and what is the best combination of chart scales to keep on board? On a multi day trip (let’s say up the East coast of the US) I would think you would need high view of the general area and the more detailed scale of where you plan to spend the night. Are there any rules of thumb here as far as what’s needed? How about areas that are a maybe I’ll anchor here if I’m running behind schedule or alternate routes.
i don’t want to go down a rabbit hole and print every single map scale combination along the route (or maybe that’s the right thing to do). Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Crusty Ol Salt]

Here is a link to the NOAA site. The first item on the site is this statement.

U.S. Office of Coast Survey

All traditional NOAA paper nautical charts will be canceled by January 2025

I download the BookletChart™ in PDF format and the are on a flashdrive stored with my tablet.

 

[dlochner]

I use Navionics for charts and navigation as my primary but, as many suggest, believe it’s prudent to have paper charts handy.
My question is about sailing in unfamiliar areas and what is the best combination of chart scales to keep on board? On a multi day trip (let’s say up the East coast of the US) I would think you would need high view of the general area and the more detailed scale of where you plan to spend the night. Are there any rules of thumb here as far as what’s needed? How about areas that are a maybe I’ll anchor here if I’m running behind schedule or alternate routes.
i don’t want to go down a rabbit hole and print every single map scale combination along the route (or maybe that’s the right thing to do). Any advice would be appreciated.

The most economical method is to buy a chart book. These are copies of NOAA Charts compiled in a book.

On our trip down and back on the East Coast we used three or four small scale (big area) charts for getting a general overview of the area and for couple of long distance plotting, such as plotting the course of the Gulf Stream.

Mostly we used a combination of C-Maps on our Chart Plotter and AquaMaps, which was especially useful on the ICW as it has the latest sounding from the Army Corp of Engineers. Aquamaps is available for IOS and Android very reasonably priced. It works best on devices with cellular data as it will update charts daily and weather info hourly.

In general I did not plot precise courses. I used Aquamaps to rough out a course and then make adjustments along the way from the charts on the chart plotter.

 

[CarlN]

As long as you carry up-to-date electronic charts on more than one device to have redundancy (e.g. chartplotter and tablet - at least one battery powered), I don't think there's a strong argument to carry paper charts anymore -- other than tradition or decoration. Most people don't keep their paper charts updated and few boats have a chart table large enough to properly navigate with a paper chart. Using a folded paper chart while at the helm has always been dangerous.

The oft raised argument that GPS jamming might happen is silly since electronic charts work like paper charts when without GPS.

I still do carry an old copy of the Explorer chart books of the Bahamas but only because they have a lot of information besides charts. I have the most current Explorer charts electronically in AquaMap.

Ships don't carry paper charts anymore.

Your point about scales is a good one. It's not safe to carry only larger scales of paper charts as much is omitted. It's the same problem as people who don't use electronic charts properly by zooming in to see full detail.

 

[dlochner]

The oft raised argument that GPS jamming might happen is silly since electronic charts work just fine without GPS.

I'm curious about this statement. True, the charts are resident on the chip in the plotter or other device, but without GPS how does the device know where you are on the chart?

Back in the day before GPS and Loran, a prudent navigator would mark dead reckoning positions on a chart to approximate the ship's position.

 

[CarlN]

I'm curious about this statement. True, the charts are resident on the chip in the plotter or other device, but without GPS how does the device know where you are on the chart?

The chartplotter displays your track right up to the moment GPS fails - better than you could keep a DR track on a paper chart. You would simply continue the track by moving the chart on the screen and keep a hand DR track dropping markers where you would put pencil ticks and using the built in plotting tools to calculate bearings and track.

Having used Loran (and before that RDF), I'd much prefer my chartplotter tools to keep a DR track to my old parallel rule and course protractor.

Of course in 50 years GPS has never failed at sea. It would likely be jammed in a war zone but not before I was told to leave by something with big guns.