Paper Charts

[JWalker]

I'm starting to get the bits and pieces together for our winter cruise,

we have the explorer charts for the Bahamas.

Now I'm looking for paper charts for the rest of Florida.

Are the Booklet Charts from noaa enough for navigation?

I'm into the idea of printing and sealing charts, we have a lazer printer and
the ink is pretty cost effective and I think is waterproof (melted plastic)

Or is there a better direction for me to look?

I also looked at the coast pilot books, they can be had for $30 each, and I need two...but I couldnt really find much info about them. Again I don't know if they would be ok for navigation or primarily for reference.


thanks for imparting wisdom.

[Captain Smollett]

Now I'm looking for paper charts for the rest of Florida.

Are the Booklet Charts from noaa enough for navigation?

I'm into the idea of printing and sealing charts, we have a lazer printer and
the ink is pretty cost effective and I think is waterproof (melted plastic)

Or is there a better direction for me to look?

I like the booklet charts.  They are the same charts, just one "bit" per page, so you have to flip around.  No biggie, especially if you are used to it from using other chart books.

I also like printing my own charts (as you describe) and have been using some home printed charts for over three years now.  Mine were done on a inkjet, so the ink is a problem...but nothing a ziplock bag and perhaps some hairspray doesn't fix.  The price is certainly right.

I do buy professionally produced (and usually waterproof) charts for ones I use a lot...for one-time, planning or throw-away use, I save the money and find the home printed ones more than adequate.

I also looked at the coast pilot books, they can be had for $30 each, and I need two...but I couldnt really find much info about them. Again I don't know if they would be ok for navigation or primarily for reference.

I personally find the Coast Pilot books very useful, especially for planning; I have not used them much underway.

You can download them for free as a PDF and simply print the pages you need.  That's what I do, at least...

[Marc]

Could you please explain to me how to do that?  I went to their website but could'nt figure out how.  I download them onto my laptop and then use them when needed?  Thank you in advance.  Marc

[Captain Smollett]

Could you please explain to me how to do that?  I went to their website but could'nt figure out how.  I download them onto my laptop and then use them when needed?  Thank you in advance.  Marc

Which part are you asking about, Marc, the charts, chart booklets or Coast Pilots?

[Marc]

The charts,  I also got my 150 genoa back from sailcare yesterday.  Could'nt beleive it, I thought it was a new sail.  Marc

[Captain Smollett]

Here's what I do for printing my own charts.

From the NOAA/OCS site, I download the raster charts in BSB format.  You can also download the most recent corrections.

Using Chart Navigator as my  BSB viewer (I don't know if SeaClear works as well for this), I select the sections of the chart I want to print and print them.  This always prints the whole chart squished onto an 8.5x11 sheet first, but then each section that I selected gets printed to its own sheet of paper.

I then fit the pieces together how they go; each page has a 1/2 inch or so margin around the chart image. Considering each seam, I trim that margin off of one side, line up the image and glue/tape the two together.  Repeat for as many pieces I have printed.

This makes a full size, full color chart for less money than a full size b&w photocopy would cost (I figure about 5 cents per page for paper + inkjet ink) - say about $1-$2 per chart, tops.

Inkjet ink is water soluble, so this is a potential problem.  I've read of people spraying them with cheap hairspray to 'seal' the ink, but I've yet to try that.  I put them into a ziplock back and it works good enough.

One four day trip using these home printed inkjet charts involved 1 full day in the pouring rain and cool nights (with lots of dew) underway...my charts with water soluble ink held up fine...and that was having them with me in the cockpit.  I have several that have been used on multiple trips over a period of three years.

A laser printer would obviously be better.

You don't HAVE to trim the margins and tape the pieces together...you can certainly use them one sheet at a time.  If one were to do this, downloading the Booklet Charts in PDF would be better since they are setup for doing this and PDF viewers are more common than a BSB chart viewer.

Hope that helps...

[CharlieJ]

We'e used the chart booklets often. Laura set up to print every other page , then turned the paper over and printed the in-betweens. Then three hole punched the pages, put them in plastic sleeves and into a notebook. Hen you can just turn the pages as you need. No need to tape anything but sometimes you have to re-arrange he pages a tad.

I like the idea and the folks there are receptive to suggestions.

[Captain Smollett]

No need to tape anything

I like the chart booklets, too, but sometimes a single sheet, full sized chart is nice too.  For example, laying out a course or plotting a line of position that spans multiple "pages" in the booklet is very difficult.

I guess that's only a concern if doing traditional navigation via paper charts (which we do).  We have some areas around here that the distance from one Aid to Navigation to the next is farther than the distance covered by one "page" in a booklet..and farther than you can see from the deck of the boat.  That makes getting a bearing a bit harder...not impossible, but harder. 

Not all pages have a compass rose, too, which further complicates getting bearings off the chart for two points than span multiple pages.

If you are ONLY using the chart as a visual reference, ie not doing any real chart work, the booklets are definitely easier to make and easier to use.

[JWalker]

Thanks for the input!!!

I downloaded the pdf for the coast pilot book, I see what you mean, it looks very useful. Thanks for that link!

I think I'm going to try the chart booklets for this trip, we will be using seaclear and a hand held gps also.

I figure we can plot in seaclear, upload to the gps, and have paper for reference and backup.

[CharlieJ]

Oh I agree. They aren't perfect. Long course legs are hard to do and the compass roses aren't always right. But they DO work well, particularly for ICW work.

And hey-printer paper is cheap. You can have both for just a few more minutes.

And we KNOW about the long legs in your area- we've run some of them using compass headings. We to rely almost totally on paper charts since we only have non-mapping GPS units.

[maxiSwede]

Please excuse me if I drift a bit off-topic.

Do anyone here have a link to where I can download PIlot Charts for the Northern Pacific?

Oldfashion maybe....but we love using them for longer routes planning.

Magnus

[Captain Smollett]

Please excuse me if I drift a bit off-topic.

Do anyone here have a link to where I can download PIlot Charts for the Northern Pacific?

Oldfashion maybe....but we love using them for longer routes planning.

Magnus

Here you go:

Atlas of Pilot Charts

[Oldrig]

I'm not a big fan of the chart booklets, but I have printed sections of downloaded raster charts for use in the cockpit.

One solution to the runny inkjet ink is to print on waterproof paper. It costs a lot more than regular printer paper, but it really stands up. I'm still using a pack of National Geographic brand "Adventure Paper" that I picked up in the discount bin at a book store a few years ago. You can also get it on the Net or from Campmor.

--Joe

[Auspicious]

I've had quite good luck with "Rite in the Rain" paper.

[Oldrig]

Dave,

Yes, "Rite in the Rain" paper is readily available on the Net. (I believe that's what Campmor sells, and Rite in the Rain has its own website, too.)

I use "Rite in the Rain" pocket notebooks for my cockpit log, which I try to transcribe into the bound logbook at the end of the day.

--Joe